I have been a great fan for this forum for quite a while and got a lot of advice out of it.
It is my first post, I owned my first naim kit about 2.5 year ago, as follow :
CD 3.5/92R/90/Intro 2
then added on 02 flat caps after a year for 92R & CD3.5.
02 months ago, my dealer had a almost new S/H SBL (black finish) & Snaxo 2-4 (both only 5 months old, as owner upgraded to NBL, apparently he is a company director as I was told.) Dealer had suggested the active route to me, so after the demo, I was impressed and bought SBL, Snaxo 2-4 (power by flat cap) and extra new Hi cap (for CD 3.5), realised that it's very imbalance, but it sound much better than before; more control for all areas)
This month I went back to dealer (yes, again), as I thought about to upgrade the CD player, Dealer suggested CDX and Meridian DVD player 596 (dealer claimed that some people say that the CD playback is very close to CDX), so I took them both for home trial. Surprisingly Meridian sound good and very detailed (with Chord solid interconnect) &
CDX was quite disappointed (compared to CD3.5+ Hi cap) when first connected, as it needs to be warm up for a while to have the real sound of CDX, it did get better (after a week), I am still keeping it until this Sat, at the moment I still prefer
Meridian (sound wise), even I want to keep all naim set-up
Not sure to go for CDX or Meridian, and cancel the order of Hi-cap and trade in my 3.5 & flat cap. (even though i know that to put Hi-cap to 92R would be great improvement, dealer said should be better than 102, also as it's more expensive.
I need some advice from you guys, cheers
Posted on: 06 June 2001 by Andrew Randle
Martin,
If you prefer the Meridian, then go for it. It's up to you, but I would have expected the CDX to be better - even when cold. Plus you can upgrade the CDX with an XPS.
I am surprised. This is the 2nd time this week that someone has bought a low-end active setup in preference to better quality amplifiers. I am sure it was a step forward, but wouldn't a 102/HiCAP/250 be better?
Andrew (budding company director 
)
Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;
Posted on: 06 June 2001 by Duncan Fullerton
Martin,
I bought a CDX last year to replace my knackered old DPA Renaissance. At first audition, it was better than the DPA, but not double the moneys' worth. Then my dealer (Thomas Heinitz) plugged in the XPS. Clever b*****ds! The difference the XPS makes is quite simply staggering. I was hooked and my credit card was hammered.
Do yourself a favour, get hold of one and try it out. Now I wasn't budgetting on buying the XPS originally, but the way I looked at it was that it's only 1000 pints of beer and I be far better off not drinking all that!
Posted on: 06 June 2001 by Martin C
Andrew/Duncan,
Thanks for your advice, I have certianly thought about the future option to upgrade to XPS for CDX, CD 3.5 + Hi-cap would be dead end, that's part of the reason for this upgrade.
Another reason is the uncertainty of CD in the near future, so Meridian could be a better bet if sounds better than my existing CD3.5 + Hi-cap, also for DVD-A multi-channel (even though modification is required and not available at the moment, about GBP 1,000.-), plus DVD-V facility.
Also thought about to upgrade Pre, Power & CD player together, talk about lot of money here.
perhaps shoud do it step by step, source, PRE, then Power.
Will listen to CDX/XPS or even CDSII, GBP 1500 difference this Sat when I return the CDX.
Also did a test to switch Hi-cap to 92R instead of flat cap, it had more improvement I think rather than upgrade to CDX from CD 3.5 + Hi-cap
Dealer said that 92R + Hi-Cap would be better than 102, price can reflect that also. but how much improve to upgrade to 82? must be lot, also i think you need to upgrade the power amps the same time as PRE, 180 or 250, to keep it active, need two!!
Naim is real addictive stuffs!!!!!! worse than any drugs available I guess! (never try any)
cheers
Martin C
Posted on: 06 June 2001 by Steve Toy
Taking the 3.5 as your starting point I'll give its sonic performance a mark of 10 points.
Switching to a CD5, I'll give it 12 points.
Adding a Flatcap to a 3.5 gets you 14 points.
Adding a Flatcap 2 to a CD5 is 17 points.
Swapping the Flatcap 2 for the Hi-cap takes you from 17 up to 19 points.
Going for the CDX takes you up to 22 points. This is my problem, to get those extra 5 points over the CD5/FC2 combo I have to spend about 1200 GBP approx on the trade-in. Diminishing returns are starting to bite here!
Adding the XPS at 2000 GBP, slightly more now I think, takes the score up to 35 points. So I suppose it is worthwhile.
Swapping the CDX for a CDS2, now that IS worth doing. That is worth 60 points!
Posted on: 06 June 2001 by Martin Payne
Martin,
due to earthing issues you must demo the CDX with no other sources connected to ensure that you're getting it's full potential.
You might find this substantially better.
If this is better then come back to us for further advice.
cheers, Martin
Posted on: 08 June 2001 by Matthew T
Make sure the CDX is level, get the spirit level out. This make some difference. I presume it is a reasonable stand of some kind.
Also, it really needs to run in for quite awhile to sound good.
Matthew
Posted on: 08 June 2001 by Martin C
At last CDX is warm up, the soundstage is wider & deeper than CD 3.5/Hi-cap, but still I think Meridian is still slightly ahead of CDX, perhaps is something to do with the interconnect (Chord solid II), previously on the forum, someone mentioned about using this for connecting naim CD & Amp, perhaps I should try this option to seek improvemen (for more clarity & bass) tomorrow with my dealer.
To switch Hi-cap to 92R instead of flat-cap also has more noticable improvement, rather than CDX in my view. But as Sproggle said, 102 (GBP 1175)is miles ahead to 92R/Hi-cap (about GBP 1400),I wonder whether I should get a 102 and keep CD 3.5 + Hi-cap.
I may still get the Meridian for DVD-V
and for future upgrade of DVD-A.
Forget to mention that I also got a brand new extra 90 for the active system.
Any advice before I am going to dealer tomorrow.
Martin
