cdsii demo...
Posted by: ken c on 17 May 2001
tomorrow morning i am off to infidelity to dem my cd2 vs the mighty cdsii (foregone conclusion, right??? but i am looking for other things...)
while there i will check on status of my lp12 -- and if there is time, i might actually listen to a cartridge, or even the allae's. but the main purpose of the visit is the cdsii. last time i demoed cdsii, i ended up hankering after 135's. then i compared 135's with active 250 -- and you know the rest.
please wish me good luck.
enjoy...
ken
Steve
quote:
May the wad be with you
many thanks
enjoy
ken
Andrew
Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;
enjoy
ken
Let me be the first to congradulate you on your purchase of a CDS2.
Chris Belll
quote:
Let me be the first to congradulate you on your purchase of a CDS2.
ha ha, eeeeeeeezie now... many thanks anyhow...
enjoy
ken
Good to read from you,!
Go ahead,....Ken;
I tell you what.... I wanted to buy the NAT02 last week and ended up with NAT01 and the G17 RS, the NAT01 will arrive on tuesday at my place. The G17 will be installed today after 16:00 hours....
wishing you a good deal!
all the best and ...enjoy!
naimly yours
efrain
enjoy...
ken
'tomorrow morning i am off to infidelity....'
ken c Good luck,
but its now well past 'tomorrow morning' and I am anxiously awaiting your news. When does the cdsii actually arrive, how MUCH better was it and in what way, what else will be delivered soon and how did you get on with your new dealer etc, etc, etc.....
Cheers
Don
How long are you going to have your cd player plugged in before you do the dem? How long does it take a naim cd player to warm up before its sounds good? I'd say your player maybe handicapped in the comparison. Just my 2 cents.
John
my cd2 was powered and playing a cd (francois couperin's "lecons de tenebres") that i had forgotten in the machine for about 15 or so minites before the dem started. but, you know what, for some reason, that thought (whether the cd2 was fully warmed up or not) never even entered my mind -- strange? or stupid??
i have also to be honest here and say the purpose of the demo wasn't really to compare the cd2 to the cdsii and decide whether to upgrade or not. for better or for worse, i had already decided on the cdsii well before this demo. the primary purpose was for me to acquaint myself with infidelity's ways of doing things -- listening to the cdstoo side by side with my cd2 is as good a way as any i felt -- this time into same speakers as my own, not bmw's, or whatever they are called.
system was 52/scap/250 passive sbl's.
music:
1/ diana krall "when i look in your eyes" track 1
2/ thomas mapfumo "hondo" (means "war")
3/ the songmakers almanac "schubertiade", track 13 (hyperion cd)
4/ dave brubeck "time out"
5/ oliver mtukudzi "svovi yangu" which means "my beloved", track 5
6/ this one i forgot in the player: francois couperin's "lecons de tenebres", another hyperion recording. fantastic record!!
i carried these recordings (except 6) as i have always felt they were difficult in some sense. for example, on diana krall the first few bars of the 1st track, the vibes sound out of tune and ear slicing hard. on thomas, the title track has an almost overwhelming bass drum which almost swamps the point of the song. on the schubert, track 13, "nacht und traume", felicity lott's sporano sounds uncomfortably screechy on my system.
on dave brubeck, you guessed it, i wanted to see how much of morello's slam i could get from the cdsii. and on oliver, i wanted to check how the cdsii would restore a bit of balance as the voice is also somewhat dominant and also quite "metallic" sounding.
so, how did i get on? well, when i entered the dem room my cd2 was playing couperin -- the cd i forgot in the machine. its sounded so seriously good that at one point i did begin to worry it was beginning to challenge my own active system!! felt the same on schubert as well... hmmm...
however, as we proceeded with the demo and played the various discs on the 2 machines i forgot about my system for a while -- the cdsii was showing its class in ways that i had not expected. almost all the tracks we played sounded very different on the cdsii. fundamentally so. it was emphasizing different things. i believe the important things. the diana krall track was so much more securely timed on the cdsii that the concern with the vibes evaporated as everything was now in context - in fact it was now easier to tell that these were vibes playing whereas on the cd2 i had stupidly thought it was guitar!! without boring you with the blow by blow details, this neat trick was to be repeated across all the test records i brought. several times, i felt i was hearing something i hadnt heard before -- only to find when i played the same track on my cd2 that this wasnt the case -- it was all there, but the context was just not as firmly based on my cd player, if you see what i mean.
oh, yes the slam on brubeck's take 5 was absolutely awesome, definitely more so than on my active system.
unfortunately my lp12 wasnt ready for any cartridge dems, so this has to be another time i am afraid. in any case, we had run out of time. i think i will be comparing xx2 with kontrapunkt when the time comes. maybe arkiv b as well, dunno.
when i got home, i was nervous, very nervous about how i would feel about my much more expensive system. it turns out my concern was totally unfounded. a bit confusing this was at first. but perhaps my aural memory is suffering in old age?? yes, not as much slam as the passive system (well i sort of knew that anyway... didnt i??) but in its place a very strong, secure and authoriatite sense of tune, everywhere on the active -- beguilling harmonies, etc. lingering tunes, etc. of course it would have been useful to have listened to an active system so i can compare like with like, but this wasnt possible. i cant wait to play cdsii in my own system.
many thanks to infidelity for providing the time for this demo. they are a good bunch. i bought something while i was there -- cant remember what it is now...
till next time...
enjoy
ken
ps: its a week exactly since i upgraded my snaxo's hicap to supercap. will report on this another time, "if there is interest"...
Ok Ok I know you can't but I do so love gossip.
John
quote:
... but why don't you just tell us why you had to change dealers in such a radical fashion?
i have no problem telling you why. for a number of reasons, i suddenly realised i really didnt understand what else a dealer really (not theoretically)does, except sell (for me, naim-only) kit. i am obviously completely and utterly wrong and expect to be proved wrong quite emphatically very soon. meanwhile, life goes on and, happily my system sounds fabulous and i am listening to some very good music, quite a lot of which has come from some recommendations on this forum.
thanks for asking.
enjoy...
ken
John
quote:
Ken my experience exactly and its worse if you are buying the 'budget stuff'.
ah, sorry to hear that john. and here's me thinking i was the only one. my last posting was a bit exaggerated 'for dramatic effect' -- but largely reflects my current position.
i have some serious (to me) naim upgrades lined up -- the dealer who manages to recalibrate my current view of them gets most, if not all, my business.
thanks john,
enjoy...
ken