To Intro, or not to Intro, that is the question.

Posted by: Ed R on 19 August 2002

Or something like that anyway.

The Acoustic Energy 109s I use have been pretty good to me, even if they're not the last word in sophistication. After swapping from 92/90 to 72/Hi/140, they have become even more listenable for cheap floorstanders.

The bad news is that I have found an ex-dem pair of Intros (I assume them to be the latest version) for £349. I haven't had a listen yet and probably can't get a demo before the end of the week (assuming they're still around of course).

I have had a quick trawl around the forum, which seems to show that opinion is divided. Intros seem to need careful siting and are very room dependent.

The question is, are they worth £350 and should I pursue this deal or should I forget about them? Are they worth hours of farting about with, or should I stick with the devil I know?

I didn't have any burning desire to upgrade my speakers having just upgraded my amps and (with a s/h 250 waiting for a service as well - I'll spare you the details) finding it difficult at the moment to justify to the Mrs. any further spending on black boxes of any size.

As ever, any thoughts appreciated!!

Ed.

[This message was edited by Ed R on MONDAY 19 August 2002 at 15:13.]
Posted on: 20 August 2002 by Ed R
No replies but 3 star rating! I surmise that judging from the lack of replies saying "buy them, they are an absolute bargain at the price", I should tread (and listen) carefully.

The relative silence says quite a lot in the circumstances.

Regards,
Ed.
Posted on: 20 August 2002 by Rico
Ed

sounds like a good move to me - £350 is not loads of wedge, and I'm sure they'd outclass your AE's.

Still, some wag will tell you to just buy a CDX, eh!? cool

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio
Posted on: 20 August 2002 by Ed R
How silly of me, Rico!

However, it makes you think. Follow the loose, meandering logic, if you will.

It goes without saying that all Naim dealers are having a clear out ready for some fancy new products due next month. Obviously, there'll be a CDX replacement (wonder what they'll call it CDY, CDZ - I think they may have boxed themselves into a corner on the nomenclature but I'm no marketeer!) so I'll find a dealer with a demo CDX and offer them, say £400 (I might stretch to £500 if they play hard - wonder if they'd throw in an XPS? I am spending big bucks here).

Sorted. Audio Nirvana!

Regards,
Ed.
Posted on: 20 August 2002 by redeye
Buy some Doublets.

Much better wink

Don't believe the hype...
Posted on: 21 August 2002 by Stephen Bennett
...and for £350 you can't go wrong. Any upstream improvement you make, the speakers can handle.

quote:
How about CDX5?


How about CDXL-5?

wink

stephen
Posted on: 21 August 2002 by Ed R
"I'll be a fireball..." or whatever the words were to the title song. Sorry, I am either digressing, regressing, or possibly both.

Ed.
Posted on: 21 August 2002 by Stephen Bennett
....the fastest guy alive.
I'd fly you round the universe
Listening to CDs on my Naim CDXL-5

wink

could be a sleeper

Stephen
Posted on: 21 August 2002 by Ed R
Several years ago, a mate of mine used to drive a Ford Fiesta XR2 (a MK1, trivia fans). It was his pride and joy, it filling the space that a life/beer/women should occupy, and he was not pleased when it was nicked and then torched by some of his local low life types.

Whether he expected sympathy from his co-workers I'm not sure, but oh, how we laughed as we sang the theme from "Fireball XR2" to him. With hindsight, you probably had to be there...

Ed.
Posted on: 21 August 2002 by JeremyD
"I wish I was a spaceman," unfortunately. Probably responsible for an entire generation's grammatical decline. wink

JD
Posted on: 21 August 2002 by Mark Dunn
Hi all:

There was an episode where the robot (which also appeared later in a Thunderbirds story) went berserk and started attacking people. It scared me as a kid and for some reason has stuck with me to this very day. Very odd.

Mind you, Venus was a hottie, wasn't she?!

Best Regards,
Mark Dunnn
Posted on: 21 August 2002 by Steve Toy
Naah...

CDX2/282/200/Intro 2 system has a certain "ring" to it.

Regards,

Steve.

Let your ears do the talking, let your remote control do the walking...
Posted on: 23 August 2002 by Rico
So Ed, how did you get on? Tapping your feet and rocking out to a set of intros as we read this, or what? Barbequing some sausages on the cabinets of your AE109's?

PS - doublets are obsolete loudspeakers. You guys really should display greater care - we'll have Doug in paroxsysms again! cool

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio
Posted on: 25 August 2002 by Ed R
Sorry if I kept anyone in suspense - I've been listening to a pair of Intros!!

Had a listen in the shop to them on the back of a CD5/112/FC2/150 and they rocked, so I thought they would do the same with more bass on my 72/140.

So far they don't, unfortunately. Zero bass and what Garyi would describe as "ear-bleeding" treble! I'm no expert, but I think some further positioning work is called for.

I will hopefully return, looking slightly less eek

Regards,
Ed
Posted on: 25 August 2002 by Rico
are you using NACA5 with the Intros? Bleeding ear treble would usually be ascribed to silver cabling, or secondly, setup issues further back up the system chanin (have a search for Garyi's recent thread).

Go west young man! cool

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio
Posted on: 26 August 2002 by Ed R
That's an interesting point Rico. I have used QED silver with the AEs and only recently swapped to NACA5 (thanks Dev!). The NACA5 allowed more of the treble through, giving everything more bite and presence, and generally doing the PRaT thing, even with (comparatively) shit speakers. The QED doesn't sound dull by comparison, it's just that something seems to be missing.

I've only tried the Intros with QED so far and was working on getting the positioning right before switching cables. Even that's been tricky as we had friends over at the weekend (who at least had the good grace to say the Intros sounded and looked better than the AEs). I think this is going to be a long haul, especially as Mrs Ed is not enamoured with looks or sound at the moment.

Still, it could be worse. England could be getting hammered at cricket as well wink

Regards,
Ed.