The short Jaw

Well it’s been over a year and as one or two forum members have asked for a summary, here it is;

It all started when I up-graded my CDX/XPS 82/hi/180 Ruark Equinox’s with what I wanted to be the best hi-fi I could realistically afford. It was supposed to be a fit and forget for the next 20 years sistem.

Anyway, the source was easy; the CDS3 is simply the best CD player on the market.

The amp was almost as easy; a 552/500 was £21K and well out of my price range so I settled for the next best a 252/super/300. I had toyed with a 250 instead of the 300, as it was half the price and almost the same in performance.

The speakers were always going to be the difficult part but Naim had just released the new SL2 and at £5k it seemed to be the perfect answer. I purchased the electronics but as I hadn’t heard the SL2’s I arranged an extended home dem.

I had the SL2’s for a lot longer than I ever imagined but found them very frustrating. Their clarity, speed and openness were stunning, yet they didn’t have the weight and scale to satisfy my musical tastes.

After much consideration, the next speaker I heard at home were the Neat Ultimatum 9’s. Completely different, not as open but more balanced and a much bigger sound.

Next up were the Naim NBL’s with all the benefits of the SL2’s but with plenty more weight and scale.

For me it was a simple choice from the moment I first heard the Neat’s, they were simply stunning, everything was effortless. The Neats just disappeared in front of me and painted a picture of the music in front of me. Priceless!

Since then I have tried Chord Cable which gave more detail but less prat.

Naim Chips were tried, they killed the bass.

Now that everything was sorted I thought I could finally sit back and enjoy the music!

How wrong!

First to change was the listening room. I had a seventeen foot by fourteen foot listening room in an old bungalow. This was up-graded to a 21 foot by 14-foot lounge in a three-year-old detached house. This gave a huge increase in sound quality due to more space and a better mains quality.

Then just when I thought I had the perfect sistem, I had the opportunity to up-grade to a 552. I couldn’t resist. The difference between the 252 and 552 is HUGE. The 552 made my old sistem look slow and sluggish. It added so much life and excitement, I was shocked.

My last experiment was to try Nordost Red Dawn Speaker cable. I personally think the Nordost has opened up the sound window much more. The extremities have been improved and I think its livened up the music a little more, but its early days yet.

So there we are, a quick summary of the Jaw’s first year, it’s been fun and I have learned a lot. The biggest thing I have learned is there is no substitute for getting equipment home and listening to it yourself. The other thing I have learned is to ignore other people’s preconceptions and listen for yourself.

Plans for the future, well there’s the mains to sort out hopefully sooner than latter, then there’s a second 300 to add. After that who knows?

Regards


NB