Majik DS v Supernait - demo'd yesterday

Yesterday I had the day off work so wondered by a local dealer with a few questions about Linn’s Majik DS and Supernait’s. In a moment of luck the dealer offered a demo later in the day, so I took it up.

So, my current stereo system is Sonos -> AV2/150 -> Spendor S5e/REL Stampede.
While I love the AV performance, the stereo performance is good but not quite where I would like it. So recently I have been debating the idea of a Majik DS to replace the Sonos (and AV2 of decoding duties). I have already tried a few DAC’s but have not been blown away.

The dealer set me up with the following combination's, in this order:

Majik -> 112/150 (112 in absence of an AV2)
Sonos -> Supernait
Majik -> Supernait (digital and analogue)

Initially, without my Spendors, a pair of B&W’s were used circa £1k.

Round 1 : Majik/112/150/B&W
I was entirely under-whelmed, I listened for about 20 minutes and really was not impressed. Treble was harsh, dynamics were missing (I checked, the system was warmed up). So I had a quick word, and the speakers were promptly switched to a pair of PMC GB1’s.

Round 2: Majik/112/150/GB1’s
The speaker change was a revelation, I demo’d the GB1’s when I bought my Spendors and was a fan they, certainly have a low end punch that my Spendors lack, but the sweetness and speed of the Spendors won me over. But to the Majik, the reason for the listen. Playing CD quality FLAC’s the detail was really good, really everything was as expected, but it wasn’t significantly better than my home system, certainly nowhere near enough improvement for the £1.7k asking price for the Majik. For the record, the GUI’s on the Linn DS are really quite nice, I tried the iphone’s songbird which I liked the most, another version for the iphone with was mediocre and a version that ran on a Symbian platform which again seemed not too bad. It will also run with the slimserver remote and interface, which I understand to be the best of the bunch.

Round 3: Sonos/Supernait/GB1’s
Where to start, basically I was shocked. Its sounded absolutely fantastic, what really impressed me was the timing and speed – it sent a shiver down my spine which the last system did not. Listening to Gary Boyle’s Grumble was a revelation compared to the previous combo, it just had such snap (best word I could think of…). Needless to say I was very impressed.

Round 4: Majik/Supernait/GB1’s
I tested this out of curiosity and the dealer was also interested. Both digital and analogue sounded good, really good, I am unsure in isolation I could tell the two apart, but A/B comparison the digital into the Supernait was the winner for me. Interestingly, without extensive listening I do no think I could tell the difference between the Sonos and the Majik as a digital source, the dealer told me the Majik should sound better...

I did the entire test’s using 44.1/16 FLAC’s as I personally do not own anything else. I tried a few high rez ones on the Majik, and as you would expect they sounded quite a bit better. I really hope the industry goes this way.

So in conclusion, I am thoroughly impressed with the performance of the Supernait, paired with the Sonos (Does this mean the whole source first idea goes out the window?) I believe it works out cheaper than a CD5/122/150 (this was my first Naim setup)…and in my opinion out performs it by some margin. If I was an MP, I’d put it on expenses today, but in reality I just need to get it past the girlfriend and it’s mine, replacing my NAP150.