Best digital stream player

Rakuennow et al:

I am not nearly knowledgeable enough to answer your questions. But I can tell you this. Sonically and musically for the auditioning I have done, the Naim HDX is far better than the ARC CD8, the DCS Puccini or Scarlatti (Can't remember which I heard), and a Mac through a $17500 Wavelength DAC. And those are some great digital sources as we all know.

No more CDP purchases for me. I intend to get a Naim HDX in 2010!

What do you do when a hard drive in the HDX fails? Are they user replaceable with 3rd-party hard drives?

Pubul57:

The Naim HDX employs two 400 GB hard drives in its most basic configuration. Music is stored on the 1st hard drive and automatically backed up to the 2nd hard drive once every 24 hours at whatever time of day or night you select. You can use 3rd party hard drives to expand the basic configuration storage capacity, i.e., beyond 800 GB. I do not know if 3rd party hard drives can be used to replace a failed drive in the HDX unit itself. And even if it could be done, there could be warranty invalidation considerations associated with an owner servicing his/her equipment instead of allowing Naim to do so. I learned what I know about the Naim HDX from Don Better and from the Naim National Sales Manager at a special event at Don Better's home last fall. I will try to get an answer to your question from Don and update via a follow-up post to this thread.

If the idea is that a hard drive is far superior to an optical reader, it would seem to me that the music server concept with, or without an digital out for DACs is the way that all digital sources will go. I like the idea that you can also play a CD with the NAIM without having to store on the drive. Seems like a good format for players in the near future. The idea of using a PC and all the inherent complexities with optimizing the software and drivers, etc is not a direct I would go, but the Olive and NAIM seems like they are on to the right approach for high-end audio. At least they have a back up drive which helps ALOT, should your main drive go bad. But it would be good if replacing a down drive were an easy fix, with a 3rd-party drive that fit the "slot". How much is the NAIM selling for?

The Naim HDX sells for $8250, which includes an excellent internal DAC. Options that I am aware of are two external power supplies - one quite expensive and one ridiculously expensive, but they do improve the unit's musicality even more. You also have the option to bypass the internal DAC and connect the HDX to your DAC du jour, which is where I would consider putting extra money instead of the external power supply options.

Man, this thread is making me even more anxious to pull the trigger on the HDX sooner rather than later! ;->