One has to learn from age.
Posted by: Massimo Bertola on 18 June 2010
Hi,
tomorrow it's my 57th birthday, and I just wanted to post here my very likely last post.
This has nothing to do with mt health, nor with the forum, or the people in it. It is just that I have nothing more to say in it.
I more and more often read posts by people who are thrilled, excited, involved, emotionally stirred by their Naim system (or by any other system, for that), and have come to the point where I seem to be reading news from another planet. Much as I have changed gear (and some know I have done it!), I still find home audio essentially boring. I can't even begin to understand what kind of excitement can come out of loudspeakers, be it SBLs, Arivas, Black lacquered N-Sats, maple N-Sats, Marten Desing Miles II or 40-years old AR4x (my present sounding boxes). As for the cherry N-Sats, they're still in their cartons.
Nor can I understand what is the musical difference between a Nait1 and a 202/200, or - for that - my present, 2ndhand rega Mira from 2001. I have had all, and a Nait XS, a 140, a 90, an AV2, a 175... The song remains the same. I have had the DVD5, which costed 20 times my Oppo DV980H, and which is the only Naim box that Silvia has openly hated because, she said, It changed your mood. But, you know what? I have loved it too, a bit. Naim boxes have this quality, they make you feel you have more or less reached audio home.
It is not, so, about Naim. I still love Naim gear, in fact I have just bought my third pair of Sats and will probably buy a UnitiQute, for the very good reason that it will allow me maximization of sources and minimization of cables, other than being - appunto - Qute. But it will be motivated by aesthetical, technical and commercial reasons. With due respect to Naim, I still think that music has sadly very little to do with home audio. And, as I have written before, I still strongly support my own convinction (conviction?) that with Naim it is not emotional listening, but intellectual listening.
Posts about upgrades depress me: people who asks for suggestions about how to spend their money, and other people that buy for them.
Posts about how wonderful all this is, just stir my envy. My musical life is preserved in boredom like a corpse in formaline. If you find it strange, it's because I forgot to mention that the second most distant thing from music, except home audio, is musical education.
Posts against Naim annoy me, because I like the gear, its looks, its >sound<, the ideas behind it.
So, because with age a certain capacity to accept evidency must come, I have come to accept that I will nevertheless buy Naim because it is the only brand that comes close to not boring me to death, and whose boxes give a certain je ne sais pas quoi to the rest of the furniture.
Tomorrow I'll have to attend a marriage, but it is not mine. Hopefully, it may rain a bit - I hate marriages. I wish the UK team the best in the World Cup.
Have a nice weekend,
Massimo
tomorrow it's my 57th birthday, and I just wanted to post here my very likely last post.
This has nothing to do with mt health, nor with the forum, or the people in it. It is just that I have nothing more to say in it.
I more and more often read posts by people who are thrilled, excited, involved, emotionally stirred by their Naim system (or by any other system, for that), and have come to the point where I seem to be reading news from another planet. Much as I have changed gear (and some know I have done it!), I still find home audio essentially boring. I can't even begin to understand what kind of excitement can come out of loudspeakers, be it SBLs, Arivas, Black lacquered N-Sats, maple N-Sats, Marten Desing Miles II or 40-years old AR4x (my present sounding boxes). As for the cherry N-Sats, they're still in their cartons.
Nor can I understand what is the musical difference between a Nait1 and a 202/200, or - for that - my present, 2ndhand rega Mira from 2001. I have had all, and a Nait XS, a 140, a 90, an AV2, a 175... The song remains the same. I have had the DVD5, which costed 20 times my Oppo DV980H, and which is the only Naim box that Silvia has openly hated because, she said, It changed your mood. But, you know what? I have loved it too, a bit. Naim boxes have this quality, they make you feel you have more or less reached audio home.
It is not, so, about Naim. I still love Naim gear, in fact I have just bought my third pair of Sats and will probably buy a UnitiQute, for the very good reason that it will allow me maximization of sources and minimization of cables, other than being - appunto - Qute. But it will be motivated by aesthetical, technical and commercial reasons. With due respect to Naim, I still think that music has sadly very little to do with home audio. And, as I have written before, I still strongly support my own convinction (conviction?) that with Naim it is not emotional listening, but intellectual listening.
Posts about upgrades depress me: people who asks for suggestions about how to spend their money, and other people that buy for them.
Posts about how wonderful all this is, just stir my envy. My musical life is preserved in boredom like a corpse in formaline. If you find it strange, it's because I forgot to mention that the second most distant thing from music, except home audio, is musical education.
Posts against Naim annoy me, because I like the gear, its looks, its >sound<, the ideas behind it.
So, because with age a certain capacity to accept evidency must come, I have come to accept that I will nevertheless buy Naim because it is the only brand that comes close to not boring me to death, and whose boxes give a certain je ne sais pas quoi to the rest of the furniture.
Tomorrow I'll have to attend a marriage, but it is not mine. Hopefully, it may rain a bit - I hate marriages. I wish the UK team the best in the World Cup.
Have a nice weekend,
Massimo
I have to agree with you about marraiges - I have found every wedding that I have ever attended (including my own) tiresome; self-indulgent and largely a waste of money (and that money spent often for the worst of reasons). A friend of a friend got married on one of the Scottish Islands (say Isla or Harris, somehwere like that) then the two of them went down to the beach and drank a bottle of whisky. Now that's what I call a proper wedding.... 
Massimo, Ignore 151's post......have you tried Valves ? worked for me. 
and if you dont like valves try prozac.quote:Originally posted by scottyhammer:
Massimo, Ignore 151's post......have you tried Valves ? worked for me.
quote:Originally posted by 151:and if you dont like valves try prozac.quote:Originally posted by scottyhammer:
Massimo, Ignore 151's post......have you tried Valves ? worked for me.
Harsh, uncaring, unnecessary and twattish words, 151.
What possible good do you think such sentiments can achieve?
Why on earth could you not simply keep fingers from keyboard?
Well?
of course it was humour. 
quote:Originally posted by maxbertola:
Tomorrow I'll have to attend a marriage, but it is not mine. Hopefully, it may rain a bit - I hate marriages.
Maybe as one of your last contributions to this forum, you could describe what an Italian marriage consists of. It's something I might have to face in my near future
and any pointers would be appreciatedBuon compleanno domani!
Cheers
John
might have made him laugh, maybe HE has a sense of humour you never know, made me laugh.quote:Originally posted by mongo:quote:Originally posted by 151:and if you dont like valves try prozac.quote:Originally posted by scottyhammer:
Massimo, Ignore 151's post......have you tried Valves ? worked for me.
Harsh, uncaring, unnecessary and twattish words, 151.
What possible good do you think such sentiments can achieve?
Well?
having nothing left to say certainly doesn't deter some here
SJB