Naim / B&W mega-system demo
Posted by: Colin Lorenson on 01 April 2003
Visited Bob Ritchie at home over the weekend and took over about 30 CD’s for him to listen to whilst he recuperates from sickness. (His musical taste stalled-out in the late 70’s and he desperately needs to catch up).
We spent about 3 hours listening to music on his resident CDS2/XPS2 -552–500 B&W Nautilus 800 system, and what a fine time we had.
Listening room - about 24 x 30ft and the speakers were spaced about 16 ft apart (which takes an awful lot of getting used to).
The play list
Ralph Towner Solo concert
Ralph Towner/Gary Peacock Closer View
Joni Mitchell Travelogue
Bobo Stenson Trio War Orphans
Bill Frisell Gone, just like a train
Bill Cunliffe Live at Bernies
Arvo Part ECM new series - Te Deum
VM. Bhatt / Bela Fleck Tabula Rasa
Jeff Beck You had it coming
Emmylou Harris Spyboy
Shawn Colvin Live ‘88
Underworld Beaucoup fish
First Impressions – What’s the fuss about? The music was supremely natural. unforced, unspectacular and totally un-HiFi in the usually accepted sense. Lovers of Naim SBL, SL2’s etc. would be extremely unimpressed I think….
After a while you start to get it. The dislocation between what your eyes were seeing and what your ears are hearing starts to come together. The 800’s spread the music all the way across the soundstage between the speakers with only hard-panned instruments actually coming from the speakers. The room fills with sound that seems to have little or no connection with the 800’s.
Live albums are a real musical event . Good studio recorded albums start to sound like live music.
Bass reproduction from the system is superb. At first the system can seem bass light. but this is an illusion. Whatever is on the record you get in full measure without overhang.
The “Te Deum” and Emmylou’s “calling my children home” from Spyboy moved me to tears.
The Bill Frisell has a combination of deep bass and bass drum that I have never heard properly resolved on even mega-expensive US systems, till now.
Towner Solo Concert is a magical guitar recital on ECM, which in typical ECM style is recorded in a live reverberant space. The reproduction of the music and the hall was astounding.
I could bore you and list a string of superlatives – but I won’t. Sufficient to say that all my CD’s sounded orders of magnitude more natural, musical and emotionally compelling than I have ever heard before.
The only criticism I would have was that I felt on high energy music played loud the 500 ran out of steam. The Jeff Beck, for those that don’t know it, is a disgraceful record for a nearly 60 year old to have recorded. It’s a howling cacophony of drums, bass, synth and screaming guitar that really hits the spot when you really want to make a racket. When cranked up the music hardened-up and lost its sense of ease. Solution? Maybe bi-amp with another 500 or perhaps a bigger single amp, though bear in mind that its only an issue in played really loud in a big room.
The whole experience was an eye-opener and definitely superior to any of the other mega-buck systems (Levinson, Krell, Classe) I’ve heard before. Much fun!!
Colin Lorenson
We spent about 3 hours listening to music on his resident CDS2/XPS2 -552–500 B&W Nautilus 800 system, and what a fine time we had.
Listening room - about 24 x 30ft and the speakers were spaced about 16 ft apart (which takes an awful lot of getting used to).
The play list
Ralph Towner Solo concert
Ralph Towner/Gary Peacock Closer View
Joni Mitchell Travelogue
Bobo Stenson Trio War Orphans
Bill Frisell Gone, just like a train
Bill Cunliffe Live at Bernies
Arvo Part ECM new series - Te Deum
VM. Bhatt / Bela Fleck Tabula Rasa
Jeff Beck You had it coming
Emmylou Harris Spyboy
Shawn Colvin Live ‘88
Underworld Beaucoup fish
First Impressions – What’s the fuss about? The music was supremely natural. unforced, unspectacular and totally un-HiFi in the usually accepted sense. Lovers of Naim SBL, SL2’s etc. would be extremely unimpressed I think….
After a while you start to get it. The dislocation between what your eyes were seeing and what your ears are hearing starts to come together. The 800’s spread the music all the way across the soundstage between the speakers with only hard-panned instruments actually coming from the speakers. The room fills with sound that seems to have little or no connection with the 800’s.
Live albums are a real musical event . Good studio recorded albums start to sound like live music.
Bass reproduction from the system is superb. At first the system can seem bass light. but this is an illusion. Whatever is on the record you get in full measure without overhang.
The “Te Deum” and Emmylou’s “calling my children home” from Spyboy moved me to tears.
The Bill Frisell has a combination of deep bass and bass drum that I have never heard properly resolved on even mega-expensive US systems, till now.
Towner Solo Concert is a magical guitar recital on ECM, which in typical ECM style is recorded in a live reverberant space. The reproduction of the music and the hall was astounding.
I could bore you and list a string of superlatives – but I won’t. Sufficient to say that all my CD’s sounded orders of magnitude more natural, musical and emotionally compelling than I have ever heard before.
The only criticism I would have was that I felt on high energy music played loud the 500 ran out of steam. The Jeff Beck, for those that don’t know it, is a disgraceful record for a nearly 60 year old to have recorded. It’s a howling cacophony of drums, bass, synth and screaming guitar that really hits the spot when you really want to make a racket. When cranked up the music hardened-up and lost its sense of ease. Solution? Maybe bi-amp with another 500 or perhaps a bigger single amp, though bear in mind that its only an issue in played really loud in a big room.
The whole experience was an eye-opener and definitely superior to any of the other mega-buck systems (Levinson, Krell, Classe) I’ve heard before. Much fun!!
Colin Lorenson