Topics I almost started

Posted by: Haim Ronen on 19 November 2016

Our Naim music system has been a great part of my life, so much so that at times I felt that I was neglecting our six children and four cats. On top of that, I have been spending hours every day on the Hi Fi Corner soaking up all the priceless information on up, down and side grading of the wonderful gear. Despite the urge to get involved in the deep discussions and share of my own experience, my natural shyness kept me mum on the sideline. Here are a few topics which I almost started. Please feel free to inspire me with more topics of your own. Who knows, one of these days I might pull the trigger.

*SHOULD I RETURN THE NEW SUPERNAIT 2 UNOPENED? Because in the meantime I read three posts saying that the LFD amp is superior. I really want only the best.

*CDX 2 JUST SWALLOWED PUCK NO 17. What is the capacity of the machine and at what stage does it have to be emptied?

*WOW THE 552 NEVER SOUNDED SO GOOD!! With 5 empty FRAIM shelves underneath it. I don't know if it is the the thin air up there but the transparent sound is now out of this world. There is no way I am going back to just two empty shelves bellow the magnificent machine.

*THE STATEMENT HAS JUST LANDED!! Our serious financial commitment (remortgaging the house and cars on top of emptying the saving account) will dictate that my faithful Ross 8 Track Tape Deck will remain the only source used in the coming years.

*HI CAP DR A MASSIVE UPGRADE!! Arrived yesterday and was immediately connected to the NAIM remote. The functions and commands work seamlessly now. The only downside is that the UP and Down volume buttons also raise and lower our garage doors. Would a Super Cap solve the problem?

*DIFFICULTIES WITH FRIENDS. My best friends keep insisting that my 500 black boxes hum much louder than the county's power station. Any suggestion how I can justify the outrageous cost of the humming boxes?

*WHAT'S NEXT? I decided to put together a new system starting from the ground up. I just sorted out the most complicated segment of cables and speaker wires. Where do i go from here? Do I select next speakers, source or amplification?

*THE PROPER BALNCE BETWEEN MUSIC & GEAR. For me it is very clear. As long as the cost of the music does not exceed 4% of the cost of the gear I am left happy with the knowledge that I own a very special system. Purchasing new music forces me to upgrade to more expensive boxes just to maintain the golden equilibrium. What is your imbalance?

*MY WIFE WENT CRAZY WHEN I TOLD HER I WAS GOING ACTIVE. She thought that I was going for active duty in Afghanistan or Iraq. When she learned that it was just a Hi Fi talk involving purchasing four new 500 amps needed to activate our Proacs and a move to a larger place to accommodated the massive upgrade she quickly calmed down.

*DEALER'S HOUSE CALL - PRICELESS!! After six years of owning a Naim system we invited our dealer John to have a look at the gear he sold us and share a dinner. It took him no time to notice that one of the speakers was disconnected. He also pointed out that mistakenly I was using the Balance knob to control the volume and he even convinced my wife to reverse the speakers so the drivers pointed towards the sofa and not at the rare wall, aesthetics or no aesthetics. After he left we played some of our favorite music. We could not hear any improvement to the sound but the knowledge that things were set properly again was priceless.

Posted on: 20 November 2016 by nigelb

Yes, nervous and slightly embarrassed laughs all round.

It is refreshing that Haim reminds us not to take ourselves and this hobby too seriously.

Great post.

Posted on: 20 November 2016 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Nigel - don't be nervous - just go with it - you are what you are - its therapeutic and healthy to be able to laugh at ones self - it is of those who can't you want to be nervous about..

[edit still chuckling about those garage doors]

Posted on: 20 November 2016 by nigelb

Simon, I was hoping that my words would not be taken too literally. And I love a bit of self depreciation.

No nervousness here. Just genuinely pleased to have some delicious humour among all the serious and ernest hifi stuff.

Posted on: 20 November 2016 by Simon-in-Suffolk

fair do's - but i thought you were spot on - you can't take much of this stuff or yourself too seriously.. and expensive hifi equipment can become a proxy for other things for some/many ...

Posted on: 20 November 2016 by Loki

David Hendon posted:
A friend's CDX2 swallowed pucks whenever she let her 10 year old grandson use it (there is a lesson there for a start),
Anyway I found that you can get the puck to come out again if you turn the CDX2 upside down, give it a gentle shake and speak nicely to it. (But don't tell any of those Naim aficionados on the forum that I had to do this on three occasions over 2 months before someone got the message and it stopped happening. Personally I think the CDX2 had a quiet word about dignity and humiliation with its own puck.)
best
David

A Midsummer Nait's Dream?

Posted on: 20 November 2016 by joerand

*WILL MY SYSTEM SOUND BETTER IF I CAN CONVINCE MY WIFE TO MASSAGE MY BURNDY? Your system may well sound the same, but you'll probably get more instantaneous satisfaction versus massaging it yourself.

*WHERE TO PLUG IN MY POWERLINE FIRST? Another good topic to get your wife actively involved in exploring the options. There's no right answer and you'll have to determine what works best for your own predilections. Results likely to vary dependent on your wife's and your own mood during any given session.

*WHICH ETHERNET CABLE? Rather than focus on a cable named Vodka, spend on a bottle named Vodka. Then relax, and enjoy the music.

*HELP NEEDED! CAN NO LONGER SEE MY ALBUM ART. Have you considered turning on the lights in your listening room?

....... then again, turning on your environmentally conscientious LED bulbs might make your HCDR start to hum.

Posted on: 21 November 2016 by David Hendon

Loki posted:
David Hendon posted:
A friend's CDX2 swallowed pucks whenever she let her 10 year old grandson use it (there is a lesson there for a start),
Anyway I found that you can get the puck to come out again if you turn the CDX2 upside down, give it a gentle shake and speak nicely to it. (But don't tell any of those Naim aficionados on the forum that I had to do this on three occasions over 2 months before someone got the message and it stopped happening. Personally I think the CDX2 had a quiet word about dignity and humiliation with its own puck.)
best
David
A Midsummer Nait's Dream?

We will never get to the Bottom of it all!

Posted on: 21 November 2016 by Ardbeg10y

*DID ANYONE BUILD A NAIM SIX-PACK WITH NAP-100s? IF SO, WHATs THE OPINION OF SWMBO OF YOUR SIX-PACK?

Posted on: 21 November 2016 by DrMark

*WILL MY SYSTEM SOUND BETTER IF I CAN CONVINCE MY WIFE TO MASSAGE MY BURNDY? Your system may well sound the same, but you'll probably get more instantaneous satisfaction versus massaging it yourself."

That of course will lead to another thread about the difficulty of cable dressing with a completely non-flexible Burndy.

Posted on: 21 November 2016 by PeterJ

Emre posted:
Great post anyone for the streaming version...?

I thought I'd try streaming so I put my Naim into the stream. I can't get any music from it at all. Is this because the steam isn't Tidal?

Posted on: 21 November 2016 by dave marshall

Oh Yes!

Posted on: 21 November 2016 by Graham Clarke

Our Naim music system has been a great part of my life, so much so that at times I felt that I was neglecting our six children and four cats

However doesn't seem like you have been neglecting your wife.

Posted on: 21 November 2016 by DrMark

"Or is it four children and six cats?"

Posted on: 23 November 2016 by Haim Ronen

Our daughter number 5 who has her own high end sound system (she listens to Mark Levinson behemoths through a pair of Koss earphones inherited from her grandfather) reminded me of a few more topics which dominated our dinner time conversations for a very long time.

*STACKING ORDER-ALPHABETICALLY OR NUMERICALL? We tried both ways and got confused not being able to decide on a proper sequence when facing four identical amps as well as six power supplies. I finally came up with the ingenious idea of stacking all our 32 boxes according to their serial number.. This simple arrangement (smallest number on top) added tremendously clarity to the sound but complicated upgrades of new components since they did not fit automatically in the empty shellves and we had to play musical chairs with the heavy boxes to rearrange them around the new serial number.

*POWER (CHORD) TO THE PEOPLE. After reading how power chords improve dramatically the sound I went ahead and bought the most expansive one on the market (saving time on future upgrades) and tested it connected to every component on our five racks and then went beyond that since I was getting bored. The clear winner was our Hoover which improved its suction power by 22% though it became more difficult to maneuver with a rigid chord that does not bend.. So we are left with two choices: be vain and hide the chord without any benefit in a 100K sound system or be honest about it and use it with the vacuum cleaner where it makes the biggest difference. Please help us decide.

*THE RIGHT OF RETURN. I am not speaking here of a political aspirations of refugees to return to their homeland but the return policies of our NAIM dealer. After four unsuccessful exchanges of our 282 because its green light did not match the rest of our logo lights the dealer claimed that we were doing a Chick Corea on him and refused to talk to us anymore. I had to find Coreas's album (Return To Forever) to understand his meaning. So to my chagrin we are left with an unbalanced system (incidentally, it is same term our dealer used to describe me) and my question is: Am I being unreasonable?

*THE ULTIMATE PET FOR A NAIM GEAR OWNER. After our fourth cat passed away we decided to go on a quest to find the ultimate pet for our grand system. We started by taking a zoology class from a nearby college which helped us rule out anything that chews, licks, sheds and moves iratically (we were concerned with the upset of our delicate cable dressing). I was leaning towards a tropical fish but luckily I called NAIM headquarters first and was told that the presence of salt water in the room was a big No No and voids the warranty since the black boxes will turn rusty brown in no time. They recommended a fresh water fish, preferably a female who is less sensitive to PS hums. That is how we ended with Olivia, a fully NAIM certified guppy.

That's it, folks. I would like to thank everyone for their input and moral support which greatly helped me remain serious, sane and focused on the music.

Posted on: 23 November 2016 by Adam Zielinski

Haim

Brilliant! absolutely fantastic!!!! I was laughing so much I cried...

Adam

Posted on: 23 November 2016 by Jonn

*CD PLAYER ADVICE. After seeking advice on what CD player to buy I am now the proud owner of a HUGO. Despite numerous attempts at insertion, my Cds appear to be too large for the apertures. Should I have gone for the TT version?

Posted on: 23 November 2016 by Mulberry

Jonn: The TT is obviously designed for vinyl playback, even if Hugo is a funny name for a turntable. You may have to go for Dave here, as it/he has a CD-sized opening on top .