A visit to my Naim-dealer .....Sonneteer

Posted by: Alco on 29 August 2001

Howdy,Y'all.

Well, since this is my last week of vacation,I thought,I'd pay my favorite flat-earth audiodealer a visit. (also one of the few left in Holland,I'm afraid)

Since I'm a regular customer/visitor I picked a Nait-2 from the shelf (He even had a white one!)
and some Kan-1's and listened to the Rega Planar-3 with Grado black crt.
It sounden decent,but nothing spectacular.
After hald an hour the Rega had to make room for a s/h Linn Axis/Akito/Grado black.

Now,this already was a lot better!
Now I was hearing some foottapping music.
I asked him why he only had the old Naim-stuff.
(like a 32.5,some NAP10's,Nat-01's,4 Nait-2's,etc)
He said that since Naim started the 3-series,his interest in Naim became less. He even hates the new 5-series. (weird fella,but ok)

but,...as I went for a little walk through the store I heard the sound of one of my LP's I brought with me (Donald Fagen - The Nightfly)

I entered the room and wow! Now this was music,so pure and alive!

.....I'm sorry,it wasn't Naim....

The system playing was:

A Sonneteer Alabaster integrated amp (UKP 1600,-)
An Avid Acarus turntable (UKP 2280,-)
A pair of smal ASR monitor speakers (UKP ???,-)
On Royd open-frame stands (UKP 150,-)

Now, I know this system costed a helluffa lot more than the little Nait-2/Linn Axis/Linn Kan-system,but boy,I was completely breathless.

but ok when you consider I'm just a poor bloke,the Naim/Kan system had to win the bang for the bucks award!

btw,had anyone ever heard these ASR speakers in a Naim setup?

Greetings,


btw:here are some pictures I took at the shop today.

Posted on: 29 August 2001 by Alco
ehhh,here's another one of the ASR speakers.

They're so small, but sounded sooo BIG.

Posted on: 29 August 2001 by Bas V
Hi Alco!

I have never heard a Naim system sound decent at Rinsma. Don't know what he does to them, but when I listened to a CD2+72+hi+180 on the big ARS speakers, my girlfriend and I looked at each other and thought "yeck"! At that time I only had a 3 series system at home... The second time it was the same story. I asked mr. Rinsma what was wrong and he said: "the speakers are too revealing for the Naim system". A lot of crap! I didn't recognize the Naim sound at all, so this could not have been the cause.
Before you get yourself hooked up on the Sonneteer stuff, please visit a decent Naim dealer for once. A couple of weeks ago I visited CAC Leiden and wow, they know their stuff. Or come and listen to my system once, you can even bring your Kan's, I don't mind they're so ugly ;-)
I do think the Sonneteer-stuff sounds good, but not as spectacular as mr Rinsma wants you to believe!

Groet'n, Bas

Posted on: 29 August 2001 by Andreas Nystroem
Hey Alco, didn't you use to have black kan's? or have I missed something? Cool pictures on your photo page BTW.
Posted on: 29 August 2001 by Alco
Hi Andreas,

Yes,I did had black Kan's at first.
In fact,...I still have 'em,I just gave 'em a little facelift!


btw:Bas,I did like the Nait-2/Linn Axis/Kan system,but now that you mention it....
I heard a similar Naim system once,sounding way better.

It was the Nait-2 with a pair of cheap Royd A7's (for only 700,- guilders a pair) hooked to a Rega and I must confess that it even sounded way better then the Nait-2/Axis/Kan-I system.

That was before he got Sonneteer in da house.

He was using some homemade (very,very thin) speakercable this afternoon. could that 've been the weak link in the Naim system?

Once I got home I liked my Nait-2/CD-3.5+fc/Kan-II's,naca5 better to my liking than the Nait-2/Axis/Kan-I,Rinsma cable setup.

btw: I lowered my sound-factory system support.
I removed the top-shelf. Traded it at Rinsma for a Sound-Factory TT/CD isolation-platform.

So,now the amp & CD-player are about 10 inc (25cm) lower and don't stand in the way of the speakes anymore,which resulted in a more spacious soundstage with better focus.

Greetings,
Alco.