The Naim HDX is a hard disk player. It's not a hard disk server.

That distinction isn't mere semantics; it's Naim encouraging potential customers to view this new-generation machine as a stand-alone, high-class hi-fi component, which is what it's primarily designed to be.

The HDX is intended to sit alongside the other sources in your hi-fi system rather than skulk under the stairs or hide in a cupboard with the rest of the gadgetry in a distributed audio set-up. And it's quite capable of handling all that custom-installation malarkey, but if that's what you're after, there's a range of NaimNet HD servers specifically designed for that purpose.

Audiophile's paradise

No, the HDX is aimed squarely at the audiophile – it's even performance-upgradeable through the addition of external power supplies.

We tried it solo and with the £2,750 XPS2; if you've been financially blessed, the £4,750 555PS is doubtless the top option, although that's just an educated guess, as we weren't fortunate enough to have one to try.

Don't fret if you can't afford a power supply straight away, though – the HDX starts life more than adequately powered, as do most Naim electronics. That said, the sonic and musical differences the XPS2 makes are instantly appreciable and once you've heard them, you won't feel inclined to do without!

Effective CD-ripping

In addition to offering thoroughly modern convenience features, the HDX is a no-holds-barred example of Naim's traditional, 'God is in the detail' audiophilia.

The prime manifestation of this is the CD-ripping 'engine', the mix of mechanics and software used to create bit-perfect copies of the CDs fed into the front-panel drawer.

Rather than rely on the widespread 'burst mode' ripping technology, which is prone to introducing and perpetuating errors, the Naim ripper works more methodically, reads discs multiple times and uses no caching to ensure you get replay that's free from inaccuracies or time offsets.

Easy to operate

There are several ultra-convenient ways to operate this hard-core player. You can control it via its front-panel touchscreen, or using the supplied remote control with the display's output appearing on a TV.

You can just as easily access it through a PC on the same network, or with a device such as a Nokia N800 Web tablet. Those with 20/20 vision could even use a Flash-enabled Web browser on a suitably flash mobile phone.

Music ripped onto the HDX winds up on a specially selected Seagate hard disk and every night it's automatically backed up to a similar internal drive.

If you need more storage than the 400GB provided it's possible to add external disks in the form of USB drives or NAS (Network Attached Storage, which should also be frequently backed up for security) and, of course, the player can read shared files on any computer that's attached to the same network.

Although the HDX will play a variety of file types, including WAV, FLAC and MP3, it only rips in uncompressed WAV format. As a result, its drive will accommodate about 600 CDs.

Transferring your files

Feeding the HDX with new material is about the only boring aspect of using it; you could say the same, however, of any player or server with similar capacity.

We used an NAS (network-attached storage) device from Linksys and USB drives from Western Digital and Seagate. While the HDX is near silent in operation, that wasn't always true of the Linksys, which we parked in our listening room, but could, of course, be situated anywhere within reach of your network cabling.