A quick puck...

Posted by: Top Cat on 13 November 2000

Just a wee question, and not to be taken as anything other than an innocent question, but why do Naim persist with those darned pucks?

I'm wavering between CD5 and a couple of other players as an upgrade to a fairly cheapo CD player, but the puck thing annoys me...

Oh, and whilst I'm in an inquisitive mood, why no digital outputs on the CD3.5 (and CD5, IIRC)???

John

Posted on: 13 November 2000 by Kevin Hughes
John,

There used to a transcript of a radio interview with Julian on the main Naim site where he explained these sort of things, and much more. It does not seem to be there anymore, maybe someone from Naim can sort it out or tell us where it is hidden.

FWIW I find the swing draw / puck better to use than the conventional powered draw most of the time. Why do you need digital out?

Kevin.

Posted on: 13 November 2000 by Top Cat
...I don't (yet) although I intend at some point to buy a CDR machine, and (copy protection permitting) would like to make compilations and so forth, and maybe the odd copy of CDs I've borrowed (not advocating piracy, but at the price of many of today's CDs, can you blame me?)

Oh, one other thing I've always found peculiar about Naim gear is the continued use of DIN cables - is this just a case of 'the way it's always been so we'll stay that way' or do they have some overriding justification.

In some senses, it puts one off buying Naim if you have already invested in conventional interconnects and so forth. Then again, I do like the Naim sound, and the CD5 plus Epona PSU remains a contender...

John

Posted on: 13 November 2000 by Arye_Gur
John,

It seems to me that you forget that although there are things that "annoying" you like the puck and the lack of digital output - the SOUND of Naim is GREATER than the sound of many other less "annoying" equipment ....

Arie

Posted on: 14 November 2000 by Trevor Warwick
John,

I share your views to some extent, but I now own a CD3.5 anyway, for musical reasons.

The puck is really very easy to use in practice, in fact it has a nice tactile quality about it, the only drawback is the occasional slipping disc. I've just found one or two discs out of my 250-300 that don't play properly. But this is still a bit annoying, even with a "cheap" 1100 quid player.

I once suggested in the old forum that Naim really only designed in the puck for marketing purposes - Julian V was "somewhat unimpressed" by that suggestion, to put it mildly. So they obviously do think it makes a worthwhile difference. And since none of us have ever heard a Naim CD player with a conventional clamping mechanism, we have to take their word for it.


Trevor