Back in the Game

With our baby just a few weeks ago, my wife and I decided that it was now-or-never on the hi-fi. We have it on almost constantly with music or the TV playing through it so my wife has no qualms Off to Soundworks, the only local Naim dealer that stocks the Nait and the 112/150, for a dem. They also stock Totem, the only speakers I have heard locally that interest me.

Demoed the 112/150/FC2 combo with a CD5 as source all sited on a Fraim. The Fraim looks much smaller in person that I had gathered from the photos and is stunning in the flesh. May have to raid the furnature budget for one of these

First up - a pair of Totem Sttafs. Nice. Doing the Naim stuff as I remembered but was also conveying a sense of space and insight into details that my Sony ES (cough cough) doesn't begin to. Turned the wick up a bit and, um, well...the trebble got hashy. Not a good sign. Our room is on the largish side (about 3,000 cubic feet) and so we would hit the "hashiness threshold" pretty quickly.

Turned out that was a pair of Naim Allae's in the room so had to give 'em a try - natch. OK - better - fuller sound that the little Totems (about half the width of the Allaes) but got "hashy" at about the same volume level. They also didn't do the "space" thing as well, but they were not optimally positioned by any means. As a check, I replicated the "hash" test with two more CDs and up - still there. Drats - I'm *finally* ready to get back into the game, and the kit is doing something that I do not want in my home at any price.

The dealer then popped in - we chatted - and his idea was to try the Totem Hawks. These are one model up from the Sttafs, but have a metal-dome tweeter. I was skeptical, but he said this dome stays clean at much higher levels than the tweet in the Sttaf. To make a long story short, he was right. These puppys sound clean and not just in the trebble. Richer sound throughout the range with gobs of shading and accurate tonality. This was "different league" kindof stuff. I wanted to turn the volume up instead of down and hear more. Very nice.

He also said that he found the Nait 5. On the phone he said the floor model Nait had been sold but turned out it was in another demo room.

So in went the Nait. Hum...OK - not quite the extension of the more-than-twice-the-price combo, but there was not the "different league" difference that there was between the Sttaf and the Hawk. And just how much of the difference is down to the FC2? I haven't found out as he didn't know how to wire the FC2 into the Nait (!). But never mind - I wasn't FlatCap shopping and the 112/150 combo is almost twice the price of the Nait.

With a leisurely demo of over 2 hours, switching between the combo and the Nait and between speakers, I left the shop with the Nait 5 and the Hawks.

The combo is playing behind me as I write this, fronted by an ES-series CD player. During the demo, we switched in a $500ish NAD CD player and the result was underwhelming. So I didn't have the highest expectations taking the Nait and Hawks home, but the ES series CD player does not seem to be letting down the side. We listened to music until midnight Not all the bass I would like, but a good bit more than I had before (ES Sony into ProAc response 2's).

The Nait seems to be doing its thing and it is sitting on a DIY MDF/spike arrangement on top of a (large) TV. Certainly not a Fraim by any means but it seems happy for now.

Also not using NACA 5 for now as the dealer was out. Am using some multi-strand Kimber cable that was quite cheap when I got it from my local Linn dealer. It has multiple wires that are grey and black and are "weaved" - anyone know anything about this wire?

- GregB

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