Chord Red Reference Mk III CD Player

The latest update to our full sized CD player range now takes the Red Reference to Mk III status. This update makes a major technological change to the disc loading mechanism to incorporate a geared motor drive. The door will now open or close seamlessly at the touch of a button. Additionally the latest USB technology has been added to provide a true asynchronous 192KHz input allowing use of the internal DAC to playback high resolution music stored on a computer. 
As before the stunning looks and state of the art design remain. The ground breaking DAC technology gives the most accurate reproduction of compact disc or stored media that can be obtained. 
With internal 176.4KHz upsampling data transfer, selectable RAM buffer clock retiming and now 18000 tap length filtering the RED Reference Mk III earns its reference status in the Chord range.


Technical Specifications


HARMONIC DISTORTION:< -107 dB (1kHz, 24-Bit @ 44.1KHz Sample Frequency):
SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO:> 120dB
CHANNEL SEPARATION:> 125dB @ 1KHz (> 100dB @ 22KHz)
DYNAMIC RANGE:122dB


SWITCHABLE DIGITAL INPUTS:1 x AES Balanced XLR Input
1 x Plastic Optical Fibre (TOSLink):
DIGITAL OUTPUTS:1 x BNC coax
1 x Plastic Optical Fibre (TOSLink)
2 x AES Balanced XLR (Can be configured for dual data 176.4KHz)
ANALOGUE OUTPUTS:2 X RCA Phono, 2 X BALANCED XLR


SWITCHABLE RAM BUFFER:Position 1 – No Buffering
Position 2 – Minimum Buffering
Position 3 – Maximum Buffering


WORD CLOCK INPUT:44.1KHz Word Clock Synchronisation via BNC input
SAMPLE FREQUENCIES:32KHz – 176.4KHz


OUTPUT MAX:6V rms. Balanced. 3V rms. unbalanced
OUTPUT IMPEDANCE:75Ω (short circuit protected)
POWER SUPPLY:Universal Input High Frequency Supply operates from 65V to 265V AC


DIMENSIONS IN MM:420 x 140 x 325mm (Width x Height x Depth)


WEIGHT:14Kg


Manual

Naim ND5 XS streaming player

The ND5 XS fits into the line-up below the NDX, selling for around £1925 when it hits the shops next month, and is designed to complement the other models in Naim's slimline XS series.

It's also the first Naim network player able to handle 192kHz/24-bit content natively, and the company is rolling out an upgrade program for existing Uniti products and the NDX, enabling 192/24 on those products, and bringing the promise of AirPlay capability early in 2012.

As well as having both wired and wireless networking for the streaming of content from the internet, including internet radio, or from local network sources such as NAS drives or computers, the ND5 XS also has three digital inputs for external sources, and a front panel USB socket for memory devices or direct digital connection of iPods or iPhones.

As well as its 24-bit/192kHz capability, the ND5 XS can handle music in a wide range of formats, including WAV, FLAC, AIFF, AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis and MP3 formats.

The ND5 XS uses digital buffering with fixed sampling rates for zero jitter, while the proprietary 16 times oversampling and digital filter uses SHARC 40-bit floating point digital signal processing. This feeds Burr Brown PCM1791A digital to analogue conversion, running at 768kHz.

There are seperate power supplies for the digital, analogue, DSP and clock sections of the player, with the large toroidal transformer having separate outputs for each section

Optical connection is used between the various sections of the player, seen left in a typical XS system here at the show, to ensure complete galvanic isolation.

Like the NDX, the new model can also be upgraded with the addition of the XPS or 555PS power supplies, or the Naim DAC, while a dedicated slimline power supply in a matching case, the XP5 XS is on the way next year.

Selling for around £1500, this is will be an entry-level version of the XPS.

And also in common with the NDX, the new model can be fitted with an optional radio tuner module, giving FM/DAB reception.

The ND5 XS can be controlled using the front-panel controls or the remote handset supplied, or using the free n-Stream app on iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.