Naim Audio Forum Archive

Posted on: 01 November 2012 by Disposable hero

Wish by The Cure, such a clssic will convert all those doubters.

Posted on: 01 November 2012 by Jasonf

Disp

I replied to your post regarding those signal drop outs on my thread about "Bells and Whistles".

I'm sure I have Wish somewhere.

Posted on: 01 November 2012 by winkyincanada

I don't "demo" my system at all. Friends might come over for conversation, beers and to even to listen to some music, but never to listen to my system.

Posted on: 01 November 2012 by Dungassin

Surely you ought to let the 'victim' choose their own music?

Posted on: 01 November 2012 by Cbr600

Would be. Good idea to ask them to bring one of their own cd's and let them hear new sounds they never realised were there last time they played it!

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by osprey

Originally Posted by Jasonf:

I will report back in the morning, possibly with a sore head.

Jason, how is your head? Do you have any story to share about the demo for your friend or is it too early? It would be interesting to hear about his reactions. I have some friends who think I am mad using so much money on music replay and it is no use to remind them that what have are only entry level equipments.

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by chimp

I had a friend over and prior to that I had been eulogising about how beautiful music had become since buying my naim system, 200, 202, cdx2 with LINN LK140s, he was curious, this put me in a panic, what to play to get the desired effect. I played all sorts and his reply was "not bad" I was getting frustrated as even in my opinion the system wasn't sounding as good as it should, now this may be psychological as I was putting myself under a lot of pressure trying to impress. I then put dead can dance, yulunga, on and he was transfixed and blown away when the tibetan bell was struck, the sound reverberated around the room and his comment pleased me no end, it was "F*#k. Nothing else. Now this was quite late in the evening and we had been playing music for a couple of hours by this point, I wonder if the quality of sound changed because there was less noise outside and less electrical goods being used by neighbours so the power was less corrupted.

Any ideas?

Regards

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by Harry

Originally Posted by Dungassin:

Surely you ought to let the 'victim' choose their own music?

On the few occasions when a visitor wants to hear some music it's their choice. On the fewer still occasions when there has been a component of "I want to hear what your system sounds like" they have to chose what to listen to. Otherwise there would be no point. We tend to keep people out of the listening room and we don't talk about HiFi, least of all our system when discussing music, but each to our own. It's a personal thing.

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by GraemeH

Originally Posted by chimp:

I I then put dead can dance, yulunga, on and he was transfixed and blown away when the tibetan bell was struck, the sound reverberated around the room and his comment pleased me no end, it was "F*#k. Nothing else. Now this was quite late in the evening and we had been playing music for a couple of hours by this point, I wonder if the quality of sound changed because there was less noise outside and less electrical goods being used by neighbours so the power was less corrupted.

Any ideas?

A Pavlov reaction? He says F**K every time he hears a bell?

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by Jasonf

Chaps –

Not so much a ‘demo’, more an “exploration into the landscape of sound”.

Here’s a little background to my friends taste. He has a mid range midi, all in one stereo system at home, dabbles with ITunes on a pc as he hates Mac and his taste in music is generally indi/pop and rock.

Basically, after the first track, which was the Beetles, “Tomorrow Never Knows” on the “Revolver” album he was a little taken back by what he heard, then I played “Taxman” on the same album and “Excuse Me Mr” by Ben Harper without saying anything.

From here on Naim’s work was done, the first comment from my friend was “I am impressed, it sounds brilliant”. And then we dispensed with my previous playlist and spent the next half hour running through various tracks that we thought would be interesting to listen to, including many that my friend was familiar with, for example, Belle and Sebastian, Nick Cave, Kent, David Bowie, Nirvana, The Cure and the Tindersticks. One particular track that stood out was “Monkey” on the “Band of Joy” album, by Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, quite simply breathtaking. During this track, and to my slight surprise, my friend started musing on the depth of sound he could hear emanating from the speakers….like a “landscape of sound”, his words not mine. We mused on other tracks about a definite hierarchy of instruments that was previously unheard and which gave the music a much more 3d effect.

Other comments were regarding the Tindersticks tracks “Nectar” and “Tyed” on the self titled album were “I must buy some Tindersticks music they were quite popular in Norway years ago”. Tindersticks (type of Baroque rock if you like your genres), emphasis on moody instrumentation and orchestration, lush instrumentation created by horns and stringed instruments, as well as intricate and complex melodies just leaped out from the speakers in clean, clear harmony.

So there we have it, the quality of the sound can dissipate any doubt based on cost and a previous skepticism on improved sound quality. Ultimately, the cost factor was irrelevant to the pleasure of the music one heard. Apart from a little enthusiastic sales pitch at the beginning whilst explaining the basic technical aspects of storing and streaming and the differences between the various file types, I did nothing except serve up beer, food and Port, which is what I would have done anyway. The major difference is that we experienced a more rewarding music session and talked about it in a way that we probably would not have done ordinarily.

Cheers.

For those that commented on bringing his own music, we heard tracks that he had in his own music collection and he is quite keen to return carrying a batch of Mule cd’s as a result of this session. And is in fact enthusiastic about me listening to them as I don’t know them, a mutually rewarding Thursday evening.

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by osprey

Interesting reading, thanks for sharing Jason!

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by Cbr600

Originally Posted by Jasonf:

Chaps –

Not so much a ‘demo’, more an “exploration into the landscape of sound”.

Here’s a little background to my friends taste. He has a mid range midi, all in one stereo system at home, dabbles with ITunes on a pc as he hates Mac and his taste in music is generally indi/pop and rock.

Basically, after the first track, which was the Beetles, “Tomorrow Never Knows” on the “Revolver” album he was a little taken back by what he heard, then I played “Taxman” on the same album and “Excuse Me Mr” by Ben Harper without saying anything.

From here on Naim’s work was done, the first comment from my friend was “I am impressed, it sounds brilliant”. And then we dispensed with my previous playlist and spent the next half hour running through various tracks that we thought would be interesting to listen to, including many that my friend was familiar with, for example, Belle and Sebastian, Nick Cave, Kent, David Bowie, Nirvana, The Cure and the Tindersticks. One particular track that stood out was “Monkey” on the “Band of Joy” album, by Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, quite simply breathtaking. During this track, and to my slight surprise, my friend started musing on the depth of sound he could hear emanating from the speakers….like a “landscape of sound”, his words not mine. We mused on other tracks about a definite hierarchy of instruments that was previously unheard and which gave the music a much more 3d effect.

Other comments were regarding the Tindersticks tracks “Nectar” and “Tyed” on the self titled album were “I must buy some Tindersticks music they were quite popular in Norway years ago”. Tindersticks (type of Baroque rock if you like your genres), emphasis on moody instrumentation and orchestration, lush instrumentation created by horns and stringed instruments, as well as intricate and complex melodies just leaped out from the speakers in clean, clear harmony.

So there we have it, the quality of the sound can dissipate any doubt based on cost and a previous skepticism on improved sound quality. Ultimately, the cost factor was irrelevant to the pleasure of the music one heard. Apart from a little enthusiastic sales pitch at the beginning whilst explaining the basic technical aspects of storing and streaming and the differences between the various file types, I did nothing except serve up beer, food and Port, which is what I would have done anyway. The major difference is that we experienced a more rewarding music session and talked about it in a way that we probably would not have done ordinarily.

Cheers.

For those that commented on bringing his own music, we heard tracks that he had in his own music collection and he is quite keen to return carrying a batch of Mule cd’s as a result of this session. And is in fact enthusiastic about me listening to them as I don’t know them, a mutually rewarding Thursday evening.

Well written. sounds like you might have a Naim convert in the near future

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by DrMark

I had a friend over once, and the cut that left him in awe was "Buena" by Morphine from the Cure For Pain CD. Female vocalists with minimal accompaniment can also be a good one for different reasons - really highlights the separation of the individual components (e.g., voice, each instrument) that a good system can bring, instead of it all being a big "mush" of sound...they find they can follow an individual instrument more readily than with low/mid-fi.

I also find it a good interest grabber to have the person sit in the sweet spot, then have them close their eyes and point to where they hear the music coming from on a well produced cut - especially the lead vocal. They are invariably amazed & impressed when they find themselves pointing directly between the 2 speakers, even asking if it is coming from the TV speakers when I was forced to have a TV in the middle. Most people (at least hi-fi neophytes) have never really experienced the good imaging that PRAT can create.

That doesn't necessarily mean they don't think I'm nucking futs for spending as much on audio as I do...

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by Iver van de Zand

Interesting read !

my experience is with friends / family that ask me what all those boxes are for and why speakers should be that huge. Normally I only tell them that hifibis my hobby and that I pay attention to sound quality. What happens next, is that they want some "proof". Comments that I get is mostly they feel to be "live in the music", hear things they never heart and that listening intensily is not fatiguing at all. What counts for me, is that I always suggest to "quickly" demonstrate the system, and that this demo always end up in a very loooooonnnnngg demo :-)

iver

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by IanG

I had an old friend round a few weeks ago. I couldn't get the iPad off him for 4 hours as we tripped through the soundtrack of our lives (we've known each other since high school). We had a great evening. He is now working out what to sell so he can buy Naim. I find it a huge compliment

Posted on: 02 November 2012 by Jasonf

Originally Posted by IanG:

class="quotedText">
I had an old friend round a few weeks ago.

I couldn't get the iPad off him for 4 hours as we tripped through the soundtrack of our lives (we've known each other since high school).

We had a great evening. He is now working out what to sell so he can buy Naim.

I find it a huge compliment

That sounds like the perfect evening Ian...tracks of our lives........

Demoing ones own system

Posted by: Jasonf on 01 November 2012