Nama Paint (patent pending) at the Bristol Show

this would obviously negate the need to paint the insides of your ears,or if by doing this would you effectivly move from the "Flat-coat" to the "Hi-coat",or would it be more like having the "Super-coat" ?

Failing that ..a relaxing "Bubble bath" version might be just the thing to wind down a hectic day

Regards

Chris

BTW has any one had success damping equipment shelves with Artex? I'm told it has no effect on M*na stands except it makes them even more (expletive deleted) ugly than they are already.

In your situation it seems you can borrow me your system for a year or two...

Arie

The paint comes in various sizes: nap(nim-a-paint)1.4; 1.8; 2.5; 1.35(only available in packs of two); 5.0.

The pricing policy is interesting in that is not linear based on the increasing volume but on the perceived increase in performance; hence a drum of 5.0 cost far more than three and a half cans of 1.4.

They also warn that this paint is very sensitive to local conditions and the type of brush used to apply it. It might not be suitable for all.

cheers

Nigel

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Frankly, I think this is all b*llshit and I don't really care or believe that paint is all that important to how a system performs

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You are wrong, a great one!

Imagine you are sitting in a front of great speakers connected to a great system.
The wall between the speakers is painted in a very UGLY way. You listen to the music but you can't look at the damn ugly painted wall.
What are you doing ? Naturally you are closing your eyes !
Everybody knows that listening to music with eyes shut improves sound!
Now you can see, that painted on the wall effects sound quality !

Arie

John

After spending the whole day painting my carpet with Nama [moving the furniture and removing the carpet to obtain the full effect of Nama was simply impractical], I switched on my hi-fi with a certain sense of trepidation. Would the Nama really make as much difference as I had hoped? I knew that on a carpeted floor I couldn’t expect my Rotel RCD965 BX to sound wholly better than a CDSII, but it seemed reasonable to expect performance at worst equalling a CDX.

The first disc to be spun was ‘Scrapyard Symphonies’ by "intelligent thrash metal" band ‘Dreadful Grate’ - the latest signing to the Naim label. On the first track, ‘So You Think You Can Cut it?’ the voice of Dwayne Goobler - the band’s tortured-genius-songwriter and lead singer [if, indeed, Dreadful Grate can be said to sing at all] came across with a power and authority never heard on my system before. To put it in perspective, it was as if Goobler’s distinctive "bark" had been transformed from Pekinese to rottweiler in one go. The sound stage developed greater depth and scale, and the music thundered out of an almost perfect blackness never heard before - I say "almost" because at high listening levels I detected a slight trace of emerald green. However, on track two - "Incarceration (Just Take The Blame)" - the effect was quite beyond what I had expected. Sampled buzz-saws and digitally processed electric guitars, for example, were easily distinguishable from each other. The buzz-saws, in particular, were harsher and more realistic than ever before - I even had to cover my ears just as if I were in a real woodwork or metalwork shop! Furthermore, everything was in tune and in time, dynamic contrasts were greater than I had ever heard before and dynamics were reproduced with the natural ease that is characteristic of high linearity!!!

Something was clearly wrong. Having read about ‘Scrapyard Symphonies’ on the Naim website, I knew that ‘Incarceration (Just Take The Blame)’ was something of a tour-de-force for the group - simultaneously subverting the conventions of both intelligent thrash metal and classical composition, underpinned by an ironic, self-mocking post-modernist statement on the state of popular music: deliberately employing every bad production technique in the book. The result is intended to sound heavily compressed, severely equalised [to give the muffled "analogue" sound favoured by people who wouldn’t know analogue sound if it bit them] and out of tune - thanks to the use of a faulty pitch-correction device from the mid eighties.

I was puzzled. Could Nama really be that bad when used on a carpet? It seemed to be showing a kind of hidden tunefulness and musicality that wasn’t really there. Then I realised what the problem was. Instead of acting on my source components, the Nama paint had made my NAP 90 sound like a NAP 500 - a NAP 500 that was intent on mercilessly exposing the failings of the rest of my system.

Painting the carpet had clearly been a big mistake. You can imagine how disappointed I was. It just goes to show how dangerous it can be to disregard manufacturers’ warnings: on page 375 of the Nama manual, it clearly states that Nama cannot be held responsible for the unpredictable and detrimental effects of painting carpets. I tried to clean off the coat-17 using the free bottle of Nama Advanced Solvent Technology [known, jokingly, as NASTy] that came with my Nama paint but, despite my best efforts, my carpet remains emerald green.

I tried to phone Nama, but the line was engaged for an hour so I phoned Naim instead, hoping against hope that they could suggest something.

Something very strange happened when I got through to Naim’s switchboard. Instead of being transferred to the appropriate extension for my query, there was a brief silence - followed by a click - and then I found myself listening to what must have been a confidential discussion between two Naim employees! It was difficult to understand what they were saying because the line was somewhat hissy [in a manner most reminiscent of a poorly maintained analogue answering machine] but I was able gather two important facts:

(1) Naim is considering suing Nima for "passing off" - on the basis that the names of both the company and the products are clearly intended to mislead customers into believing that they are purchasing Naim products.

(2) Naim is planning to introduce its own range of paint - Naim Audio Gloss Paint 01 - to be available in black, emerald green and grey. What’s more it will cost just £30 a tin!

Before I had a chance to learn any more, the line was cut. This time, I got through to the right person [I think his name was Mark], and told him about my carpet problem. To my surprise, he told me that all Naim dealers are required to carry a certain number of spare carpets for just such an eventuality! You can imagine how delighted I was - no wonder Naim is so good at keeping its customers!

At this point, I casually asked about the release date for Naim paint. "What paint is that?" came the defensive reply. I explained that it was understandable that Naim probably wanted to keep it under wraps for now, given that it was only £30 a can, and clearly not in the same league as Nama paint. "After all," I added, "High-tech solutions cost high-tech prices."

Mark (if that’s who he was) suppressed a laugh, and began to explain Naim’s thinking behind NAGP01. It was rather too technical for me to fully understand it all, but here’s the gist of it to the best of my recollection:

Other paint manufacturers concentrate purely on the macroscopic electro-mechanical properties of their paint, whereas Naim have been able to use their in-house software abilities to develop a complete paint-designing suite where paints can be modelled down to the quantum level. "What we found," explained Mark, audibly smiling, "is that traditional ideas about the importance of layering are quite mistaken. In fact, much of the benefits of hi-fi paints comes not from their acoustic damping properties but from eddy currents forming in the interstices between the layers performing precise filtering of the Earth’s magnetic field. We were able to design a polymer that would foster the formation of these eddy currents in a single layer. In fact, we designed it ten years ago!"
I asked why it had taken so long for the NAGP01 to go into production, and the answer was predictably simple: "Ten years ago, nobody had the facilities to manufacture it - at least not for less than £10 000 a litre. After an intensive research programme, involving co-operation with one of the world’s largest chemical conglomerates, we were confident that we could manufacture a product that could not be beaten either on quality, price or reliability."

I then asked him when I could listen to it. "At the moment, only black NAGP01 is in production, but we’ll be demonstrating it in secret at the Bristol Show," he confided, "- why don’t you come along?" I asked how it could be demonstrated in secret, given that the floors would look obviously altered. He laughed and explained that the floor would not be painted. Instead, a pair of DBLs would be painted in black Naim Audio Gloss Paint 01. The systems used to power them, he explained, would look like active systems, but inside the familiar boxes would be nothing - except for the innards of a single NAP90.

--Jeremy

PS Allan: there’s one thing I forgot to mention last time, which in view of Naim’s forthcoming venture into the paint arena could be of vital importance to you. I hope you don’t mind my saying this, but I feel that Nama’s new advertising slogan, "Paint your floor, change your life" seems a little unsubtle. I really think you would do well to reign in your marketing department before they go too far astray. Perhaps you could fire the lost of them and start a competition for Nama owners to find the most suitable slogan? I’m sure that the offer of a suitable Nama prize will result in a flood of entries. In case you do hold such a competition, my entry will be: "Nama - our paint is as good as our slogans are clumsy."

[This message was edited by Sproggle on THURSDAY 15 February 2001 at 19:22.]

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Vuk? Vuk? Are you there? Is that you? Are you trying to talk to us?

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I was recently made aware that Vuk had been busy trying copy Nama Paint. I have imposed a life-time ban on Vuk from this forum.

AP/Nama

it blew me away!

All of a sudden, these unassuming boxes were raised to levels of greatness, I could generate SPLs high enough to bore through concrete (which will be useful at the HiFi show ) and the detail was so precise that, not only could I tell what make of bass the bass player was using, I could tell the make of strings, amp, what cologne he was wearing, what he had for breakfast and the fact he was secretly wearing his girlfriend's undies whilst recording the track.

In terms of PRaT, it was there and in abundance. So much so, that half way into the second track, I happened to glance outside the window to see (a) the postie, (b) the minister, (c) the window cleaner and (d) the traffic wardens, all dancing up my garden path... scary biscuits indeed!

And what of bass? Well, once the nosebleeds ceased, I was able to reflect that the depth of the bass was so full that it was causing major landslips nearby. I could have sworn that the system was able to move on from PRaT to FAaG (subsonically induced Fear, Anxiety and Guilt) and major structural damage was a certainty...

I'll let the speakers settle some more on the tins and see how they progress... if you can get this kind of improvement by putting it under your speakers, heaven knows how I'm going to be able to describe the effects when I get round to referencing the tins...

John

PS. Slogan? "Nama Paint - it does exactly what it says on the tin"... sounds familiar, no?

The manager of B&Q has since tried to stop me from speaking THE TRUTH claiming that although floor coverings are important they are only one aspect of a total home improvement solution. Of course that would have NOTHING AT ALL to do with him wanting to *SELL* expensive power tools, colour coordinated bathroom sets and a range of integrated lighting systems. Wake up bozos!!! This is the REAL WORLD!!! He's only interested in GETTING YOUR CASH he has no real interest in DIY. Under capitalism companies exist to sell things and make a profit so you must always suspect thier motives -- I realise this will come as a shock to some of you but it wont stop me mixing crank conspiracy theories with a patronising attitude to your gullability and knowledge of basic economics. I don't expect this post will be up for long but I will NOT BE SILENCED!!!

My slogan: "Nama Paint - Stretches analogy further than you can possibly imagine".

Matthew

PS Currently looking for Monica Dicken's Follyfoot Farm novels or My Little Pony's (pref. unsoiled).

I'm a little concerned that you've decided on such a limited product line. I mean, for those who are 'practically challenged', and can't manage correct setup of the paint, surely you could market a self-adhesive version? Otherwise you might risk alienating your potential clients with a product requiring such specialised installation/application. I'm sure you'll likely berate me for this unsolicited business advise, but thought I'd communicate this to you in the spirit in which it is meant.

Will there be a MIL-spec version of this product?
And this 'any colour as long as it's green'? Who do you think you are - Henry Ford? Hutter, Quadrapire, even Soundstyle offer a variety of finishes. I for one would at least like the choice of a tasteful 80's industrial grey.

I will look forward to a careful listen at the show. Perhaps you could have three sets of speakers in the room, on un-painted, level 3, and then level 17, in a sort of Tax Mownshend-esque switch-ing demo ("now none, now seventeen... now one.... are you getting it?").

Rico - musichead

I worked over night and had the system installed on coat-8 by dawn. Disaster - all the music had been lost and I was baffled.

I then discovered that the weight of the 7 upper layers had forced the base coat off-level!!!

Stripped all back down to wood and started again :-(

Jo