The Wobbly Streamer

PS. Thunderstorms rolling around here this afternoon, which is why I'm droning here and not grooving in the lounge. Still, at least we'll see if the NDS display straightens when I power it back up. Unlikely.

It didn't. But not to worry. 

Is the actual display LCD mounted at an angle in the case aperture? I wonder how that slipped past quality control... At least it's only cosmetic so you can keep on enjoying the music.

Yes Dave. This is the case. Naughty but easily attended to. If I wasn't pulling it all to bits to send PSs back for DR I'd be a bit more irritated. But as you say it is entirely cosmetic. I've never had (or seen) a Naim CDP with an out of true drawer but I know it did happen.

Revisited.

Again.

How can you make the NDS sound even more musically coherent? Tune the speakers? Tune the room? Have your ears washed out? Get the DR upgrades done on the pre PS and the 555PS? The list goes on.

How about something more ambitious? Yes, that’s right – two 555PS. Reported on favourably already but only one’s own ears will get it done properly. Which renders this post rather pointless. But I will plough on.

Today it’s the turn of my ears. The PS in question is a non DR powering the digital side. And it’s not subtle. Is it worth the trouble and cost? Well, I’ve got until Tuesday plus more listening back on the single 555PS-DR before that question will be answered.

What I will say is that transparency, grip and layering/detail have taken yet another step in the right direction. It’s kind of de stressed a bit yet tightened up. I haven’t heard anything that I haven’t heard before yet I’m hearing more of it.

There is no doubt in my ears that a second PS brings about a sonic difference which I would classify as a gain. What I need to do is spend a long week end with my music (same as always) and just enjoy it. If today’s outcome is anything to go by I’ll be hearing more notes stopping and starting, or trailing off longer. I’ll be better able to visualize things like the (illusion of) instrument placement, the air under the drum sticks, the intricacy of the arrangements and be better able to follow strands at will without losing a sense of the whole piece.  

For now I’ll leave it at saying the NDS can sound different. And more different than I thought it could.

Interesting, Harry.  Thank you for making such a sacrifice so that you can report your listening experience  

Such is beyond my system goals, but of huge interest none-the-less.

My NDS has been silent for a good month as my 555 gets DR'ed.  I am watching the Fed Ex tracking, and it will arrive on Monday.  I can't wait

I don't think you will be in the least bit disappointed.

@Bart - +1 on the DR'ed 555PS.  Have loved mine since day one (but I do think it takes about three weeks for it sound its best). Congrats buddy!

Dear Harry -

What can I say? Here I am, perfectly content to live out my listening days in a small, peaceful villa at the remote outskirts of the NDS retirement village...and then what happens?  You come along and make some big noise about a second PS?  Bah, I say!  Don't upset the apple cart!  Change is madness!! Good God man, what's next... Sarum Tuned Array??  :-)

Or then again, maybe a second PS will work out splendidly!  Really looking forward to reading what you decide to do. But in all seriousness, I actually have decided to resist any and all temptations to spend more money on audio in the foreseeable.  Am turning 56 in a few days, and the way I see things these days, every penny invested brings me one minute closer to making that peaceful villa a reality in the next few years.

ATB.

(Grumpy old) Hook

PS - Needles to say, I am continuing to buy CDs and records, and certainly not turning off my Spotify subscription.  Now stopping any of those truly would be madness!  A local record store just acquired a huge collection of new, sealed 60s/70s/80s jazz reissues, and so I just, er, um, dropped a grand on new old stock black stuff.  Oh well, so much for that whole retirement concept...  ;-)

Hook, see how much money I save by not owning a turntable? :-)

I am sure that black stuff provides much fun, and listening pleasure.  Fortunately I perceive a high enough "barrier to entry" that it's easy to resist (re)entering that world.  Then there is the matter of space.  I 'downsized' from a 3000 sq ft "McMansion" as we call such suburban homes here in the States (sans apostrophe ;-) )  to a 2200 sq ft townhouse.  My retirement villa, or at least next residence, likely will be IN the city and thus quite a bit smaller.  I'll always have room for a uServe and NAS, but probably not audio on physical media.  At least that's my excuse!

Such also provides ample motivation to keep the black box count down.  But I surely see one more black box in your future!  At least after Harry is done with you!

So, Harry, what is the latest??

Thank you both. I'm not going to rush into anything.

There's certainly more in the way of separation and nuance coming out. I had to do one back to back HiRes versus MFSL Gold CD to check that I wasn't listening to a remix. Sure enough, the cues and clues were identical but the NDS just seemed to draw the HiRes out more. As it should, all other things being equal.

And the bass has slightly attenuated. This is no bad thing for me because I don't like sloppy. But although a little bit (comparatively) recessed it has edge, bite and tunefulness which I do not remember with the one PS arrangement.

Negatives. Some of my much loved albums sound like they have been gently remixed in places. Whilst this should be viewed as hitherto unheard insight, it can be a bit distracting. I'm having to make mental adjustments. But hey! If it's in the mix it's in the mix. More troubling and so far the potential fail point is a slight shiny presentation. Not brittle or glassy, but with a mid emphasis which I don't know if I will make friends with. It might be about the better detail - I can certainly hear more going on. It might also be that the 555PS is settling down. Or it could be that the shift in tonal emphasis is intrinsic. If the latter turns out to be the case, it's going to be a compromise unless I get used to it. Time will tell.

Thunderstorms forecast for next week. I'd better get some more serious hours in.

To state the blindingly obvious: The single PS set up was (and will be when I'm reunited with it) highly musically enjoyable and capable of digging deep and clean. The two PS rig does more. Absolutely no doubt about that in this house. I won't truly know how much more (or if it's worth having) until I go back to the base line next week. And it remains a lofty base line.

Good fun though.

We ended up hanging onto the second 555PS until yesterday and this gave us an extended opportunity to put a large number of albums through their paces, some several times. Much fun it was too.

The before and after conclusions with the second PS on the NDS are remarkably similar how it went when we first tried a 555PS on the DAC (to potentially replace XPS2). The initial overall presentation seems lighter and brighter. Now as then, this is a misleading (and too HiFi centric) way of wrapping your ears around it because what you’re actually dealing with is a more airy presentation. The top shimmers a bit more but the bass also tightens/focuses and the mid de clutters.

More elements have detached themselves from the sound scape. Those with already well defined positions have seemingly come better into focus. Examples: Two guitar tracks have resolved into three or four. Same with keyboards. The point where the bass player appeared to roll it off and take a break for a few beats is now the point at which they slid down the neck or played some quieter notes.  The staccato attack of a bass line contains more modulation. The decay of a piano note(s) can be heard for longer and further off into the distance. It is easier to passively follow lines (without concentrating on them) and get a sense of who is following who and when they hand off.  Or you can just sit back and enjoy the whole and appreciate more how it was crafted. And IMO the timing is just … wow! It just seems to nail it. Probably not the sort of thing you can show on a graph, but that back brain stimulation sure as hell comes through.

Of course, we are talking degrees here. I could happily live with a single 555PS on the NDS . But if I had a choice I would not. Happily for me I do have a choice and I have accordingly ordered another. The tipping point was going back to the old system this morning. Same unforced, easy presentation. All the things that remind me why we love the NDS. But smaller, stopping a bit shorter and not so tightly focused. The difference was obvious, as indeed it was when the XPS2 went back onto the DAC first time round. You can live with (and be grateful for) either but given a choice ….

Helen is pragmatic. She doesn’t suffer gladly. If it’s a retrograde step, no different or a con, she is not backwards in shooting straight. Her joint and independent listening conclusions were the same as mine. “If we can afford this we should have it”.  Or to put it another way “I can hear more on my Bowie albums than I ever imagined was present. Bowie is good. More Bowie is better”. And I must admit that although I’m not a fan, The Next Day has got some bloody good stuff on it which I like and clicks with my view of the world. Although not unique in serving up more insight and detail and tighter timing with the second 555PS in the system, this album responded particularly well to it.

So having stated that with both rails of the 555PS gainfully employed, I didn’t personally have any great desire to guild the lily, I will now publically contradict myself – in the great tradition of posting on forums.  And I’ve ordered just in time for the summer break. So September should be a lot of fun.

Harry, did you get your 552 DR upgrade? I can't remember reading about iit.

Ah, now, therein lies a tale. 

Yes I did. And it's NICE.

Audience Bath kindly supplied me with a 152XS/FC for the duration. It was a happy little thing. The Jimmy Page of the pre range - sloppy, brash, cheeky and bundles of fun. 

Prior to the 552PS going in, I was struggling a bit with what I perceived to be a not liberal enough sprinkling of magic dust. It sounded fabulous but I thought there was something a bit bitty about it at times. The staging could sound a bit off. I thought it was the room. You know, the wider you open the window.... and all that.

When the 552PS was taken away, there was some doubt about the need to send the head unit back with it. We suspected not but to be on the safe side, both were boxed up and taken. This turned out to be a shrewd move because for all it's understandable inabilities to swim with the 552, the 152 did really good and even staging. So I asked for the head unit and the PS to be given a twice over at the factory.

Doug swung in. It was reported back to me that some things had been found which Doug thought should be done differently. The head unit was rebuilt, some components replaced and the internal wiring and soldering were changed in places. From the same account, it was said that the rebuilt 552 with its DR'd PS sounded as magical as any and that I was justified in questioning the performance. Which came as a relief because I thought I was being somewhat precious and flouncy about it. Turned out that it was worth the conversation.

A new 555PS-DR went in at the same time. Jason from Head Office came over with Ian from Audience Bath for the grand install. They moved the HDX off the Fraim and soldered new speaker plugs on one end and the propitiatory blocks on the other. It has sounded quite beautiful since. So wonderful that only a bonkers person would attempt to seek an upgrade. What can I say? I'm one of those happy bonkers people who keep to myself. So that's OK.

Thanks for letting us enjoy along with you, Harry.  I too have found a lot of joy sharing both the music and (some of) the hi fi ownership decisions with my wife.  Her ear, and her ability to describe what she hears, is better than mine sometimes (maybe often).

At some point I'd love to get from you a list of some of your favorite recordings -- favorite hi fi recordings that allow the kit to show what it can do.  I know that it's a bit heretical to talk about such recordings in some circles, but I enjoy both; recordings that show off the kit, and recordings that show off the musicians, or the conductor.  There is room on my server for both.  If you'd think about the former, I'd appreciate it.

Congratulations Harry!  Thanks for yet another fine post.

How tall will this make your Fraim?  Or is this perhaps the tipping point for splitting in two??

Jealously yours,

Hook

It’s tricky Bart. It’s so subjective, isn’t it? You like what you like and for me it is difficult to appreciate a performance if I don’t like what I’m listening to. At demos etc. I can sometimes be pleasantly surprised. Most of the time I’m left wincing, wishing they would play something I like – or even know and wondering what’s for tea.  And I’m usually wishing they would turn the volume down.  My general rule of thumb is that if something can convincingly play a broad selection of Yes and Rush, it will pretty much play anything.

Part of the fascination of music is also the most frustrating, in that it is so personal and even in situations where I might be conversing with a fellow band or genre fan, we have different perceptions of what we are discussing, we listen to and for different things and are moved in different ways. I don’t ram my tastes into the ears of others, I don’t adopt a footie supporter mentality when defending “my bands” and I never feel sorry for somebody or question their taste if they can’t appreciate something I do, or like stuff which I don’t like. I’m happy to share some of my favourites in this thread but I’m not putting any of them up for Pope. It’s just a small cross section of the stuff I like for no particular reason other than that I like it. To most it will have no meaning – which is exactly how it should be.

I spent years, decades when I was younger and knew everything, crouched with a furrowed brow as I lumbered through my “reference” recordings.  Where I used to seek resolution, bass response, imaging and all that, I’m now more interested in how it flows and things like the emotion that comes out of it – or out of me. The skill, craft and love that went into it. Or for that matter, the indifference.

My range of “test but not really” music has changed and expanded over the years. A fair few recordings which I used to classify as poor quality have resolved into enjoyable, warts and all efforts as the system has evolved to give insight rather than cinematic sound.  The only thing I can’t cope with is brick walled material or something which is obviously dynamically compressed (I know it all is really) to the point that you can hear it, even if it hasn’t been maxed.

The stuff I have consistently tried to get into an evaluative listening session (some of which may last for weeks) is not confined to but will include if possible - with apologies for typos because I’m probably not going to comb back through this lot:

Albinoni’s Adagio  DG 413309-2. I’ve heard this sounding both screechy and leaden at the same time, with ponderous timing. It can sound beautifully airy and fleet of foot. The more dramatic cues, which can be over egged  but can equally be portrayed with remarkable realism are the organ contribution and the way the performance swirls around and decays into the hall acoustic. Both can give a sense of the size and tone of the venue but it is all too easy for the organ to fall on it like a blanket and for the acoustic cues to be chopped off. If your system/room can nail it, you are transported to the live event. It’s like a form of time travel and is part of the magic for me.

Which also encapsulates a magical component of my second choice, Days Of Future Passed by The Moody Blues. HDTracks 24/96. Obtained using “Hide My IP”. As I regard DVD/BD Region encoding to be merely a vehicle whereby studios can fix regional pricing, I equally regard this IP origin nonsense for downloaded music to be a price fixing construct.  The rights and copyright argument is spurious, as any recording artist will tell you. I can buy anything I like abroad, pay the import fees and taxes – if appropriate/requested, and legally own it.  

I regard Days Of Future Passed to be the first Rock Concept Album although this POV is debatable.  Sgt. Pepper doesn’t count in my book because the album is a disparate collection of songs glued together by a repeating bridge in the form of an MC.  Rather like the Stone’s Rock ‘n Roll Circus. I wonder who go the idea off who? Days of Future Passed beat The Who Sell Out (regarded by me as the second Rock Concept Album) to the shelves by a month.

Conceived as a demo album to get buyers into the audiophile potential of Stereo, where the band and orchestra more collided through circumstance than planned it from the off, this album turned out to have much more mileage than it was designed to produce.  A happy and at the time unexpected result.  Apart from the excellent orchestral recording, which put a lot of contemporary serious stuff to shame, the pop/rock components were recorded with great realism. Instruments, voices, arrangements, dubs sound incredibly life like to me. It’s a Stone Age effort, almost naive in its simplicity, but it’s honest and it sounds compellingly realistic to me.

Beethoven’s 7^th, Allegretto, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, HDTracks 24/88. Obviously not unique but nevertheless a piece which shows the ability of a system/room to carry and communicate appropriate weight and tonality over a fairly wide dynamic range.  Something which the 500 particularly excels at (though again, not unique) is that when it drives louder, tonality does not change, you just get more of the same.  Don’t know if it’s the recording or just me – this piece really preserves the separate point sources yet allows you to appreciate the whole.

Pretty much the same for LSO Mahler’s 5th 24/48K, B&W Society Of Sound.  Classical fans will have their own lists. I don’t profess to be a buff, I just like what I like  I’ve got about 75 ish classical albums but 95% of my listening falls roughly into the Rock category.

From my auditioning year dot, Rush’s Signals always gets an outing because it’s challenging in a number of ways yet contains clever (sometimes a bit too clever) arrangements and superbly polished musicianship and interplay – if your system/room will allow you to get to it. I’ve tried all the releases from the first UK vinyl up to the 24/96 version and have now settled on this. My 24/96 comes from the DVD-A included in the Sector box set. HDTracks will sell you the same files as a download. It’s not a good recording and it never will be.  If you can somehow resolve the mushy presentation which at the same time contrives to be sharp and jarring at the top end, you will hear three musicians knocking out a superb performance. The mid will never get properly resolved but if the treble can be made to sit back and in the mix (as opposed to beaming forward and attacking you at times) and the bass can be resolved into notes with spaces and tonal qualities, the interplay of the rhythm section, not to mention how well they play, comes through in a musically compelling way.

Staying with Rush, Moving Pictures, HDTracks 24/96 IMO is right up there with Days Of Future Past for realism and musical communication. Not my favourite Rush Album but a fine effort (and of course hugely commercially successful) which it would be remiss to overlook. If this album floats your boat, the 24/96 is a big treat.

As is the 24/96 DVD-A of 2112. Their very nearly last album of a short recording career. Linn will sell you less material from this box set for six quid more than Amazon UK charge for the remastered CD, 24/96 DVD-A, booklet and presentation box set. Back in the Planar 3 + A60 days, this was a master class in the category of Power Rock Cacophony.  But the older my ears have become and the more our system has developed, the more this album has revealed itself. The bass underpinning side one (I still think of albums of old as comprising two/four sides (six for Yessongs), even though everything is streamed now) went from just bass, through frantically played bass, tuneful bass, thoughtfully modulated playing, to bass drum interplay where the notes and textures of both are as carefully selected and played as the rhythm itself. So many voice effects have appeared over the years I’ve lost count. Same for guitars. And it apparently still hasn’t stopped because a guitar part stage left resolved into two tracks  last week with the second 555PS on the NDS and – yes – it has now fused back into one part.

Power Windows by Rush, Qobuz 24/96. Qubuz block UK IPs by default. A polite email to their sales department requesting access from the UK will be answered and actioned within 48 hours.  The release of this album coincided with the launch of CD and AFAIK was Rush’s first album to be released on CD.  And it sounded astonishingly awful on CD, as did many other albums of the time.  Power Windows sees the band at the height of their 80s gimmicky production era and many say it suffers for it. But I’ve always found it easy to make friends with, even when it was challenging to listen to.  It is a stark, scrubbed clean sound scape, full of echoes, seemingly countless overdubs and sweeping keyboard bursts. Very much a product of its time. Like 2112 (but for other reasons) this album has steadily revealed itself over the years and our present system makes it sound big, dramatic (yeah, over produced, it has to be admitted) but not at all a strain on the ears. All the components are very finely etched and although the bass playing can at last be fully appreciated, it is Pert’s percussion prowess that astounds the most. How did he do that?  It is a matter of record that multi tracking was not heavily employed and if you find that hard to believe, go find some live footage.  He can really do it in one take. That’s talent.

I could keep going on Rush. Probably best not to.  So I’ll mention Hemispheres, Qobuz 24/96 before I move on.  Well worth having for me but the second PS on the NDS was one of those “I didn’t know this at all” moments.  I heard so much more detail that I was compelled to laugh.  Funny thing is though, that with the single PS now back in I’m enjoying it just as much.  Everyone gets a pat on the back for Hemispheres but at NDS level (regardless of the number of PSs attached), Lee’s inspired bass playing is worthy of the highest praise.

Fragile by Yes.  MFSL Gold CD or HDTracks 24/96.  Surprisingly different, both have something to offer.  The 24/96 got shelved because it was on balance a bit too thin and brittle. That’s the problem with downloads, you can’t send them back. The NDS changed everything. The 24/96 became the go to version. What I perceived as thin and toppy was now spacious are airy. What I thought of as understandable but unacceptable levels of distortion/artefacts now sound like the honest and realistic results of leaning on the levels with clunky technology.  Like it or not, it’s how they did it and how the results came out. It doesn’t jar any more for me.  

There are four stand out tracks for me but I’ll confine it to Heart Of The Sunrise (predictable huh?). The way that Bruford and Squire slide over each other to swap the lead in the first passage sounds so clever to me now. I always thought of it as one of those hallmark Yes time signature changes but it’s actually more complex than that, yet done with such skill that it sounds easy and obvious.  I always used to think that Bill wasn’t having the best of days on this track but down the years I have been disabused of this as the system has developed. What seemed to be “keeping up” now strikes me as a technically excellent display of intelligent musicianship. Well, that’s what I think anyway.

It’s too easy to overlook the other elements that comprise this piece and concentrate on Squire’s performance. So that’s what I’ll do! If there is ever one track which showcases how many basic, non flashy things you can do with a bass guitar, yet still seal the show, this is it.  The difference for me down the years is that whereas I used to admire the bass line, I can now see Chris Squire in my lounge. I can see the neck and body of the guitar.  I can hear the tone of the strings. And with Anderson’s clear and floating vocals it’s another one of those magical time travel experiences for me, albeit a more surreal one and with a few bumps and crunches on the way. Time was when occasional bass resonance and overload went with the performance.  This is not the case anymore. Everything is contained and sings. The room seems to project all the extension and throbbing yet contains it and allows it to decay into what sounds like natural space without setting anything off.

The Yes Album. MFSL Gold CD or HDTracks 24/192.  Probably my first ever “reference album” from back in the days when I lugged vinyl around under my arm in search of the best system my mates (or more probably their parents)  could get access to within a bus ride of home.  I’ve tried all the different versions on CD and the MFSL CD is a head and shoulders above them all.  The 24/96 is IMO better still. It contains more information and subtleties.  What it’s really got going for it is what sounds like a slightly attenuated bass, which far from diminishing the growling attack, actually lifts it and modulates it more.

My favourite Yes Album is Ralayer.  I think that the HDTracks offering in 24/192 is remarkably good. But does anyone else listen to Relayer? It’s nearly as isolationist as being a Rush fan.

Close To The Edge by Yes. HDTracks 24/192.  If you like this album you may appreciate the extra dynamics and resolution of this outing. Like The Yes Album, the bass in particular has gone through a slightly less is musically more transformation. Many have criticised it on the grounds of providence and Steve Hoffman has taken umbrage on more than one occasion to accusations of this ilk.  As far as I’m concerned it’s moot. To me this is the best sounding version to date and truly shows up the HDCD, SHM-CD, BluSpec CD, Rhino expanded, and every other edition ever squeezed out of the back end of the dog that is marketing for the sole purpose of rampant milking and profiteering.  Steve Wilson now has his hands on the master (Which one? You tell me!) . The scheduled October release is being greeted with tremendous anticipation and if he does a Warrior On The Edge Of Time with it, the adulation that this vapourware is already receiving might well be justified.  The word is that this will be the start of a wider Yes project. He’s doing his thing with Crimson and XTC too. And we know what a clever bloke he is. So that’s something to watch.

Going For The One by Yes. HDTracks 24/192. We only play Awaken for the most part. But it’s still worth the cover price. Until the 24/96 and 24/192 releases I had settled on a rip of the HDCD to 24/44. This is because the HDCD pumps the bass and cuts back a little on the rather scratchy echoed vocal effects which are supposed to swirl ethereally but can have a tendency to sound gritty.  This is a thin sounding and compressed album. I don’t know where the HiRes version got the clarity and bass weight from but it works.

Aqualung by Jethro Tull. 40^th Anniversary box set DVD-A., 24/96. This Vinyl containing box set gives you the kitchen sink. Therein is contained a stereo mix in 24/96 of the original album and a batch of extras. I don’t know if less expensive versions exist that contain the 24/96 stereo versions.  What can I say about the transformation achieved here? Time to dig out the old cliché. You haven’t heard this album until you’ve heard this version. It’s what we always wanted it to be. And guess what? It always was what we always wanted it to be. I won’t personally refund your money but I can recommend it with confidence. This is not a “will suit some but not others” deal.

The Catalogue by Kraftwerk. I’ve got the Der edition from Kling Klang because for some reason which I can’t elucidate, I just prefer the German lyrics.  Not that they are all in German.  Failing that, just get the remastered (The Catalogue version of) The Mix. Not everyone’s Marmite sandwich. To me it’s another illustration of how something done properly can sound so simple that anyone would think they could do it. Like a well-crafted novel. There’s easy and there’s making it look easy.  Much as I’ve always enjoyed their output I will admit that it can be challenging to listen to at times. All I will say is that if it sounds bright and fatiguing, it need not necessarily do. With resolving ability comes a more musical placement of tone and level such that it sounds right. And that something which sounds so basic can be resolved into ever increasing layers and textures says as much about how it was assembled as the ability of your system/room to unlock it and play it.

A Secret Wish by Propaganda. The original 1980s ZZT CD or the most recently introduced 25^th Anniversary 2CD edition. Not any of the others. A throw away Horn/Morley project which was supposed to nail the spirit of the time (but really just generate some cynical profit) and be rapidly consigned to the cliché remainder bin after it had spat out a few Euro hits and MTV centric videos.  And for many people that’s as far as it went. But for the rest of us this is an enduring cult album from one of the greatest Electronica bands that (practically) never existed.  It will give any system a good work out. The more your system digs, the more comes out, and the better it sounds - to me.

Peter Garbriel 4 (Security). There is a remastered version, out for some time now that came from PG himself.  Because I’ve worn my fingers down to the knuckles and anyone who has managed to read this far must be knackered, rather than singing the virtues of nearly every track I’ll grab one for a quick appraisal. The Rhythm Of The Heat. This is one of Helen’s “not really test” pieces and much admired by me too.  Can you hear all the voices, spoken words and wisps of music whilst sitting back and enjoying the effect or do you have to strain your ears?  When the sound builds and Gabriel wails at the end of each verse are you drawn into it or does it push you back?  When the concluding crescendo builds and builds and builds and EXPLODES, can you hear every chant, stick, palm and skin synchronising in a choreographed frenzy or does it land on top of you like a sack of weights dropped off a building? Do you want it to go on longer or can you not wait for the racket to finish?  The answers to these questions are I think, self explanatory.

That’s a slim sliver of the stuff I like. You don’t like it? That’s OK too.

Hi Hook. The HDX got moved off the rack which gave the 552 a space above it. I an told that this is a good thing. With a second 555PS we're on a base level plus seven levels and it's looking tall. The 552 will reside within a medium height leg (like the 500) which will give it some space but not a spare level. Possibly a compromise but there you go. The overall height of the rack will increase by a quarter of a level. Splitting the rack would necessitate a house extension or internal remodeling involving the demolition of part of a wall. It's not going to happen.

Somehow we'll manage

Excellent post Harry! A bit of an epic,  but packed with useful information. I have downloaded my 24/96 Rush material from Linn - expensive, but I was impatient. Have you, or are you aware of anyone who has checked that the Qobuz, HD Tracks and Linn versions are identical?

I'll have to wait a bit before trying a second 555 PS, as a dedicated listening room, and a 552 are further up my shopping list, but one day, who knows...

Dave

Thank you so much, Harry.  Our music tastes overlap -- I'm a HUGE Yes fan.  Alas my wife is not, and it's pretty much only the Yes and Grateful Dead that I must listen to when she's in another room or out of the home.  We don't listen to those bands together.  And I've just never spent any time with Rush.  They obviously have a huge following still; I just never got around to listening to them.

I do enjoy owning some music for 'hi fi testing' sake.  Additionally, I'll post a short list of some of the tracks on my demo cd / usb stick, which all came from a cd given to me by my hi fi sales guy.  I used it pretty extensively two years ago, and when re-orienting myself (such as when the 555PS was gone for almost 2 months) it comes in handy.

Cracking post Harry, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

i personally may not choose to demo with some of your choices, but the way you describe which details are revealed with your test albums is enthralling.

In fact on the basis of your descriptions I may even give a couple of them (not all of them though!) a try.

Thats what makes music so enjoyable I guess, always new stuff to hear if one has an open mind.

I have purchased Hemispheres, Permanent Waves & Moving Pictures 24/96's from Qobuz after your tip off a while back, and there is so much more to them than I ever remember hearing.

I will take the files in to my dealer next time I am passing and ask for a demo on a higher end system to see what else I can hear - will be an interesting exercise.

But that's a really good question DaveBk, I never even considered whether high res versions are identical.

I guess I was working on the basis that as they all appeared on Qobuz, Linn and HD Tracks at the same time, they must be the official versions.

Would be good to know!

Congratulations Harry on a fantastic system, totally at the other end of the range compared with my little Qute based system. I hope you will get the same satisfaction from your's, as I get from mine.

I rather think that you will .

Regards

Justin

Always a pleasure to read your posts Harry.

Thanks for taking the time.

Nathan

Thank you all for your replies. I will try to do an inclusive response hopefully covering the points raised. Here goes:

Dave: When the Sector box sets were produced the remastering was done at 24Bit. I don’t know the technical details, how they obtained or got it to 24Bit, etc. But it was only a matter of time before 24Bit versions were made available in addition to the one DVD-A included in each box set. They all hit the sites at about the same time with Linn lagging a bit. I don’t think there is any reason to believe the offerings from each retailer are different. I’ve heard no reports along these lines – with one exception.

The exception appears to be Moving Pictures. This was out as a 24/96 in a deluxe edition box set and HDTracks made the download available within two weeks of the boxes hitting the shelves. I bought both – I was naive to DVD-A ripping and didn’t realise that the box set on my shelf could have the files ripped off them. Now I know different. I ran both download and rip side by side and could not tell a difference. As to if they are from the same source, I can’t be 100% sure but the timing looks right. Since then there has been some confusion as to whether the 24Bit version of Moving Pictures you can obtain today is the original from two years back or a the remastered version done for the Sector box sets. Some say so, some say not, no documentary evidence is available because the labels and retailers are extremely vague on where material is sourced from. This applies widely and is considered frustrating by some. I’m more pragmatic – if it sounds better to me I go with it. The Computer Audiophile forum is a good source of information.

2112 doesn’t seem to have been caught up in this static. What you can download appears to be the same as what is on the deluxe edition DVD-A, regardless of where it was downloaded from. Again, the timings indicate strongly that the same source was used.

It basically all goes back to Warner. They have stated an intention of getting as much of their back catalogue out in 24Bit as practical.  It is self-evident that they have arrangements in place with retailers to control distribution of downloads across regions, which is to say, dictate pricing. I don’t know, but I can’t see why they would release different versions of 24Bit material to different regions, pretty much similtaneously.  I can buy the DVD-A of Moving Pictures and 1221 anywhere in the world. Same barcode, same ASIN, same packaging, same product. But I can’t download it them in the UK unless I pay Linn’s high price.  Happily, Qobuz have decided that they are not going to be the labels’ policeman in the event that anybody actually asks them to sell material to them without prejudice. The DVD-As are cheaper in physical format, and the IP block can be overcome in any case.

Bart: I would very much like to see your short list. Helen and I listen to Yes a lot together. And much more besides. But we have our guilty pleasures which don’t overlap. Mine is Rush. Hers is Bowie and a fair bit of Folk.  The up side is that the system seldom lays dormant.

Chris: I didn’t mention Waves for fear that anyone reading might be losing the will. I don’t think I have a favourite Rush album but this one would be a strong candidate if I had to rank them.  I’ve got the MFSL Gold CD and of course the 24Bit. I haven’t made my mind up yet. I think the 24Bit gives better separation and insight but I can rock along to either and it could be that this is not so much a failing of the HiRes than the skill of MFSL. If I had to part with one it would be the CD. If I had to part with one based on a coin flip, II could live with either result.

Jonas: It was one Burndy into Output 1 of each 555PS,. The second PS I tried out was a non DR type and we decided to use this to power the digital side of the NDS. I don’t know which of the two NDS sockets takes the power for the digital side but Ian from Audience Bath researched it prior to his visit and was certain of which was which. We believe that the PS he brought round was my old one which I traded in for a new DR555  some months back.

Justin: from my very first toe dip into the Naim range it has been nothing but fun. I started with a CD5 in an otherwise non Naim system and my move over to a nearly all Naim system has been comparatively recent. One thing I found from early on is that if you go with the fun and forget all the serious stuff, you actually end up with a seriously good result .

Nathan: Thank you.

Big thunderstorms sweeping through. All the important stuff is unplugged. I think the phone line needs to come out now.  Bye for now.