LFD

It's fine discussing other brands here.  The line is crossed though when it starts to look like there's an agenda.

nigelb posted:

Naim are pretty understanding about discussion of other makes of HiFi gear on here and they often come up incidentally in several threads.

But to open a topic specifically to discuss a competitor's amps I can't help thinking is a little disrespectful. I know this is a public forum but it is a forum hosted by Naim.

Or is it just me?

You are absolutely correct and I am apologising to all concerned.  Please close or delete this thread.   How stupid of me.

Christopher_M posted:

staffy posted:

Christopher_M posted:

staffy posted:

Has anyone ever compared the LFD amps to Naim.   After listening to one today I was astounded at the level of clarity that this brand has to offer.  It certainly beats my Naim Nait XS2.

I think you are saying that the system you heard today which contained a LFD amp was clearer than your own, which contains a Nait XS2.

I wonder how your own system at home would be if you were to drop in a LFD in place of the XS2.... better, worse, or just different?

Chris

I hope to demo my system with the LFD in place of my amp and FC X2.  Unfortunately my dealer has sold out of his Naim CDX5.  So it will be a couple of weeks before I get to seriously listen.  If I feel the Naim amp is better then I will trade in my Chord Qute2 dac for the TT.  After a demo of course.

I'm baffled. You list a Rega Planar 3 TT and a CD5XS in your profile.

C.

Thats correct, I enjoy vinyl as well as cd's.  err whats your point.

Richard Dane posted:

It's fine discussing other brands here.  The line is crossed though when it starts to look like there's an agenda.

Indeed and also it's the yang to the sycophanty that sometimes threatens to suffocate the forum.

SJB

staffy posted:

Christopher_M posted:

staffy posted:

Christopher_M posted:

staffy posted:

Has anyone ever compared the LFD amps to Naim.   After listening to one today I was astounded at the level of clarity that this brand has to offer.  It certainly beats my Naim Nait XS2.

I think you are saying that the system you heard today which contained a LFD amp was clearer than your own, which contains a Nait XS2.

I wonder how your own system at home would be if you were to drop in a LFD in place of the XS2.... better, worse, or just different?

Chris

I hope to demo my system with the LFD in place of my amp and FC X2.  Unfortunately my dealer has sold out of his Naim CDX5.  So it will be a couple of weeks before I get to seriously listen.  If I feel the Naim amp is better then I will trade in my Chord Qute2 dac for the TT.  After a demo of course.

I'm baffled. You list a Rega Planar 3 TT and a CD5XS in your profile.

C.

Thats correct, I enjoy vinyl as well as cd's.  err whats your point.

I think Chris is confusing the Rega TT and the Chord TT. Presumably the relevance of the dealer selling the 5XS is that a dealer dem with your CD player and the LFD is not possible, meaning that you will have to wait to try it at home. Does that sound right?

It will take the dealer over a month to get a new CD5XS in and setup with a week or so running.   However in the mean time I have been promised the lend of a Chord HugoTT to demo at home.  Should it be better than the 2Qute I have at present, I will cancel the demo and go with a new dac instead.

I suppose I am being greedy for that elusive perfect sound.   In fact my present system sounds great and visitors are always impressed when I am playing music.   Such as Eva Cassidy , Patricia Barber, Diana Krall and Simon & Garfunkel.

As you are interested in the TT, presumably you are storing the music on some sort of hard drive. Which leads me to wonder whether you need a CD player at all. Could you perhaps rationalise and put the money into really upping the quality? Selling the CD player, XS and flatcap might make a Supernait 2 possible. Or getting an NDX instead of the TT? Lots of options. 

I sat down last night and played "where the Spirit Meets the Bone"  by Lucinda Williams.  It was then that I decided I will not demo the LFD and just keep what I have.

Why?  the grip and poise of the Nait XS2 made me realise you will not get a better sound for the money than what you have.

The only music I have stored is on my  laptop via my Apple account.  I prefer to buy CD's and store them on ITunes in Flac for the best quality replay.  The NDX just seems like a posh internet radio.     A bit old school HungryHalibut lol.

However upgrading the 2Qute to the TT  sounds interesting I will see if I can borrow one for the weekend.    Thanks for your advice, which I appreciate.

I've had 2 LFD integrateds, the ZERO le mk4 se and also a NCSE. Frankly, they sounded sublime, I just got fed up with the absence of remote control so eventually sold.

To my mind they sounded better than my Supernait 1. Both were sweeter sounding and more accurate to my ears. They lack Naims 'drive' though and are hard to sell on as they are 'niche'.

Joeex, what exactly  is streaming all about.?  I take it you have to dump your cd player and your collection of cd's.  Then you buy a NDX??   Does this mean you have to take out an account online to download music  and start all over again.   I rip all my cd's onto my ITunes library using ALAC?   this gets me the best possible sound from a cd at around   800-1200 Kbps.   Surely if you listen to downloaded music from these sites its only 250kbps.

I have over 300 cd's and 150 vinyl albums.  Im not getting rid of that lot, just to listen to the Archers and Songs of Praise on internet radio.

I have decided not to go for the LFD and target a SN2.  Not sure if I should keep the FC power supply or trade in aling with the NaitXS2.

JoexNaim posted:

I've had 2 LFD integrateds, the ZERO le mk4 se and also a NCSE. Frankly, they sounded sublime, I just got fed up with the absence of remote control so eventually sold.

To my mind they sounded better than my Supernait 1. Both were sweeter sounding and more accurate to my ears. They lack Naims 'drive' though and are hard to sell on as they are 'niche'.

Yes, a remote is quite mandatory, at least to me. I often find myself adjusting the volume on the amp very frequently. Not too sure what are the differences between the mk3, mk4 and NCSE though.

staffy posted:

Has anyone ever compared the LFD amps to Naim.   After listening to one today I was astounded at the level of clarity that this brand has to offer.  It certainly beats my Naim Nait XS2.

I have a Naim system consisting of an N272/555 PS DR, CDX2.2, 250DR and UnitiServe.  Speakers are Dynaudio C1's.  Cables are Super Lumina.

I recently bought an LFD NCSE II+.  I plugged into the slot for the Naim 250DR amp and with only a few hours on he LFD amp, I'm reluctant to go back to the Naim amp.

I'm not much good at describing what I hear from my audio systems but I can say that I won't be giving up the NCSE.  It's the first time l've heard massed brass on old big band recordings sound the way it should.  It's also the first time l've really liked the C1's.  As a matter of fact I have a pair of Harbeth Rosewood 30.1's sitting here still in the box because the LCD amp has given me second thoughts about replacing the C1's.

I kept the N272 as a streamer/DAC and for it's headphone amp.  I continue to have the convenience of my system except for a remote for the amp.  Since I can control the LFD from my listening position, giving up the remote isn't a problem.

I expect for most of my life I wouldn't buy a boutique amp but I decided to buy myself a golden years present��

Bud

I had an LFD NCSE  for years after downsizing from Naim 4 boxes to 1 and putting money in my retirement fund.  It had a beautiful sound, yes it didn't have some of the edge or grunt of Naim but beautiful music just flowed.  I have better abs for getting up and down from the couch for not having a remote.  I still have it, ran it till my LA system was moved out here. I'm  selling it to good friend, with my Audience 1+1 speakers, so they are still tangible and he really needs to hear the luxury of good sound. 

I was in a 1br apartment and could easily blast my my neighbors with the 300 amp. Plus I listened to TV on the system.  Now I have a house and TV is separate, I don't like the sound bar, too many words get muddled. Good thing is being retired to enjoy it all.

Thanks for your input. But I have gone with a Naim supernait2.

So MUDWOLF, if I understand you right - LFD is very musical, but it does not sound dynamic or sparkling as a Naim amp? So if you like classical, jazz, you may like LFD?

staffy posted:

Joeex, what exactly  is streaming all about.?  I take it you have to dump your cd player and your collection of cd's.  Then you buy a NDX??   Does this mean you have to take out an account online to download music  and start all over again.   I rip all my cd's onto my ITunes library using ALAC?   this gets me the best possible sound from a cd at around   800-1200 Kbps.   Surely if you listen to downloaded music from these sites its only 250kbps.

I have over 300 cd's and 150 vinyl albums.  Im not getting rid of that lot, just to listen to the Archers and Songs of Praise on internet radio.

I have decided not to go for the LFD and target a SN2.  Not sure if I should keep the FC power supply or trade in aling with the NaitXS2.

Assuming the question was serious...

I converted to streaming from CD after demise of a CD player (though better to convert while you still have a player to play any CDs you want before job is complete)

And before that I had converted all my LPs to CD (with backup copies on hard disk so didn't need to rip those CDs - ripping is the process of converting vinyl or CD to playable computer files.

Process is simple: For LPs, tape output from amp is most convenient if there is one to computer, use a program like Audacity (free, or was when I did it), play LP and convert to your chosen file format - .flac is a good lossless compressed one that can be played near universally. Have to do in real time, but I thought that was good as it for ed me to listen to every one of my many LPs! If any LPs have clicks or scratches they can be removed in Audacity,  with good results (more general surface noise can also be reduced, but not without some effect on sound). The files will, however, need 'tagging' with metadata unless purely to be filed and searched for By  folder structure.

CDs are easier, ripping can be done on any computer using dBpoweramp, also free, again to a preferred file format, and in this case much faster than real time play. CDs contain metadata which is incorporated in the ripped files, so further tagging may not be necessary.

Then to play you need the store - often hard disk in a computer dedicated to serving files called network attached storage (NAS) , but in many ways better it can be in the same box as the bit doing the next part of the streaming process, the renderer, as in the case of the Uniti Core, Melco, or what Inuse, a MacMini running Audirvana.

You then need a renderer to "play" the music, if not part of the store as described in last section this is often in a box known as a streamer, such as ND5XS, NDX, which combine it with a DAC, though one renderer in its own right that is gaining popularity is the microRendu.

And you need  DAC, if not built in with the renderer, such as nDAC, DAC v1, Hugo etc, but I think you're aware from here.

When staring out it can be a challenge, as it is more complex than just buying a CD player, and tgere are things tomknow and pitfalls especially with networks unless you use an all-in-one unit that combines all the above parts, possibly then at the risk of being limiting. However there's lots of info on the streaming forum to help, and many contributors tontry to answer questions or help solve problems.

Innocent Bystander posted:

staffy posted:

 what exactly  is streaming all about.?  

just to listen to the Archers and Songs of Praise on internet radio.

Assuming the question was serious...

 

I'm being naughty

Well, I wondered, but it was possible that you weren't clear on the process with that driving your 'no interest in streaming'. It can stand ready for someone to whom it might be informative...

great sound I bet and that extra punch,  I still have my ND5xs and 555ps. That is a beautiful piece of equipment. all of the boxes I owned the 82and hiccups and then 52 reconditioned was amazing but too much for my small apt.  I had hours of pleasure and you do forget the money when you hear something amazing like Billie Holiday resurrected 3D in the room , subtle echoes and a breath on the microphone,.  Raises the hair on my arms at times.

Thanks IB for your informative input.  I am tempted, but with buying a new SN2 and possibly a HC  I will have to forego the streaming road of listening to music.    Mebbe next year I might sell off the CD5XS and go for a SuperUnity.