What's Naim Good For???
Posted by: Greg Beatty on 26 April 2002
OK -
This is not a Friday Naim slagging thread or anything like that. In private correspondence with a forum member, I was reminded of one of the things that I really didn't like about my former Naim kit. Naimly:
It didn't do classical very well.
I found my Naim kit did brass OK but let down the team on strings, overall coherence, and texture. By texture, I mean the overall sonority produced by the orchestra at any given time. Richard Strauss is a master of this and Debussy has a different take on it - both composers were not compelling on my Naim system. Well, big crescendos were OK, but that was about it.
And I've heard elsewhere that, "Naim kit is good for rock and small jazz but not much else", and "Naim is about slam but is bandwidth limited" kindof comments.
How does this gel with your experience?
- GregB
Insert Witty Signature Line Here
This is not a Friday Naim slagging thread or anything like that. In private correspondence with a forum member, I was reminded of one of the things that I really didn't like about my former Naim kit. Naimly:
It didn't do classical very well.
I found my Naim kit did brass OK but let down the team on strings, overall coherence, and texture. By texture, I mean the overall sonority produced by the orchestra at any given time. Richard Strauss is a master of this and Debussy has a different take on it - both composers were not compelling on my Naim system. Well, big crescendos were OK, but that was about it.
And I've heard elsewhere that, "Naim kit is good for rock and small jazz but not much else", and "Naim is about slam but is bandwidth limited" kindof comments.
How does this gel with your experience?
- GregB
Insert Witty Signature Line Here
A Put Down?
Phil, you have to be kidding if you're trying to put me down!
If we go to the Concertgebouw I'm making sure we have good seats. BTW, in my book that wouldn't be that close to the stage, but something between row ten and sixteen. You don't want your nose up the conductor's butt. Maybe Chicago is different - I went to Orchestra Hall only once in the nineties; Cleveland used to be an easier drive from Ann Arbor, and they play a nice tune, too....
However, I really don't think those pinpointed orchestral recordings reproduce the sound you hear from either of those positions. When you're at the concert you think the sound of a soloist is just as closely circumscribed in space as on a recording, but that's because naturally your eyes are drawn to the guy / gal who's blowing his or her horn. Your eyes do the locating, not your ear.
Sound engineers like Pearson try to recreate that experience for us by artificial means, they give us a more vibrant listening experience to sort of compensate for the loss of the considerable visual pleasure / info the hall experience has to offer. A lot of people like to play at conductor in their living rooms - read Updike's Couples, a novel of the time this kind of stereo was developed.
Of course it's not a black / white issue. If the entire cello section is engaged versus the violins, you can tell with your eyes closed where those sections are on the stage, no matter where you're seated. But a ping on the triangle? Honestly I don't think so.
But maybe weird things happen when you're sitting too close to the stage.
Herman
Phil, you have to be kidding if you're trying to put me down!
If we go to the Concertgebouw I'm making sure we have good seats. BTW, in my book that wouldn't be that close to the stage, but something between row ten and sixteen. You don't want your nose up the conductor's butt. Maybe Chicago is different - I went to Orchestra Hall only once in the nineties; Cleveland used to be an easier drive from Ann Arbor, and they play a nice tune, too....
However, I really don't think those pinpointed orchestral recordings reproduce the sound you hear from either of those positions. When you're at the concert you think the sound of a soloist is just as closely circumscribed in space as on a recording, but that's because naturally your eyes are drawn to the guy / gal who's blowing his or her horn. Your eyes do the locating, not your ear.
Sound engineers like Pearson try to recreate that experience for us by artificial means, they give us a more vibrant listening experience to sort of compensate for the loss of the considerable visual pleasure / info the hall experience has to offer. A lot of people like to play at conductor in their living rooms - read Updike's Couples, a novel of the time this kind of stereo was developed.
Of course it's not a black / white issue. If the entire cello section is engaged versus the violins, you can tell with your eyes closed where those sections are on the stage, no matter where you're seated. But a ping on the triangle? Honestly I don't think so.
But maybe weird things happen when you're sitting too close to the stage.
Herman
...or a DNM 
TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."
TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."
I played (and listened to) Anthem, recently. On a boogie box, admittedly. But I found myself wondering if there were any redeeming features to be unlocked by a spin on the LP12 though my Naim system. 
On to the thread. I listen to very little classical music - lacking exposure and education, more than anything. But one of the things that switches me on about hearing orchestral music through a competent Naim system is the way that scale is presented... or more importantly, how stringed instruments sound - that is, for a purist perhaps they should sound different - I hear the emmotiion of the instrument, I have no problem hearing the violin "sing", and the intent of the player, vibrato etc. Same goes for the rest - cello etc. That's as much as I need - and it gets me closer to the music. The rest (for my uneducated rock-jazz ears) is just extra details I don't miss, well-enough left in the round-earth universe.
Now, where's that P.I.L. album?
Rico - SM/Mullet Audio
On to the thread. I listen to very little classical music - lacking exposure and education, more than anything. But one of the things that switches me on about hearing orchestral music through a competent Naim system is the way that scale is presented... or more importantly, how stringed instruments sound - that is, for a purist perhaps they should sound different - I hear the emmotiion of the instrument, I have no problem hearing the violin "sing", and the intent of the player, vibrato etc. Same goes for the rest - cello etc. That's as much as I need - and it gets me closer to the music. The rest (for my uneducated rock-jazz ears) is just extra details I don't miss, well-enough left in the round-earth universe.
Now, where's that P.I.L. album?
Rico - SM/Mullet Audio