Three Ride into Battle – The Slaying of a NAP250

Last Friday, Nick Lees, Tom Alves and myself travelled down to 1066 country to hear Dave J’s sistem. Dave had been brave enough to volunteer to follow the imposing Sheridan/Gizmogirl NAP500/DBL evening, so he was under pressure to impress. To this aim, the evening had been substantially postponed, as it appears the whole house had been redecorated with all the downstairs floors being replaced with sturdier materials to withstand sonic battering from his Linn Isobariks. Very much appreciated, but perhaps a little extreme.

The rest of Dave’s sistem consists of LP12/Lingo2/Ekos/Arkiv and a modified Linn Ikemi CD Player (Dave – what has been modified?) at the front end, with 82/HiCap/NAPSC/NAP250 powering. Dave also had two new additions to the sistem, the old NAPSC had been replaced by a new style one – as reported in another thread. Also Dave had recently taken advantage of current low interest rates to apply for a second mortgage to fund putting all the equipment on Naim Fraim – a purchase he is clearly very happy with.

I was quite surprised to find that the Isobariks were sitting in a room with dimensions, probably of about 12x11ft, also with a relatively low ceiling. Could such a large speaker work in this environment? I had never heard the Isobariks, and I had been warned I would have to adjust my ears to the sound. Personally I didn’t find this a huge problem – after hearing Nick’s Obelisks, almost any speaker sounds normal. Fortunately, I arrived early which meant that I could get a good listen to some jazz before Nick arrived and started heckling. On this occasion, I had also brought a few more classical pieces with me, as I wanted to hear how the Briks managed a few larger scale pieces.

When Nick and Tom arrived we spent the next 4-5 hours playing the usual broad range of music – is it my imagination, or is it getting broader each visit? Anyway, playlist to follow from the sober Mr Lees. Following the previous occasion, where Tom had a few too many, and hogged the playlist for the latter part of the evening, a 7-10pm curfew was applied to give the rest of us a chance to catch up.

About half way through the evening it was time to get serious and apply our ‘audiophile reference’ track, Herzelied by Rammstein. With four such distinguished and experienced listeners in the room, we were bound to highlight any deficiencies in the sistem. Fortunately, Tom ‘Golden Ears’ Alves was on hand to spot that one of the channels on the 250 had actually cut out during the performance. The rest of us were somewhat ignorantly in pseudo-mono bliss – back to listening school for the three of us. There followed a slightly nervous half hour as we waited for the other channel to cut back in. Perhaps the excuse Dave had been looking for to upgrade to 135s or a 300.

So to the sistem – regarding the amplification, I’ve made some disparaging remarks in the past about 82/hicap sistems based on previous experience when I owned that combination. No such reservation here, and I’m sure the Fraim is playing some part in this. I didn’t detect any of the recessed or disjointed sound that I have since associated with the 82. Of all the evenings we’ve had so far, this one had the greatest disparity between vinyl and CD. Vinyl sounded thoroughly engaging all evening. Most of this is down to the relative investment Dave has made in the front ends. CDs were slightly more of a hit and miss affair – the Ikemi sounds more laid back than the similarly priced CDX – personally I would want a sound that probably comes somewhere between the two. On to the speakers, and my surprise was how much under control the Briks were in such a small room. I’m sure a large contributor to this is the Fraim – yes it is expensive, but it was certainly delivering in this sistem. To my ears, the Briks were great on pop, rock and smaller jazz – Dave is right they have real grunt. I would love to hear what they would sound like powered by some more powerful amps (HX1.2 evening Dave?). The larger orchestral pieces didn’t work for me – I would have liked more space and more refinement. Whether you get this in a bigger room, I’m not sure. As the room was relatively recently decorated, the room is still slightly bare and ‘live’. Personally, I would recommend that Dave hire an acoustic damping technician such as Gizmogirl to apply some cuddly lamb room tunes. Dave is however planning to get some Mana underneath the speakers. Complete personality change and lifetime Lithium prescription is expected in the near future….

So, many thanks to Dave J and family (for putting up with us) for the food, hospitality and subsequent hangover. I’ll write some more on the music when Nick provides the track listing.

David

[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on MONDAY 25 November 2002 at 11:38.]