Considered one of my favourite components of writing for Stereophile is studying all of the heartfelt letters our readers take the time to write down me. There’s nothing I like higher than to kick off my boots, stretch out on the futon-couch, and let the groovy love vibes simply shine off the pages. Time does not at all times allow a reply, however for now…AS in MD: thanks! RP in CA: positive, why not? And SH in IN: I’ve tried that, however it chafed.
Sooner or later I received a letter from proper right here in Austin, from a 15-year-old audiophile named Chris. Chris appeared like li’l man, so I referred to as him up and advised we go seize a burger. I suppose it was his age that intrigued me; when I was 15, I had an affordable JVC jambox, an enormous gnarly pair of Koss headphones, and I assumed it could not get any higher than that! I would lie in mattress at evening with the JVC balancing on my chest, the candy lullabies of Led Zeppelin wafting me off to sleep, the sweat pouring out of my ears from the airtight seal of the ‘telephones. Possibly I wished to reclaim a few of my youth by affiliation; perhaps I simply wished to see if I may weasel a meal out of the child. Both method, I wished to seek out out simply what made a 15-year-old audiophile tick.
Nicely, to say I used to be impressed is placing it evenly; this child knew extra about audio gear than most adults I do know, and he stated he owed all of it to Stereophile (good boy). We chatted extra over the meal, and after some time the subject swung round to digital. Chris talked about that he owned a budget-level CD participant, however that the sound drove him nuts; what he actually wished to purchase was a Theta.
I choked on my rooster breast; a Theta?! Which one, I requested?
“The Era II! Man, as quickly as I save up sufficient cash, I am shopping for it!”
I mulled over this for a Texas minute. On the one hand, I may simply relate to Chris’s 15-year-old impatience with something that represented “second-rate”; I bear in mind drawing infinite footage of Fender Stratocasters throughout my college notebooks, dreaming of the day I would lastly personal one. However c’mon! While you’re 15, 4 grand for something in addition to braces is INSANE! Fifteen-year-old boys are imagined to be operating round in wild packs, terrorizing the commonwealth and making an attempt to get into 15-year-old women’ pants, not worrying about issues like high-end audio. While you’re all grown up and 15-year-old women are unlawful, then you should buy a Theta.
“Chris, the Theta is killer, however there’s different gear on the market that is actually good too, and for a lot much less cash”
“Like what?” he snorted, simply like I used to, in that completely executed 15-year-old method that made white steam shoot out of my people’ ears.
“Nicely, just like the Audio Alchemy DDE” I started, however Chris banged his fists on the desk in frustration.
“BUT THAT SUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!” he yelped.
“Waitaminute! Have you ever heard the Audio Alchemy?”
“No.”
“So how are you aware it sucks?!”
“‘CAUSE ROBERT HARLEY SAID IT SUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!”
Finish of debate.
After I drove Chris residence, I assumed some extra about what he’d stated and why. As a result of the reality is, Bob Harley did not say the Audio Alchemy DDE SUUUUUUUUUCKED; the truth is, he praised it as being a hell of a nice-sounding unit for the bucks. Of course it is not a Theta! In case you may get one thing that appeared like a Theta for below $400, you’d see Neil Sinclair and Mike Moffat on these information tales concerning the homeless. No, what Bob stated was that the Audio Alchemy simply wasn’t as much as the final efficiency of the costlier processors, and it occurred to me that there’re most likely a lot of readers, some fairly a number of moons previous 15, who assume that something lower than a Theta, Stax, or a Krell SUUUUUUUUUUUCKS. And it is not so.
For one factor, it is all relative; simply as there are some individuals who can afford to spend no matter it takes to get the very best degree of sound high quality obtainable of their houses, there’s an entire lot of us reg’lar people who cannot. I will wager that there’ve been extra Rotel RCD-855s and Audio Alchemy DDEs offered during the last 12 months than all of the megabuck processors mixed. My mission was clear: discover Chris midprice CD participant or face the wrath of his people, who for some motive assume I am the one placing all these costly audio-notions into their boychik’s head.
NAD 5425: $299
The 5425 is a MASH machine using the MN6471 DAC, which has balanced analog outputs. These are summed by one half of a 5532 dual-op-amp chip appearing as a differential amplifier, after which taken to a five-pole lively filter. NAD makes a lot of the truth that they function their 5532s with out stressing them into TIM as do many different producers, which is a reasonably noble idea at this value degree. The analog part is constructed round one other pair of 5532s, small-value movie caps, and the aforementioned 25µF electrolytic coupling caps.
What can I say about this participant? How about this: Keep in mind while you had been in highschool PE and also you needed to break up the category up into two groups for dodge-ball, scooter-tag, and so forth., so Coach Scrotem picked two captains to decide on sides? And there was at all times this one scrawny child left on the finish who no one wished? What? That was you?! Ehhh, neglect that analogy.
Aw, what the hell, I will simply come out and say it: the NAD 5425 is the runt of this litter, a li’l gray churchmouse of a CD participant. I half-expected it to squeak, “Hey, gimme again my lunch cash you guys!” when the drawer opened. It is too gentle. It is too plastic. It is too low-cost.
Look inside: it is each cheapie Asian CD participant you ever ran in horror from. Teenie-tiny energy transformer, ceramic caps everywhere…the output RCA jack meeting makes the flimsy inventory Philips jacks appear like Tiffanies. The analog outputs (there isn’t a digital-out jack) are AC-coupled with among the cheapest-looking 25µF/25VDC electrolytic caps I’ve ever seen. This may increasingly lastly be the one low-cost CD participant the modkateers do not attempt to improve; the place would they begin?!
The styling is normal NAD; you both prefer it or you do not. Imagine it or not, I really appreciated the 5425’s controls higher than any of the opposite gamers’. They’re massive raised buggers and not possible to overlook, not like the seemingly infinite rows of an identical buttons on the costlier machines. And due to its simply distinguishable controls, the NAD was far and away the simplest to cope with at nighttime, which isn’t unimportant in my ebook.
Listening
The li’l NAD was, for me, the most important shock of the gamers reviewed this month. NOT as a result of it is a giant-killer just like the now-discontinued Rotel RCD-855 (footnote 1); it is not. NOT as a result of it rivals the Sonographe in ease of emotional movement; it does not. And NOT as a result of it actually, actually excels in a single or two musically vital areas; it do not. Then why was it such a shock, you ask?
While you get a bit of drugs just like the Theta, the VTL 225 amps, the Lyra cartridges, you run these puppies by the WRINGER, as a result of not solely are they costly, however they accomplish that few issues fallacious that you must get out the X-Ray Spex and actually hunt for issues. For what you pay for these merchandise, they’d higher sound kick-ass!
However while you take one thing just like the $299 NAD, all that vital hoo-ha evaporates; you may’t POSSIBLY maintain the li’l man as much as the identical standards as the everyday high-end product! So you do not. You take heed to it with nearly zero expectations. And while you’re all set to run from the room since you simply KNOW {that a} participant this low-cost cannot presumably sound good, the music begins. And also you go, “Hey! That is not half-bad!”
Do not get me fallacious; the NAD won’t provide the bass impression of even the Audio Alchemy DDE, which I discover a bit missing on this space. Nor will it rival the bang-for-the-buck Rotel RCD-855. What it will do is just not sound half-bad. And that is really higher than what the twice-as-expensive Denon and thrice-as-expensive Sony gamers had been in a position to accomplish. You heard me proper; I most popular the sound of the el-cheapo NAD 5425 to the $750 Denon DCD-2560 and the $900 Sony CDP-X555ES.
I most popular the NAD for a lot of causes. At the beginning, it has little or not one of the glare, the off-putting brightness of these gamers. The NAD’s high finish is most positively downward-tilted, to the detriment of sparkly feels like cymbals, castanets, and that sea-shells-on-a-string thingie they’re at all times shaking on Ana Caram’s CDs for that genuine South Seas taste (“These of you within the first 5 rows: you will get moist”). Then again, you by no means clap your arms to your ears the best way you do with each single different sub$300 CD participant on the market, the newest Magnavoci included. That alone is motive to suggest the 5425!
There’s an total ease to the NAD that is a brand new benchmark at this low a value. Actually, I stored the 5425 in my bed room system the longest of any of the opposite gamers, even the Sonographe SD-22. Actually, I used to be intrigued as hell that such a seemingly low-budget CD participant could possibly be so good to take heed to.
Sadly, one of many causes it sounded so good was that I discovered the $400/meter AudioQuest silver Lapis to be nearly a magical match with the NAD, the Straight Wire Maestro proving a a lot harder load than the poor NAD may correctly drive. In my expertise, gear with beefier output phases normally sounds higher with the Maestro, which is way increased in capacitance than the Lapis. Additionally, it is a indisputable fact that some output phases have to see a little bit inductance (the Maestro has extraordinarily low inductance, whereas the Lapis doesn’t) lest they turn out to be unstable, simply as Naim amps rely on the excessive inductance of the spaced-pair Naim speaker cable to stay steady. No matter the rationale, the Lapis let the NAD sound its finest, and I stated “sadly” earlier than as a result of NOBODY goes to purchase a $400 pair of interconnects for a $299 CD participant! It is most likely a protected wager, although, that AudioQuest’s lower-priced cables would work properly with the NAD, too.
Conclusion
The NAD 5425 is the brand new least expensive CD participant that also sounds musical. Once more, it is no giant-killer; hook it as much as a high-end system and you’ll not be moved to tears. It is the participant you purchase on your bed room, the one you suggest to your pals who wish to purchase “one thing good” however do not wish to spend any cash for that “one thing good.” Know anyone like that? I do. Advisable, due to this fact, because the lowest-priced entry but into good digital sound.
Footnote 1: The multibit ‘855 has been reincarnated because the ‘955, which CG is at present evaluating with Rotel’s Bitstream 965BX.John Atkinson
