NAPSC vanishes from naim.com and 202 upgrade path

When I got notification from my dealer my 250 DR was ready for collection, I was wondering if I needed to have bought one, the 282/200 sounds very good already

Then I plugged in the 250 DR, and it was truly one of these "wow" moments. All my doubts went away in about 3 seconds.

Noise floor is much lower, bigger soundstage, much more muscular bass, grip on the speakers, transients, midrange vocals, the music sounds more coherent, more musical, more relaxed, and more exciting at the same time, everything takes a leap forward..... more refined high frequencies really, the 272/250DR and the 282/250DR are a good slice/taste of the much more expensive 252/300 and 552/500....

analogmusic posted:

When I got notification from my dealer my 250 DR was ready for collection, I was wondering if I needed to have bought one, the 282/200 sounds very good already

Then I plugged in the 250 DR, and it was truly one of these "wow" moments. All my doubts went away in about 3 seconds.

Noise floor is much lower, bigger soundstage, much more muscular bass, grip on the speakers, transients, midrange vocals, the music sounds more coherent, more musical, more relaxed, and more exciting at the same time, everything takes a leap forward..... more refined high frequencies really, the 272/250DR and the 282/250DR are a good slice/taste of the much more expensive 252/300 and 552/500....

 

I presume your impressions were based on the Dynaudio X32 speakers when you swapped the 200 with the 250DR. The Dynaudio X32 are not as easy as the Harbeth at 4 ohms/87dB. Anyway, I acknowledge the improvements of the 250DR over the 200 in your system. The improvements you have described seem to be across the whole frequency spectrum and appear quite significant.

The X32 is also a 4 Ohm rated speaker and yes when I swapped out 200 for 250, it was on the Dynaudio X32.

I also heard this weekend 272/250 with Sonus Faber Olympica and the 250 DR drove those with an Iron grip !

Sorry, I meant the X32 is 4 ohms/87dB. Generally Dynaudios are considered as difficult speakers with the 4 ohms impedance. All Harbeth speakers are easy to drive speakers. My SHL5s are 8 ohms (though the new SHL5 Plus are now 6 ohms). Some Harbeth users use flea-powered tube amps to drive the speakers, from 8 watts onwards. As easy as Harbeth speakers can be, I think they sound better/more dynamic and lively with good solid-state power.

feeling_zen posted:

Phil Harris posted:

 

I stand completely corrected :-)

It's all good, you never know when the next scoop will appear.

 We won't forget the scoop of the year!

The Ovators!

Besides we must converse on something!

Allante93!

One lesson to learn: don't start a speculative thread on a weekend day or it will grow wild till Monday .

It was a dull weekend.

Don't know what all of the fuss was about.  The NAPSC is now back on the website.  Maybe its page had the weekend off.

PeterJ posted:

Don't know what all of the fuss was about.  The NAPSC is now back on the website.  Maybe its page had the weekend off.

As so often, c*ck-up is the mother of conspiracy

Offcourse Naim will use the Statement/Mu-so design to complement new range of pre-amplication and Statement-Nait

Bet it has been on the drawing table only temporarily disrupted by the (megaseller) Mu-so/Qb

Its all about creating new megasellers

Current preamp range were created in lenght of the outgoing Olive allmost overnight and 102/202 or 82/282 is not that different, maybe the cabinet more than inside electronics/sound

Both 102 & 82 were based on the late 1980'ies Nac 52 & Nac 72/32.5 knowledge, we are facing more than 25-30 years of old technology in current 202/282/252,, not bad for great sound still sounding great and I read nowhere the new streaming range preamp are better sounding 

b_lund posted:

Offcourse Naim will use the Statement/Mu-so design to complement new range of pre-amplication and Statement-Nait

Bet it has been on the drawing table only temporarily disrupted by the (megaseller) Mu-so/Qb

Its all about creating new megasellers

Current preamp range were created in lenght of the outgoing Olive allmost overnight and 102/202 or 82/282 is not that different, maybe the cabinet more than inside electronics/sound

Both 102 & 82 were based on the late 1980'ies Nac 52 & Nac 72/32.5 knowledge, we are facing more than 25-30 years of old technology in current 202/282/252,, not bad for great sound still sounding great and I read nowhere the new streaming range preamp are better sounding 

+1

But the classic range is better than the olive range, less harsh, more refined, more suited to digital sources, while sounding great with Vinyl.

I heard a 102/180 once and I was expecting more boogie factor, but didn't find it more engaging than the current classic range, and at the same time it sounded more harsh to me. The current 202/200 DR is much more superior than the 102/180. More refined, lower noise floor. better soundstage, and more engaging/musical.

After years of reading about the olive range having more boogie factor, listening to 102/180 made me realize that it was good that I paid extra for the current Classic Naim range.

Hungryhalibut posted:

'As far as I know' is a useful phrase, which only holds true until one knows something different. Let's see what the future holds. 

"Post may contain content"

- or not.

Sloop John B posted:

GraemeH posted:

 

We all have our audio brains tuned to the waveband we personally can live with at our set price.

G

Very well put sir. 

 

SJB

That is right financial consideration leads our ears more than SQ.  Unfortunately there is at times an 'I've got considerably more money than you (disguised as HiFi advice)'  tone on some threads that wouldn't be out of place in a Harry Enfield sketch.

Still very happy with my 52/135s/DBLs... 

Bob the Builder posted:

Unfortunately there is at times an 'I've got considerably more money than you (disguised as HiFi advice)'  tone on some threads that wouldn't be out of place in a Harry Enfield sketch.

Not sure I've ever really felt that around here.  Sure there are guys  that have got higher end systems than me but I've never felt that they are in any way self-indulgent about it.  In fact on the contrary just about all around here are very helpful.   Understandable that folks are pleased with what they've achieved - good luck I say.

Regards,

Lindsay

+1 to the above. Most people on here who have top end systems are just as obliging with advice or enthusiasm for a Qute.

Bob the Builder posted:

Sloop John B posted:

GraemeH posted:

 

We all have our audio brains tuned to the waveband we personally can live with at our set price.

G

Very well put sir. 

 

SJB

That is right financial consideration leads our ears more than SQ.  Unfortunately there is at times an 'I've got considerably more money than you (disguised as HiFi advice)'  tone on some threads that wouldn't be out of place in a Harry Enfield sketch.

How do you know that they have more money than you (or anyone else)? All you know is that they spend more money on hi fi than you . . . 

Fortuned/priorities change and this applies to all of us. I don't think Mr. Loadsamoney comes into it. 

I know what I have and know it isn't cheap. But I'm also aware of the 13 wilderness years where, after having to sell a source to speakers Linn stack, I lived with an Onkyo micro system costing about GBP300 for over a decade. But it can happen again and if there is one thing I learned is to be happy with what you can afford.

There are some very well respected forum members which offer excellent advice but have "comparatively" modest systems and others with fairly extreme setups that need advice more than they give it. I find the forum a fairly level playing field.

I'm not quite sure how this thread has morphed to the current discussion, however, I'd just like to say that I'm really enjoying my recently purchased Unitiqute 2.  It's in my office driving some Linn Kans and I use it probably more than any others system. Right now I'm enjoying Radio 4 on FM (DAB works well, but even here FM sounds much nicer).  I also have a 50" Sony screen and a couple of blu-ray players hooked up via Toslink and I even had fun squirting some music off various phones and DAPs via Bluetooth - sound quality not as bad as I feared, even if it's no match for a proper physical connection.  In fact, I wish I'd got one sooner.  It could well be all the "system" one ever needs...

Bart posted:

Bob the Builder posted:

Sloop John B posted:

GraemeH posted:

 

We all have our audio brains tuned to the waveband we personally can live with at our set price.

G

Very well put sir. 

 

SJB

That is right financial consideration leads our ears more than SQ.  Unfortunately there is at times an 'I've got considerably more money than you (disguised as HiFi advice)'  tone on some threads that wouldn't be out of place in a Harry Enfield sketch.

How do you know that they have more money than you (or anyone else)? All you know is that they spend more money on hi fi than you . . . 

That wasn't what I was implying clearly I do not know what other forum members financial position's are none of us do which is why I do struggle to understand that why when a person can ask if he should add a flat cap to his much loved and in the real world very expensive 112x/150x set up at a possible cost of a couple of hundred pounds he is invariably told to ditch the whole lot and buy a 282/250DR which he can buy for as little as 4.5 K if he would but look!

Bob the Builder posted:

That wasn't what I was implying clearly I do not know what other forum members financial position's are none of us do which is why I do struggle to understand that why when a person can ask if he should add a flat cap to his much loved and in the real world very expensive 112x/150x set up at a possible cost of a couple of hundred pounds he is invariably told to ditch the whole lot and buy a 282/250DR which he can buy for as little as 4.5 K if he would but look!

You're reading a different forum to me.

The Uq2 is awesome. more than capable of being the only Naim box one needs

Same with DAC V1/Nap 100.

My UQ2 in the office fronted by Qacoustics 2010i accounts for 90% of my listening over the main system. It could easily be the only system I need.

Of course "need" is used loosely on the forum. We don't need any of it.

UQ with 250/2DR is all you need even for big speakers. The combo drives the SCM11s with total authority.