Downsizing system - which way to jump?!

Wow! Thank you SJB, Jude, Pev and Clive for your comments. I've just said to SWMBO what wise and balanced comments I've had from you guys and everyone else who has responded. I'm so glad I posted the question as the feedback from everyone has been amazing. As a long time reader of the forum, it just reconfirms why I enjoy it so much.

It's easy for all these options to distract one from the key thing which, of course, is enjoyment of the music. So, I think I'm going to hang fire for now, and enjoy what I've got. In the meantime, I'll try and get a demo of the Nova and also listen to some more speaker options on home demo. That should keep me busy until the new streamers come out and then I can consider the best way forward, and whether to sell the turntable gear separately and put this towards a better streamer and/or fewer black boxes. I'm still keen to reduce the box count to keep things simple, but as people have said, there's no rush.

Thanks again to all who have replied so far - it's really helped me to crystallise my next steps.

All the best.

Dave

That sounds like a very good plan. I downsized to a SuperUniti from a CDS2 and 82/250 about five years ago. It really wasn’t good enough for me and I ended up with a 272/250, which has subsequently doubled in size again. So downsizing doesn’t always work! Festina lente was our house motto at school. There is a lot to be said for it, as SJB has already said. 

Hurry slowly. That is my family’s motto!

A most appropriate oxymoron, HH! Your points re downsizing are well observed. During my recent demo, I listened to a Uniti Star - it was a great one-boxer, but it would have been a step too far for my ears. I know the Nova is a step up from the Star, but whether I could live with it only time will tell! 

A wIse motto, S3!

Wise words from SJB....once retired I decided to pick up music again and bought a Muso quickly, now with my daughter. Music is now a much bigger part of my life now I am not climbing the corporate ladder. I am now on a journey up the hifi ladder with a Nova/300 system.....waiting for new streamers

Sounds like you have a plan, Gazza! Have to agree not working certainly frees up more time for music and a tonne of other hobbies too!

Sloop John B posted:

Just throwing a few questions/ comments into the mix. 

If you have the space I’d give a lot of consideration as to why you want to reduce box count. I understand the attraction but 282>250 is quite a  system in 2.5 boxes. 

The 272 is a dead end from the point of view of the new Uniti platform, your NDX is as future proofed as the 272. There is very little reason for moving to it from what you have. 

As for the Linn, if you love something, set it free. I have a RP3 for the odd occasion that I need to spin vinyl and it’s fine. If you said you listen to 90% vinyl we’d be questioning your need for a streamer . I’d use the proceeds from its sale to improve the full system, - streater and  speakers.  

Mind you if you’ve just retired maybe you should do nothing, enjoy what you have and make the decision when this new found freedom becomes normality.

Make haste slowly. 

.sjb

My thoughts entirely.

I’m down to my last few months before retirement , and I still need a Supercap (olive, naturally) to drive the 82!  And a Tranquility for the Sondek sounds interesting, and that Canon 5D Mk.4 body looks nice, and......ah, I see that SWMBO has a long list of decorating jobs lined up for me........ .

Yes, that ever-growing SWMBO list is never far away....! 

DaveM6 posted:

Yes, that ever-growing SWMBO list is never far away....! 

Is She Who Must Be Obeyed any relation to He Who Must Not Be Named?

Yes, she's Voldemort's wife, I believe. 

DaveM6 posted:

Selling the Linn etc is not ideal as I've owned for over 30 years and despite its age, love the sound. I could live with a 'plug and play' turntable as don't play as much vinyl as I used to and tend to listen mostly via the streamer, but nostalgia and all that! 

So you have a very nice LP12, but don’t listen to it much. I predict that if you downgrade it, you will listen even less, and would be better off concentrating your resources into a single (streaming) source.

I’m suggesting this partly because, in my experience, Naim streaming systems really do sound so much better with 3 boxes. So maybe maybe selling the turntable, phono stage and CD player would be a big enough reduction in box count? Then either switch to a 272/XPS/250, or better still, stick with the rather nice 3.5 box system you already own, and spend the cash on a nice holiday. 

DaveM6 posted:

Great you can listen to music at work, Max! No chance where I worked.

I could, with headphones

Some office college nutts wanted to hear commercial radio on a crappy transistor radio - its one pain of noise

I prefer to select my own music at my own stereo only, not to be disturbed by others choice

Sometime walking around in large stores, background music is noise too, for me its an issue

All good points, Chrissu. I especially like the holiday option - love to travel!  I'm going to sell the CD player and spend some time listening to the Linn to see how much I still enjoy it and then make a decision whether to sell and have that holiday!

DaveM6 posted:

All good points, Chrissu. I especially like the holiday option - love to travel!  I'm going to sell the CD player and spend some time listening to the Linn to see how much I still enjoy it and then make a decision whether to sell and have that holiday!

We all have different ways of seeing these things, but for me, selling my LP12 a couple of years ago gave me the space to expand my system from 1 box to 3, and a bit of cash towards it. No going back for me now!

Yes, it's interesting to read everyone's views. I'll piece things together over the next few months and (hopefully!) end up in a place that still gives me lots of musical enjoyment! 

Selling my LP12/Aro/Lingo was a wrench, but by then I'd replaced more or less all my vinyl with CDs and ripped them. So I was also able to sell 10 large boxes of vinyl, with consequent space saving in my small-ish flat. I invested the vinyl proceeds in my fabulous speakers and DR'd my Hi-Cap (the latter upgraded since) and the LP 12 proceeds in a black box upgrade or two. Now I just have a NAS with 25,000 songs on it, from which I can summon up any tune I want in any order. The transition from vinyl was an emotional wrench but more than offset by the space I saved and the convenience of my listening habits.]

Just a thought...

Nick - yes, the sale of the Linn will be a wrench, but as 99% of my listening is via streaming anyway, I guess I should seriously think about it. I couldn't afford to replace all my vinyl with CDs (to rip), so would probably invest in a cheaper turntable for occasional vinyl listening. Investing the proceeds to improve the black boxes is appealing, but ultimately (even allowing for the potential reduction in sound quality) I really would like to reduce the box count and the spaghetti junction of cables! Time will tell!

DaveM6 posted:

Nick - yes, the sale of the Linn will be a wrench, but as 99% of my listening is via streaming anyway, I guess I should seriously think about it. I couldn't afford to replace all my vinyl with CDs (to rip), so would probably invest in a cheaper turntable for occasional vinyl listening. Investing the proceeds to improve the black boxes is appealing, but ultimately (even allowing for the potential reduction in sound quality) I really would like to reduce the box count and the spaghetti junction of cables! Time will tell!

Hi Dave - even though I'm keeping my LP12 (lucky enough to not need to sell) I wouldn't base the decision on not being able to afford to replace the LPs with CDs. I haven't bought more than a handful of CDs in the last 5 years - the reason being that I listen to Tidal 99% of the time (when I'm not listening tom Radio Paradise). Even if I have the CD ripped to my hard drive I often just stream it from Tidal as it's easier to find via Roon (Roon is another story) and sounds just as good. If I flogged my LP12 I wouldn't bother to replace any of the LPs.

My £20 a month sub to Tidal gives me access to all the music I will ever need, I only keep my ripped CDs as a backup if the internet is down. Bargain!

Pev

Hi Pev,

Yes, like you I also listen to Radio Paradise and did have 3 months free Tidal account but didn't continue to a paid account. I love RP and really enjoyed finding new music via Tidal. At some stage, I will go for a monthly subscription. I've had a look at Roon too, a very nice way to bring everything together when selecting/playing music etc. If I do sell the LP12, I'll just buy a cheaper turntable for vinyl listening as it is now a very small percentage of my listening. I certainly wouldn't bother trying to replace it all with CDs, even if I could afford to do that!

Anyway, I'm hoping that if I do sell some of the black boxes privately, I'll be able to end up with a smaller box count and new speakers and keep the Linn! That way, I can then consider over time whether I really want to keep the Linn rather than it being a 'forced' sale to balance the books if I had taken up the dealer's new/trade in offer on the 272/250.

As per previous wise counsel from you and others, I'm not going to rush into this. 

Dave

Hi DaveM6 -

I’ve enjoyed this thread so far, especially the different perspectives on how habits and enjoyment change over time. I’m also 90+% on Tidal and RP now, having started streaming a few years ago, ripped most CDs to NAS, and set vinyl aside eons before that (although a few dozen albums from my youth follow me around in boxes still). I haven’t purchased a new CD for a couple three years now, either... I am cool with that evolution.

My Naim journey mirrors my streaming progression, and I’m firmly in the “one amazing box and nice speakers” camp - so no comments from me on the big systems. I have been listening more, and to a much wider variety of music, than since I was in high school though, and it’s a rediscovered joy. The gear is very much good enough for me, it’s better than much if not all of my previous stuff, and I’m happy to have upgraded for the new Uniti streaming platform (will return to Roon soon, as the metadata experience is yet another route to exploration for me and addresses my one “poor curation” complaint about Tidal).

My out-of-the-box idea for your retirement hobby and potential system change is to consider a final “tour” of your vinyl by purchasing a decent home studio ADC “music interface” and doing a complete set of needle drops via your computer for storage on and streaming from your NAS... That way, you can have your cake and sell it too, enjoying your Linn, reliving your 30 years, then parting it and your Aro out to finance whatever cool activity, travel, or adult education thing takes your fancy. It has the added advantage of taking some considerable (low intensity) time, allowing you time to ponder while knowing you are already acting  

I am thinking three or four years ahead for myself, and we’ve (pre-)purchased some things now with a view to ramping up activities we enjoy so that we are in full swing once the retirement thinking becomes the new reality. Some is audio gear (including a nice mic to record at home), some is sports gear, some is for camping... we don’t immerse ourselves in any of these activities yet, but are looking forward to ramping them all up as work demands less of our time. I’m sure there will be other things we don’t pre-plan too, of course... I’m learning about being a “journey” person instead of a “destination” one!

Best wishes for health and happiness, you seem well sorted and well situated.... dealing with a new toy and coming to grips with the appropriate way to release the past should be another source of fun and adventure for you!

Regards, alan

alan33 posted:

My out-of-the-box idea for your retirement hobby and potential system change is to consider a final “tour” of your vinyl by purchasing a decent home studio ADC “music interface” and doing a complete set of needle drops via your computer for storage on and streaming from your NAS... That way, you can have your cake and sell it too, enjoying your Linn, reliving your 30 years, then parting it and your Aro out to finance whatever cool activity, travel, or adult education thing takes your fancy. It has the added advantage of taking some considerable (low intensity) time, allowing you time to ponder while knowing you are already acting  

 

I thought about doing this before parting with my LP12. To get decent recordings, I would have needed a RCM, an ADC, some software, and quite a bit of time - I decided that buying the albums I really wanted on CD and ripping them was going to be a lot cheaper and easier. Maybe I'm just lazy!

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your kind words re retirement, and for your thoughts re my vinyl. I did look into copying my LPs a while ago using an interface and something like Audacity. Having taken several years to rip my CDs (I don't have 1000s, but it was just fitting it in with everything else), I couldn't summon the energy to do the vinyl! However, it could be a nice evening pursuit after a day of other activities. Like you, we did some pre-retirement purchases for our activities, but are very much from the life is a journey camp, so didn't pre-plan too much. The challenge for us is that we have a lot of hobbies, many of which involve the outdoors, like walking the mountains/fells of the Lake District (here in the UK) and travel, so fitting in time for listening to music is often a challenge ( a nice one to have, it has to be said!) It's part of the whole but not the only activity, so any decisions about the system I make will have this in mind.

This thread has been very enlightening for me. It shows just how we all see things differently, depending on our personal circumstances, priorities, lifestyles, other activities and the depth of our pockets, among other things!  I've really enjoyed hearing everyone's thoughts, which I really appreciate. For me, the challenge now is to think seriously about what my priorities are, both re the system and my other activities, and go with a system that still gives me  real enjoyment but also fits in with my life priorities as well (if that makes sense). I know that I would like a simpler system with less boxes, cables etc (less is often more), and I'm confident after my recent demo that I can still have great sound quality from a two or possibly one box system with some new speakers.

Good luck with your pre-retirement planning. As you say, some planning is good but not too much. Not sure what your timescales are, but best wishes for a healthy and happy retirement when you get there. There won't be enough hours in the day to do all you would like, if my experience is anything to go by!

Regards.

Dave

Nothing wrong with the lazy approach, Chris! 

Sorry Alan, just re-read your post, and see your timescale for retirement is 3 to 4 years, so not long to go! Good luck.

Dave