![]() There are clients for Tidal and Spotify, so you can stream music to the ND5 XS 2 from those services, as well as vTuner Internet Radio. The app offers lots of other options, including Bluetooth with support for aptX HD. If you want to play music from a component connected to one of the ND5 XS 2’s digital inputs - say, a CD transport - you have to select that input in the app. Notably absent from the front panel are any knobs or displays - you control everything from the Naim app, available in iOS and Android versions. The ND5 XS 2 also has a BNC digital output, and comes with a BNC-to-RCA adapter for use with RCA digital interconnects. On the right side of the rear panel are the analog output jacks: one five-pin DIN and a pair of left/right RCAs. For music stored on an attached drive or played over the network, the ND5 XS 2 has maximum resolutions of 32/384 PCM and DSD128. Music stored on an attached USB drive inserted here can be streamed to other Naim components. You can stream audio from connected sources to other Naim components on your home network - e.g., a Mu-so tabletop music system - under control of the Naim’s app. During my testing I experienced not a single network hiccup with the ND5 XS 2.įor connecting digital source components the ND5 XS 2 has two optical inputs, each with maximum resolution of 24-bit/96kHz PCM, and two coaxial inputs (RCA, BNC), with maximum resolution of 24/192. The Network Check Utility for my Google Wifi network reported throughput of 122Mbps to the streamer, which is more than enough for any audio application. Naim doesn’t specify which flavors of Wi-Fi the ND5 XS 2 supports. There’s also an Ethernet port, for use when the streamer is set up near a network router. ![]() On the rear panel are two sockets for the supplied Wi-Fi antennas, and a third for the Bluetooth antenna. At the extreme left is a USB port, and at extreme right an on/off switch, below it a status LED. The ND5 XS 2’s outer case has anodized-aluminum top and side panels, and a brushed-aluminum front panel, at the center of which a semicircular Naim logo glows iridescent green when the player is turned on. And the ND5 XS 2 covers the middle ground as well, permitting playback of music files stored on hard drives and computers. For streaming, it has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and support for a broad range of streaming protocols, including AirPlay, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, and Roon. Naim Audio’s entry-level network player, the ND5 XS 2 ($3495, all prices USD), is aimed at digital audiophiles who are making the same journey I’ve made - people with one foot planted in the old world, where physical media dominate, and the other in the new, dominated by streaming.įor listeners who still spin shiny discs, the ND5 XS 2 has four digital inputs for components such as CD transports. Now, however, I’m listening less and less to that music library, and more to music from Tidal and Qobuz, both of which I play via Roon. The Mac Mini runs Roon Core, and streams music via Wi-Fi to the music system in my main-floor living room. My music library is now stored on a LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt RAID system connected to an Apple Mac Mini computer in my second-floor office. A decade later, those discs are long gone. A decade ago, all of the music I listened to at home was stored on shiny discs. Like many music-lovers, I’ve changed my listening habits drastically in the last ten years.
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