Has your music system ever inspired anyone to switch to the Naim brand?

So, he's had 30 years of pleasure - which is booming marvellous - whilst I live with nagging doubts that everything could just be that little bit better.  There's a moral there somewhere...

No. The reverse in fact. A friend was very interested in Naim at the entry level (UQ2 or entry seperates). He heard my main system. Took a strong disliking and never looked at Naim again.

No offense taken. If it was one size fits all then there would only be one hifi brand on the planet.

The only second person in 17 years of Naim ownership who came to listen to my system (I know, I have to work on my social skills) was Ron, a forum member from Chicago who drove 46 miles during a winter snow storm, bringing along his Marantz player which he wanted to compare to my 3.5. Of course it would have been much easier for him to drive just a mile to our dealer and make the comparison there while employing the same gear he had at home (Nait 5 and Cremona Auditors M speakers) instead of dealing with my older amp and the Proacs, but that's another story..

We served a very late dinner and after that we settled in the family room and hooked up his Marantz. The thing was a gorgeous looking machine, built like a tank with stealth design which surprisingly sounded pretty good, especially playing SACD classical discs. Jazz music was a little too civilized and human voices were a little thin to my ear but all in all I thought that it was a pretty good player. We sat till midnight spinning discs through the two machines till Ron declared the 3.5 a winner. Since it never stopped snowing we offered Ron to stay with us overnight but he declined and decided to weather the storm with his little Civic. So, we said goodnight after he promised to keep in touch to let me know of his decision about making the switch and to set a date for me to visit him and hear his set-up. And that was it. We never heard from him again and shortly after that he stopped posting on the forum.

During the years I managed to meet a few forum members, Kuma with whom I went to concerts, Stefan Just who kindly drove to the Frankfurt airport with his wife to meet me between flights and Fred Simon whom I saw on location where he performed his beautiful piano playing. But, I never got any chance to hear another Naim system set in a private home and that means two things; one: that I have to take you at your superlative words describing your systems and two: I am opened to invitations.

I bought a Naim system (CD5, 200/202) for my wife's son, as he clearly enjoyed listening to my system, but was unlikely  to be in a position to spend that money. He also benefited from a a hand-me-down Roksan Xerxes deck. Does that count?

Earlier this year, a friend dropped by to listen to my "2nd" system in Sydney.
QNAP NAS, Assett, SuperUniti into Neat Elite SX speakers. He loved what he heard, then went out and bought a SuperUniti with Neat Momentum SX5 speakers.
Having now heard his set-up, I wish I'd spent the extra when I bought mine and bought the Momentums as well !!

Another friend, me having shared a Naim post on Facebook, went out and bought a Mu-So QB, based solely on my recommendation. He must have faith in me! LOL

Haim Ronen posted:

But, I never got any chance to hear another Naim system set in a private home and that means two things; one: that I have to take you at your superlative words describing your systems and two: I am opened to invitations.

Haim - you need to travel to Europe. If you are ever in Warsaw, Poland please let me know - it will be a pleasure to host you.

One friend had an olive set -- I finally knew a Naim owner, after many years of wondering who they were!  Bought my own system 10 years later -- finally -- so glad.  Never met another owner since, outside of dealer-owners, in person; but happy to know all here.

Nick

A couple of friends have gone on to buy Naim components after hearing my old Naim system.

On the other hand. another went and bought a Linn system as 7 boxes to play a CD seemed a bit much...

A friend bought my original 62/90 system when I upgraded and has subsequently bought a Uniti2. Meanwhile "my" 30+ year old 62/90 set is still doing sterling work with yet another friend - it's nice to keep in touch.

I have a friend who bought an olive Nait 2 after hearing my 500 system and reading the AV Options Nait 2 review in Stereophile.    He has been very pleased

My Naim/Royd systems have attracted and repulsed in equal measure. Many non hifi people expect some form of boom boom sound and the lack of perceived bass is quite shocking to them. I used Edens and Sintras for many years with Naim gear and it's definitely a Marmite sound. Some have been entranced by the openness and fleet of foot presentation I go for;others made polite noises and change the topic of conversation.

Sister xx

Sister E. posted:

the lack of perceived bass is quite shocking to them. I used Edens and Sintras for many years with Naim gear and it's definitely a Marmite sound. Some have been entranced by the openness and fleet of foot presentation I go for;others made polite noises and change the topic of conversation.

The 'Marmite sound', or maybe more particularly the differences in presentation between different speakers, and people's preferences for how they like music to sound, or in other terms speed vs full bass vs dynamics vs  colouration vs accuracy etc., are not just related to Naim, and have spawned many a side discussion on other threads. One person's music is another's noise!

naim_nymph posted:

In 1988, a visiting friend was admiring the sound coming from my stand mounted Rogers LS7s...

I explained to my friend that it was really to the credit of my naim amp [ 62/140 ] and Rega Planar turntable that gave 'the system' such a superior and  enjoyable sound, and that the Rogers LS7 speakers were 'okay' but a bit fussy with room position, and needed to protrude too far into the room away from corners and walls. . But he was undeterred by my comments and explained to me that  "the speakers are actually the main part of a system, and nothing can really improve sound quality like a good pair speakers..."

A year later when i decided to sell the LS7s, the same friend didn't hesitate to buy them, despite me stressing his possible need of a better amp and front end than his Technics and Pioneer. All i could do is give him a bargain price plus the Target stands for free.

 

However, i was somewhat surprised when he came to collect the speakers and didn't want the stands, at the time i assumed he already had a pair of stands but a later visit to his house revealed that he'd positioned the LS7s unceremoniously on the floor. The resulting sound was an interesting wooly boom boom rave party effect. I felt saddened, although my friend was delighted with the result, and even more oddly; almost 3 decades later he still has them there now and they are still there booming away to his pleasure : )

I had something similar happen to me about 5 months ago.  

About a month prior I had bought a Schiit Mjolnir 2 headphone amp which I'd connected through balanced outputs to my Schiit Yggdrasil DAC. I'd swapped the cable (pop in pop out) on my Senn HD650 for balanced output too .. the sound was very very nice.

A friend/acquaintance driving up from South Florida going north spent the night and absolutely fell in love with the sound.  So much so that he offered to buy the headphone amp and headphones .. I tried to explain that it was an entire system .. NAS, NDX, cabling etc., but he insisted he just wanted the amp and the headphones.  I quoted him a silly price* and he wrote me a check (cheque) on the spot.  I replaced my Senns, bought the Schiit Lyr 2 which is the next headphone amp down in the series and trousered the rest.

To my knowledge he's quite happy with his purchase.

* - my philosophy is everything is for sale, we just need to haggle about the price.

Yes. Whole worlds in fact. 

Just reviewing my response here. While my current Naim system put someone off Naim who was originally interested, my previous non Naim systems had inspired people to upgrade. In the mid 90's, Everyone who came over to watch films on my AV setup was pretty impressed and a couple bought the same Denon Laserdisc player and Mission 731LEs for rears. Both very modest but this was at a time when AV systems were very unusual.

The thing is, most people I know just cannot fathom spending the sort of money normally reserved for running a car on an audio system. My old Linn setup never turned anyone off the brand like my Naim one does now. But they never contemplated forking out that kind of cash for a system either.

These days, I have very very few people over so the system is really just for my own enjoyment. Mentioning it in non forum conversation would seem conspicuous and vulgar given the cost. I tend to try and downplay my good fortunes as much as possible and not mention such things except to a couple close friends who are capable of discussing such luxuries without passing judgement but one has zero interest in music and the other doesn't get on well with Naim or PMC.

NickSeattle posted:

One friend had an olive set -- I finally knew a Naim owner, after many years of wondering who they were!  Bought my own system 10 years later -- finally -- so glad.  Never met another owner since, outside of dealer-owners, in person; but happy to know all here.

Nick

Nick

You are welcome to stop by my place some time, in Lake Forest Park.  I can introduce you to half dozen or so other naim owners/music enthusiasts who live in the Seattle area.

Charlie

Haim,

Seattle is a long way from Illinois, but if you are ever out this way, do drop in.

Charlie