CD PLAYERS
SYSTEM PRICE £3718
Naim Cd5si
Afew short years ago it would have been almost unthinkable that a CD system should feel, somehow, like the most old-fashioned of the systems we have to share with you in this magazine. Digital music is, after all, the most modern of formats through which we access our tunes. CD, however, has been superseded in the digital domain by the numerous methods now available to stream and store music. And the vinyl resurgence? Well, not many saw that one coming – certainly not with such a renewed enthusiasm over the past decade or so.
While CD finds itself now in a bit of a backwater, perhaps, there is still plenty of life left in the old favourite yet. Certainly, there are millions of discs out there – and plenty of people still wanting to play them.
And this wonderful system will leave you wanting to take the time to revel in your whole back catalogue of albums on the world’s favourite software format from the past half century or so.
While it’s by no means always true that the best sound will be obtained through pairing components from the same company, it is often the case – after all, they are frequently developed together with just that purpose in mind. And such is the case here, with this Naim pairing – wonderful performers individually, but with that special something when working as a duo.
This is quite an old-school system. The Cd5si doesn’t have an upgrade path to speak of, and there are no digital outputs. Having said that, if you’re looking for the best-sounding CD player at around £1000, this is pretty much it. The Cd5si bends over backwards to deliver an exuberant and enjoyable performance, and it is its unmatched enthusiasm and concrete drive that we take to instantly.
From quiet grace to loud drama
We can listen to this player for hours. In terms of musicality and cohesion, it’s spot on, delivering a hearty performance. Detailed and confident with dynamics, it embraces the quieter parts of a piece gracefully before climbing up to crescendos with explosive drama and intensity. If anything expresses the scale of a track’s grand magnitude, it’s the Naim Cd5si.
This is a highly capable performer with an authoritative grasp of rhythms and enough punch and power to really transform your music collection. Its rich tonal balance promises a solid, fullbodied performance for almost anything you play through it. So, if you value animation and energy over absolute insight and detail, this is the CD player for you.
And, to go with it, we look no further than its Nait 5si stablemate. When it comes to spending £1000 on an amp, you want power and drive (an amp’s main duty, after all). In this respect, the Naim delivers. There’s genuine muscle behind its performance that feels beyond its 60 watts.
Play one of the most dynamic tracks in our music library, John Williams’s theme from Jurassic Park, and the 5si rises to the occasion, giving crashing cymbals real weight and conveying a scale that puts you in awe of both the composition and the amplifier.
Yet the Naim’s authority isn’t at the expense of delicacy: the fine line between muscle and subtlety isn’t an easy one to walk, but the Nait 5si does it well. Picking out bells under the force of the dominating brass and string orchestration is effortless, and at no point do we feel short of background detail either. In fact the resolution on offer is more than pleasing at this price.
Everything in the track gels nicely, and the 5si renders dynamic shifts with a good degree of fluidity. It gets precise instrument separation down to a T and, although its musical soundstage isn’t of the Rega Elex-r’s expansive proportions, flutes and trumpets have room to breathe. Make no mistake, this Naim is an extremely capable amplifier.
And the Neat Iota Alphas are wonderful speakers to go with it. They’re quirky-looking things – thanks to the mixture of knee-high stature and strangely angled appearance, at first glance it’s difficult to take them seriously. That impression disappears as soon as you start to listen to them. These are speakers for people craving great sound without room-dominating hi-fi.
That angled baffle helps throw the sound upward, resulting in a surprisingly expansive and spacious presentation that wouldn’t be out of place from rivals twice the height. There’s a good amount of precision here, and the presentation stays stable even when the music becomes demanding.
Seamless cohesion
The Alpha’s presentation is wonderfully cohesive, the three drivers integrating seamlessly, and the sound is appealingly robust. Dynamics are strong too, with larger-scale dynamic shifts handled with confidence even at higher volumes.
Tonally these speakers aren’t wholly even, but the deviation isn’t enough to worry us. Once we start listening, the Neats’ ability to capture the essence of the music grabs our attention, rather than any tonal shortcoming. They’re surefooted, and communicate the drive of the music superbly.
There’s plenty of attack here, yet also enough in the way of insight and refinement to keep us happy.
It would be unrealistic to expect such compact speakers to fill a larger room properly, but in a small-to-medium space they’re fine for anything below nightclub levels. They’re not about analysing the recording, more about having fun. And isn’t that what listening to music should be all about?
Most importantly, of course, the Neat Iota Alphas show off their Naim team mates to their best abilities. This is certainly a system that can breathe new life into the venerable old compact disc.
“While it’s by no means always true that the best sound will be obtained with components from the same company, it is often the case – and it is here”