Is Naim all it is cracked up to be

Chaps

I have been buying Naim equipment for nearly six years. During that time I have always purchased Naim without even considering listening to other makes because I have total confidence them.

This has led to accusations of being a "sheep" etc. I have listened to other friends systems such as Krell, Arcam and Levinson and have always prefered Naim.

I was recently contacted by Big Tone from the Hifi Choice Forum to listen to each others system.

He is the Grand Architect of Round Earth, so today Mrs Mick and I visted him and the results are shown below which is a straight cut and paste from a posting in HFC.

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"Chaps

Mrs Mick and I were able to make the relatively short journey to Big Tones place to hear his system and to see how it compared to mine.

This was a somewhat worrying exercise because of the potential outcome.

I could have prefered Tones system, in which case I would have to flog off the Naim and Mrs Mick would have been in her element.

Mrs Mick may, herself, have prefered Tones system which would create an even bigger problem. So whilst I was looking forward to the visit, I was aware that the consequences could be dire.

My history is that I purchased my first bit of Naim kit (32.5 and 140) about six years ago and have been renewing it without demming or comparing to other makes which has justifiably led to the criticism that I am a Naim "sheep".

I have visited colleagues who have systems such as Arcam, Krell and Mark Levinson and I have always preferred the Naim, so hence my blind faith in them and my path along the upgrade route where I only considered Naim.

I now have two Naim sytems, one in the lounge and one in the dining room.

The main CD system comprises :-

CDS2+Supercap / NAC52+XPS / 2x135's / Linn Isobarik Speakers.

The black boxes are mounted on a Hutter rack and the speakers are on Mana. The room size was 21ft x 14ft with the speakers firing across the room.

Tones system is a Wadia 8 CDP with a Wadia 15 decoder / EVO 200 power amp and a pair of Monitor Gold Reference Speakers.

The Speakers are mounted on a pair of rather tasty looking marble slabs, firing down a room measuring, I would guess, 12ft x 15 ft.

We played a selection of CD's from Annie Lennox, Eric Clapton, Dave Brubeck, Sarah Brightman, Beachboys, Madonna and more. Overall we spent about 2 hours listening to music.

Firstly, the good news is that both Sue and I were totally in agreement with our findings, which was a big relief. I was dreading us having two opposing views for obvious reasons.

Overall we both agreed that Tones system had more detail and top end clarity than our system. This was its major strength. It was also very "Hifi" in the sense that it had more soundstage and depth of sound and although I am not good with words, the sound seemed to be coming from way behind the speaker and filled the room with a limitless depth.

The down side of Tones system was that it was so detailed that it became cold and clinical in comparison to ours.

Timpy reckoned that the Naim sound is "flat" compared to Tones and I would agree with that due to the relative lack of soundstage.

However, where the Naim sound scored is that it sounds so wonderfully warm and effortlessly communicative in comparison. Even if you are in the next room, it pulls you into the music and totally immerses you.

With my system I was listening to music and forgetting the system, with Tones system, I was enthralled by the Hifi effects but was not listening as much to the music.

I may be repeating myself from a previous thread, but to my mind, listening to Tones system could be compared to driving a Porshe which is a fast and superbly engineered car. However when you drive a Porche, your mind is concentrated on the Porche itself and not the views on the road as you make the journey.

The Naim on the other hand is more like a Jaguar, still a good car but when you drive it, it is so easy that you take in the views of the road and forget about the car. You finnish the journey relaxed and contented.

To me, Naim have won the battle if you want to communicate with music whereas the Wadia is a brilliant Hifi experience.

The good thing which has come out of this exercise is that Tone is happy with his system and I (and Sue) are happy with ours. None of us wants to change what we have got and this exercise helped all of us to reinforce that view.

Both Tone and I have offered further invites at a later date if any of our respective friends want to hear the other guys system.

Finally, Sue and I want to thank Big Tone for his hospitality, he certainly is a unique guy and it was a pleasure visiting him.

Regards

Mick"
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The outcome of this is that I am now more than ever convinced that Naim is the best manufacturer of equipment which makes music and I shall continue to bang the drum for a long time to come.

Naim are still the King of the industry.

Regards

Mick