what's your best audio system experience?

Easy!  272, XPS DR, 300DR, focal Sopra 2s at the Bristol show. Stunning sound! 

I never had the pleasure of listening Naim separate high-level equipment, here in Italy it is difficult, Naim sells integrated and Uniti range, and it is what you find available for some test in store

For me it was the Kudos room at last years Acoustica show in Chester. They were showing off their Titans using an NDS/552/300 system - I could have stayed there all day....even in a hotel room. (The nearby Statement dem room was mighty impressive, but too in-your-face to relax and listen to.) 

At a hi-fi show in Heathrow (I think) in the early noughties.... Rega P25 with DV10X4, into amps from 47 Labs and some tallish panel speakers that I can't remember. Total connection.

edit: Have just done some googling and found they were 47 Labs Shigaraki Series and Konus Essence speakers. (So, not panels).

Chris_M

Twice I've heard a full 500 series driving Neat MF9s - awesome

then PBs TMS3/500/Arts - just fantastic.

A non-Naim alternative TMS3/Valve pre (can't remember which)/Audia Flight Power amp/Focal Electra 1038s.

Both at a Hi FI show in 1984 

Oracle turntable - Air Tangent parallel tracking arm - Koetsu Onyx

Audio Research SP 10   Krell monoblocks 

Magneplanner panals

Sounded amazing.Soundstage instrument timbre.

Shame they where using anaemic audiophile music but it did leave an impression.

The Naim room was brilliant though.

Linn Ittok Asak T.  32 Hicap  NAXO 2-4   4 pack 135' s and Sara ' s

No audiophile test records !!.....Siouxsie and the Banshees where playing when I walked in... Christine....just so exciting and engaging.left a big impression.A eurika moment !

Both great systems...but I do wonder if the Absolute Sounds room could have delivered something a bit more rockin'

Hope this thread runs for pages and pages

At AXPONA a couple of years ago, FM Acoustics amps, Polymer speakers, Weiss server... sheer magic. At AXPONA last year I heard the same speakers with Thrax amps and they sounded absolutely terrible, ear-shredding treble and shouty – in a much bigger room. But the FM amps would have been in the same price league as Statements, or above.... At a slightly less stratospheric level last year I also heard the Raidho D3 speakers with Raidho's own newly-released integrated amp, the most uncannily holographic sound I've heard from stereo. I think the D3s would have sounded even better with the drive of Naim amps. Still well above my wallet's reach, alas.

Three possibilities:

Manticore Mantra/ Naim 32/250/ Heybrook HB1's. This was later in the demo after I'd ordered Mantra/Rotel RA820BX/Heybrook HB1's 30 years ago and was, unfortunately, outside my budget at the time.

Roksan Xerxes/Naim Nait 1/ Wharfedale Diamonds in very ugly stands that spiked the speakers top and bottom at some hi-fi show near Heathrow airport. This system really rocked!

My own Manticore Mantra/ Musician arm/ MB6 power supply/ Goldring 1042 cartridge/ Naim Stageline/ Hi-Cap/ N272/250DR/ Neat Momentum SX5i last month. Subsequently ordered this system and is supposed to be installed early next month!

My experience of high-end hi-fi is limited, but I've dreamt of owning Naim amplifiers since that first demo.

Roberto's system – CD555, 555PS, HiLine, 552, 552PS, 250.2, NAC A5, SL2. At some volume, it was like being pushed inside the recording and finally understanding what it was all about. It was to music what I suppose eating Nestlé Condensed Milk on acid is to cow milk.

My most memorable was my first 'proper' system which included an A&R Arcam amp and Heybrook HB1 speakers when I was very young.  I can still remember being amazed by the clarity and soundstage and frantically working my way through as much music as possible just to see what it sounded like.  

HDX/555PS/552/500/SL2.

"Oh. So that's what music really sounds like. Well I never..."

Unforgettable.

We'll be listening to a Statement soon. That might reset it.

A five foot tall jukebox playing  ''She loves you''  when I was 9 !

Hearing the Statement at a show is pretty impressive but I've now heard two statement systems in domestic settings. One driving DBL's the other driving Ovator 600's.

All I can say is simply breathtaking! 

Linn Klimax LP12 / NDS into 552 / 500 driving Magico S3. At first difficult to comprehend the amount of MUSIC coming from it.

1-  Recently  272/555ps + 300>ovator 800 at a hifi show. I have little experience with big(expensive) systems so this was a big wow.

2 - Ten years ago or so, the main stage sound system at the Voov goa festival, Putlitz Germany. I liked to go to goa dance festivals and there is always a lot of attention for the deco and creating good vibes.  But at this festival I really had a big wow for the superb soundsystem. 

ChrisSU posted:

For me it was the Kudos room at last years Acoustica show in Chester. They were showing off their Titans using an NDS/552/300 system - I could have stayed there all day....even in a hotel room. (The nearby Statement dem room was mighty impressive, but too in-your-face to relax and listen to.) 

+1. Kudos room was very good.

Last night...at home!

James L posted:

Last night...at home!

Nice System!

Do you think XP5 XS on your CD5 XS & XPS on your Ndac would be wasted cash?

After starting work at age 16, I met some lads my age who were from a different (posher) part of town and one of them lived in a house where his Dad had a dedicated music room - big speakers and a nice looking turntable. In my mind it's an LP12 but that is probably due to romantic imagination.

Bearing in mind that this was 1980 ish and disco was still big, my mate put on Joy Division Unknown Pleasures. I felt like Dan Acroyd in the Blues Brothers when he had his epiphany as Ian Curtis's voice and Hooks bass guitar rang out in Disorder. I knew right then that I had found my spiritual home and I to this day I still use that track as a tester when demoing gear: if it can't do a decent rendition of that then there is no point in buying it.

 ATB Ray

Early 70's - I was in the house of the LP12 designer - and I heard part of Richard Strauss - Elektra

I think the system was Thorens TD125 and SME arm / Shure V15 - Sugden amps and B&W DM70s 

Then - the scream - blood curdling - I never forgot it - AND was hooked from that day !

Al

Linn Lp12, a Naim pre-amp (whatever it might have been in about 1990) Naim crossover, 6x135 Naim power amps, Linn Isobaric's - it sounded sooooooo good to me!
That was at Sound Advice in Birmingham, although I subsequently heard DBL's at their Loughborough shop a a few years later, for some reason, this old active 135/Brik setup stuck with me.
I don't know how it might actually compare with the modern equivalent, whatever that might be but, I'm very happy with my current set-up which must come pretty close or better than the Brik setup  

It was at May - June 1984 when I first listened to a Linn- Naim system at my first dealer.The system was Sondek  LP12  with Ittok and Asak ,Naim pre and power , I think it was Nac32 into Nap 110 connected to a wonderful pair of Linn Kans, listening for the first time to Rick Wakeman's  King Arthur was a jaw dropping experience!!!

Fabian

Allante93 posted:

James L posted:

Last night...at home!

Nice System!

Do you think XP5 XS on your CD5 XS & XPS on your Ndac would be wasted cash?

Wasted cash?  YES... the CD5XS doesn't connect to an XP5XS !  (It needs a flat-, hi-, super- cap power supply.)

XPS on nDAC on the other hand.... amazing 

Sorry Allante, just being pickey !

Statement demo at Naim fed by NDS with 2 times 555PS.

Many, many sleeps ago, there was a dealer called Uxbridge Audio  (in Uxbridge) (in Middlesex).

They were a linn dealer, amongst other brands, and they played me an Arkiv cartridge with Dark Side of the Moon  through, probably, Kabers.  I bough the Arkiv - £1,000 at the time... I'd only recently paid £12,000 for the 3bed semi I lived in.

It's no wonder I shall have nothing to leave the kids, except a nice audio system    (the house is still mortgaged)