Tuner help from lucky owners

Hi Reto,
I'd say any Naim tuner can beat any CD I've heard, but usualy doesn't. The problem is the material. Most commercial stations sound terrible. Their systems are often fronted by a Technics 1200 type CDP, the signals then mixed and compressed before transmission. In the UK the BBC provide some of the best music available. Live concerts, plays etc sound fantastic. Need a good aerial though.
Noel.

Reto

Whereabouts in Switzerland are you? Anywhere near Geneva?

Am I reading you guys right?

Even if your tuner is totally transparent, then surely the best you can hear is the source component and the mixing desk at the end of the chain? (Leaving live OB's out of this point for now.)

So how does the tuner magically transform the CDP at the studio into something better than your CDX or whatever?

I don't dispute that your NAT0x allows you to hear more and more of the differences in source/applied compression.( After all, I can hear the difference with my Creek T40)

However, I can't for the life of me see how it makes a silk purse out of whatever pigs ear is at the beginning of the chain.

Id be well upset if I'd spent the price of a decent second car to have it outplayed by the local station.

Hi All

I have a decent arial on the end of my NAT03 and and consistently amazed at the quality of the broadcasts it brings in. PBS live boradcasts are the best but boy, do I ever miss the BBC.

I am told that the NAT05 out performs the humble NAT03 so you should be in for a pleasant surprise. My CD source is CDX/XPS BTW.

PM. there were some discussions on this on the forum and I think the general consensus was that the FM broadcast did something wonderful to the music making it clearer and cleaner than the actual reproduced sound in the studio. I am not sure about this myself but my Subaru radio does sound a lot better on FM that it has any right to.

Regards

Andy

PS Reto when I lived in Basel and Zurich most of my home listening was done via the cable service pretty good quality it was too. Are you in the city or out in the country?

Hi again,

I'm living in Thun (30km away from Berne)and
cable radio will be no problem....

Reto

CDX, NAC102, NAPSC, Hi-Cap, NAP 250 (on Target Rack), Chord Odysee 4, ProAc Response 2.5

Reto

If you're interested in a listening session sometime let me know...

I had a NAT 03 and now have a NAT 05. In my view they sound different to one another but it would be difficult to say that on was clearly better than the other. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to dem them 'head to head' but I feel that I marginally preferred the presentation of the NAT 03. So why change ? Well because the presets mean that you end up listening to a lot more radio.

Sceptics of the sound quality should try to hear some live broadcasts. The Proms start on Friday 19th July and that means live broadcasts every night until well into September.

PM,
theres no magic involved, live broadcasts can blow away anyones CDP, CD12 and CDS2 included. As I said previously most material transmitted sounds awful for the very reasons you state. Listen to The Proms and you should be in for a treat, but its also worth mentioning that often live broadcasts, plays etc can sound terrible, because its down to the pickup/mix/transmission on the day. When radio is good, I believe its the best source. Its a shame its not consistent. I've not heard the latest and best digital tuners, but the ones I have aren't in the same league as Naim. I believe tuners are the thing Naim does best, then pre-amps, then power-amps, then quite a way back speakers. Sadly, I doubt I'll ever be able to afford the 'NAT 501?' when it comes out, but I hope it'll be as far ahead of the competetion as the NAT01 was.

Hi guys,

I specifically made the point that I wasn't talking about OB's!!

My point remains as what makes you believe a tuner can magically do something downstream of the studio source to make it into a CDX beater?

And I'm not a tuner knocker.... I have a Creek T40 feeding my vinyl burning computer monitor setup. A Leak Troughline in the workshop with a homemade stereo decoder and cable radio in the living room.

Yes cable radio is very good. The convenience is fantastic and on a direct A/B with the Troughline it's closer than you may imagine.

Flat earthers can look away here, because if you like cable radio then you're voting for DAB and MP3 as they're all related!!

Reto,
there's a NAT02 on www.ebay.co.uk at the moment (Its not mine!). Looks like a bargain to me.
Noel.

I believe FM Radio is an excellent source and you don't even have to spend Naim money to get it. There are lots of low-cost tuners that will do a very creditable job on high quality UK broadcasts like BBC R3/4 and even Jazz FM.

If you listen a lot to pop music stations there's no justification for buying an expensive tuner anyway, as the source quality is so abysmal.

If you already have cable TV, you can have quality radio broadcasts for next to nothing (i.e. the price of a cable from the decoder box to your amp) - try it and surprise yourself!!

David