Back from two weeks in France

Music feeds the soul as much as culture, good food, wine and the right company. We are lucky to have it all regardless of our systems. I certainly don't take what I have for granted. 

Agreed SinS, we often forget how good our systems really are. After a week of decorating I can't wait to rebuild it and play some tunes.

Stu.

I'm regularly away from home for 2 or 3 weeks at a time, and find that a decent portable system can still be very engaging. Even so, it's always great to get home and relax on the sofa without headphones.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

its funny it perhaps takes a short absence from your system to realise how incredibly fantastic they are... and perhaps an extended power down and power up also helps things along a bit as well.

Both of these two factors have certainly been the case from my experiences. The power-down to cold and power up once in a while certainly brings positive results from my experiences. Absence and maybe a relaxed you and Mrs SinS will help appreciate what you have too.

Welcome back to your Naim Simon.     I've been away quite a blt recently albeit on short trips of just a few days,  but it was just like I was back in the days when I was travelling for a living,  each return home has given more more opportunities to appreciate the pleasure my systems brings to me.  The first minutes of listening to my system after the days of low-fi is something a bit special.

Good to know as that was my experience too. I was once away for almost a month and coming back to the system is a godsend. As mentioned by Mike-B, you will surely appreciate the system more after missing it for a considerable period of time.

Probably not unlike time spent away from a spouse or job - quick honeymoon upon return. Give it a day or so and you're right back to reality where perceived shortcomings reveal themselves. But hey, always good to appreciate what you've got and not start looking around for more .

I think there's a difference between missing your system when one of the boxs is away for repair or upgrade compared to going away on holiday. The obvious difference is that usually a holiday relaxes mind and body whereas when a box is missing from the rack it's frustrating and you have to keep telling yourself to be patient.  A repair to my CDX 2 a few years ago and a recent service on my 252 pre back this up. 

We'll be moving house at the end of August. A friend is lending us a house while we try and find somewhere to live. I've planned, for various, reasons to pack up the system and not use it again until we find our new home. I'm dreading it. The housing market in the U.K. has stalled. There's very little on the market and there's barely a trickle of property coming to market. 

I know one day we'll find a place to live and I'm looking forward to splitting the rack for a 'brain and brawn' set up. 

M

Hi

Not too far from St Emillion, Pomerol, Cotes de Bourg/Blaye & Bergerac

We were staying between Villebois-Lavalette and Angoulême  and indeed not too far away... a lovely part of the world

Hi Simon,

Which Sandy Denny recordings would you recommend?    I have the original 4 LP box set of "Who Knows Where The Time Goes", but generally prefer CD box sets for archival material as it makes it easier to choose individual songs.    I know that a variety of things have been released over the years, but I'll have to dig a little bit deeper to see what is still in print, etc.

Thanks,

Bruce

Welcome home Simon. Nice observation. Firing up the system surely helps lessen the end of hols blues. That first listen, a cold beer, and two weeks of post .......magic, well mostly !

Hi Bruce I particularly enjoy many of the live tracks from the BBC Sessions 1971 - 1973 at the Paris Theatre, London... the opening track of the North Star Grassman and the Ravens along with her banter with the audience is incredibly evocative and musically emotional. I know this particular CD is a collector's piece, having been withdrawn after the first day of release apparently due to copyright wranglings, but I think many of the recordings have been rereleased in later compilations.

Sams, thanks for the comments.

Simon

Acred posted:

I think there's a difference between missing your system when one of the boxs is away for repair or upgrade compared to going away on holiday. The obvious difference is that usually a holiday relaxes mind and body whereas when a box is missing from the rack it's frustrating and you have to keep telling yourself to be patient.  A repair to my CDX 2 a few years ago and a recent service on my 252 pre back this up. 

We'll be moving house at the end of August. A friend is lending us a house while we try and find somewhere to live. I've planned, for various, reasons to pack up the system and not use it again until we find our new home. I'm dreading it. The housing market in the U.K. has stalled. There's very little on the market and there's barely a trickle of property coming to market. 

I know one day we'll find a place to live and I'm looking forward to splitting the rack for a 'brain and brawn' set up. 

M

This would be an opportunity to buy a muso Qb, which in Naim terms is cheap as chips. Then the world is your oyster, depending on how much you want to bother. You could for example put your CDs onto a NAS or a used Unitiserve or you could buy a cheap CD player and plug it into the Qb or you could put the analogue output of a FM portable radio into the Qb. You really need to be able to control it with the Nsim app, so you put that on a smartphone or tablet. If there is broadband in the house then you could also do Spotify or tidal. Even if there isn't broadband you might want to set up a little wifi network so you can control the Qb and it can find your music wherever you stored it. Simples 

best

David

Thanks Simon,

Inspired by your comments, and with more free time on my hands for listening than I often manage, I went back into my collection last night and discovered that I have the one disc sampler of Sandy's live at the BBC work on CD from 1998.   While I often enjoy live recordings more than studio albums, and can be very forgiving of less than stellar audio when listening to music of the first rank, in this case, I had a very hard time getting past some of the sonics.     The sound of the piano in particular was off, and there may have been issues with pitch or speed stability, I would have to listen more to pin this down.    Too bad as Sandy was in a class of one.     I"ll have to seek out some other recordings which are still in print.    The massive 18 disc box set is now selling for more than a Nait, so I will have to pass that up, unfortunately, but there do appear to be many of her recordings easily available.

Good listening,

Bruce

There is a 4 disc boxset of Sandy live at the BBC available on the river site for £50 new and also her Boxful of Treasures 5 disc collection used from £60 on the same site.

David Hendon posted:

Acred posted:

I think there's a difference between missing your system when one of the boxs is away for repair or upgrade compared to going away on holiday. The obvious difference is that usually a holiday relaxes mind and body whereas when a box is missing from the rack it's frustrating and you have to keep telling yourself to be patient.  A repair to my CDX 2 a few years ago and a recent service on my 252 pre back this up. 

We'll be moving house at the end of August. A friend is lending us a house while we try and find somewhere to live. I've planned, for various, reasons to pack up the system and not use it again until we find our new home. I'm dreading it. The housing market in the U.K. has stalled. There's very little on the market and there's barely a trickle of property coming to market. 

I know one day we'll find a place to live and I'm looking forward to splitting the rack for a 'brain and brawn' set up. 

M

This would be an opportunity to buy a muso Qb, which in Naim terms is cheap as chips. Then the world is your oyster, depending on how much you want to bother. You could for example put your CDs onto a NAS or a used Unitiserve or you could buy a cheap CD player and plug it into the Qb or you could put the analogue output of a FM portable radio into the Qb. You really need to be able to control it with the Nsim app, so you put that on a smartphone or tablet. If there is broadband in the house then you could also do Spotify or tidal. Even if there isn't broadband you might want to set up a little wifi network so you can control the Qb and it can find your music wherever you stored it. Simples 

best

David

My 500 and 500ps went back last week for service/DR treatment. Although my dealer is going to loan me a 250, it is not yet available. I used headphones out of V1 Dac last week (via digital output of NDS) but by the weekend I was really itchy for 'real sound' so I bought a MuSo, and it is surprisingly good. It will ultimately form the heart of a system in our holiday home, but for the moment, it is hitting the spot. It is salutary to realise that one could buy more than 100 MuSo for the current price of my system. And of course, it is not 100 times better, but that's another discussion!

Amazing. Just came back today from Arles and Rayol-cancel sur-mer (near saint tropez bay). France is lovely and Provence is so beautiful. And when I turned on all naim gear and listen to Iggy Pop The idiot I was amazed how good the system sound after 12 days resting.

But then, At the last track of side 2 something was strange with Iggy voice, and it was one of the upgraded white Rega belt on the P9 that was totally teared up. I blame the 42^ degrees in Tel Aviv for the last week (or my girlfreind brother who came to pet the cat?!). Thanks god I had a new one as spare part in the drawer.

hope to see France again soon and I wouldn't mind to see London ASAP as well ;-)

bdnyc posted:

Thanks Simon,

Inspired by your comments, and with more free time on my hands for listening than I often manage, I went back into my collection last night and discovered that I have the one disc sampler of Sandy's live at the BBC work on CD from 1998.   While I often enjoy live recordings more than studio albums, and can be very forgiving of less than stellar audio when listening to music of the first rank, in this case, I had a very hard time getting past some of the sonics.     The sound of the piano in particular was off, and there may have been issues with pitch or speed stability, I would have to listen more to pin this down.    Too bad as Sandy was in a class of one.     I"ll have to seek out some other recordings which are still in print.    The massive 18 disc box set is now selling for more than a Nait, so I will have to pass that up, unfortunately, but there do appear to be many of her recordings easily available.

Good listening,

Bruce

 

Hi Bruce, yes some of the live recordings are better than others, but the good ones, and the Northstar Grassman and the Ravens is one of them is just simply sublime in my opinion... yes technically not the best but on a good system the raw emotion and intensity comes through and trumps the technical imperfections... there are also some other recordings made on what sounds like a cheap cassette player with the batteries half exhausted... and yes I don't tend to bother with those as much .....  good old analogue tape 

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Hi Bruce, yes some of the live recordings are better than others, but the good ones, and the Northstar Grassman and the Ravens is one of them is just simply sublime in my opinion...

Thats a coincidence !!!!   Only last night I was talking with 'erself about replacing my North Star Grassman and the Ravens rip,  it was taken from a damaged CD & I had to delete the last track as it was unplayable.   I looked around the usual vendors & see three variations available,  one looks like the 1971 original from Island,  then a 2005 with 'Remastered' in the title also from Island with 15 tracks & another x2 'Discs' with 27 tracks released in 2011 by Universal with a lot of added BBC & Strawb & Fairport concert sessions.  I'm a little reluctant to go for that one as its not what I'm used to & these re-release 'deluxe' remasters with added unrelated tracks tend to stray from what I'm sure was the original artists intention.  Need to do some www review/opinion research,  but if any forumites have preferences  ..........   

Likewise, just back from a few weeks at my place in Normandy (painting the house!) a joy to listen to my baby system down there ( NAC 122X / NAP 150X / CD 5X / Flatcap 2 / PMC FB1's) with new addition of ND5XS and XP5XS - which apropos used to hum like a hive of bees in the UK but is as quiet as a mouse in France.

Then back home to the Number 1 system listening to Stevie Wonder's Talking Book - forgot what a beautiful album this is - great positioning of voices/instruments. Little bright on the first cut You Are The Sunshine of Life but just gets better track by track.

Sandy Denny recommendation - first Fotheringay album is a delight.

I picked up the Sandy Denny 5 Classic Albums box set from the river for £9.99 not long ago, comprising The North Star Grassman And The Ravens Sandy Like An Old Fashioned Waltz Rendezvous and Gold Dust - Live At The Royalty [The Final Concert]. Reasonable mastering, the voice and songs shine through. (Although I do still prefer my ancient vinyl copies.)

On other recordings, I don't know if it's still available, but the old Boxful of Treasures set had a "bonus" 5th CD with early demos of her classic songs, stripped down to voice and guitar/piano. (OK, a copy at £60 on the river.) The sheer beauty of the music is enhanced by the simplicity even with some pretty hissy recordings.  The rest of the box set has some treats as well.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

i hope you don't mind me making this no doubt rather pointless post: I have just returned from a wonderful holiday in the Charente  region in France.. wonderful people, fine food, sumptuous drink and mostly fine weather.... anyway.. after having driven back, unpacked and sorted  all those usual return from vacation chores out with Mrs SinS, I relaxed and switched on the Naim and the Hugo... left for about 15 mins and then played some tunes.... pure bliss ... what a wonderful sounding system... serve up some of my favourite live Sandy Denny and Amy Winehouse tracks... I am just about transported to the venues.. magical, vibrant and smile inducing.

its funny it perhaps takes a short absence from your system to realise how incredibly fantastic they are... and perhaps an extended power down and power up also helps things along a bit as well.

Same boat here,just that we sail to different shores.Back 3 days ago from a 2 week break in Antigua, lovely sun ,sea and sand.First thing I did was switched on the system,let it warm up a couple of hours then played the first disc ( Bob Marley ,my fav.reggae artist ) Wow recorded music didn't sound bad after all compared to the live music I listen to every night from the local band at the hotel.Good music can still be had from the silver disc or is it the sun,sea and sand and Oh is it the powering down I don't know.As long as I am enjoying what I hear from my system I'm happy 

ayap1

Mike-B posted:

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Hi Bruce, yes some of the live recordings are better than others, but the good ones, and the Northstar Grassman and the Ravens is one of them is just simply sublime in my opinion...

Thats a coincidence !!!!   Only last night I was talking with 'erself about replacing my North Star Grassman and the Ravens rip,  it was taken from a damaged CD & I had to delete the last track as it was unplayable. ............... Need to do some www review/opinion research,  but if any forumites have preferences  ..........   

I found a more serious 'folk' specialist review www & on their advise I've gone with the 15 track 2005 remaster released by Island Records. Its reputed to have improved sound over the flat sounding original plus its added a few bonus tracks. The 27 track 2011 release contains a lot of other album tracks with Fairport, Fotheringay & Strawbs & seems to be a hotchpotch of added unrelated material & has tracks that I already have on other albums. 

Off to SE Majorca in a few days. A holiday and 'the equivalent of a black box upgrade' to look forward too now!

G