NAC 552 Review

Ricardo,

Pleased that you enjoyed the article ;-)

Just to confirm, Paul Miller did the technical measurements and I did the 'subjective' review - all reviews being subjective by their nature - so no different to any other hi-fi review in that sense.

An awesome bit of kit I still miss btw!

Jonathan (Gorse)
Hi-Fi News/T3/Future Home

Sorry a little off topic but a question for Jonathan - what is Future Home?

Jay

As a new 552 owner I am loath to ask for fear that I have tipped a huge bucket of money down the drain .. please tell me that there was nothing along the lines of "the 552 is almost as good as a NAD XYZ at one millionth the price" ?

Mark.

The Doe's Been Dished, The Tunnel End Reached.

Mark

Enjoy the music played on your perfectly matched system, and forget about the rest.

I hope you've gotten the electronics on Fraims too.

Good listening all, the music's groovin' frightfully more.

Rgds

Philip

naimniac for life

Jay,

Future Home is a recently launched magazine which covers home technology eg broadband internet, wireless networks, bluetooth, home theatre, hi-fi, PDA's etc. It is available from UK newsagents and does contain more of my 'scratchings'.

Minky - you'll have to read the mag to find out

Best,

Jonathan

I formally offer my services to review a NAC552 (& NAP500). It will be suitably subjectively impressionable.

Simon,

Yeah - not good but I'm adjusting back. A bit like having a 2 month fling with Gwyneth Paltrow and then waking up to find you're married to Ann Widdicombe!

Jonathan

Agggghhhhhhh

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Originally posted by Jonathan Gorse:
then waking up to find you're married to Ann Widdicombe!

Jonathan

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Jon, I strongly recommend you keep your private fantasies to yourself. Uggh.

ps. oh and, when are you guys going to do a sistem feature on me!

What I want to know is how the hell does one go about getting what must be the best job in the world???

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Originally posted by Jonathan Gorse:
Ricardo,

Pleased that you enjoyed the article ;-)

Just to confirm, Paul Miller did the technical measurements and I did the 'subjective' review - all reviews being subjective by their nature - so no different to any other hi-fi review in that sense.

An awesome bit of kit I still miss btw!

Jonathan (Gorse)
Hi-Fi News/T3/Future Home

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Impartiality and hifi reviews.

Jonathan Gorse is a naim enthusiast and has long extolled the virtues of naim equipment on this forum.

So for him to review a product by naim is leading to a degree of partiality. I am not suggesting that jonathan would wish to mislead his readership, but the review would not be impartial by the very nature of the reviewer.

For me, who is not a naim believer, then i now know that the 552 is not my cup of tea.

A friend has a 552 500 combo and while it is an excellent combination it is not what i would spend 25 big ones on.

A friend who is a designer and manufacturer of some very nice cd and amps recently had a moderate review of his new amp.

I have listened to this amp at length and it is superb. I would consider buying it if i was in the market for a new amp.

Trouble is the reviewer switched it on listened to it and wrote a review of it. He did not say what other equipment he used with it. So we have a poor quality review which is of little use to the redership.

A review should be an opportunity for an assessment of a product on unbiased terms.

I dont feel that in the case of the 552 this is what took place. This is not a crticism of Jonathan but of the magazine.

A better reviewer (for my taste and sense of humour) would have been KK.

I wonder who will do the review of the CDS3.

The friend who has the 552 500 combo is waiting to borrow the CDS3 as he is considering its purchase.

Interesting to see if he will go for it.

I think he will.

regards David

David wrote:

"Jonathan Gorse is a naim enthusiast and has long extolled the virtues of naim equipment on this forum.

So for him to review a product by naim is leading to a degree of partiality."

I hear where you are coming from, but it seems unreasonable to me to expect reviewers to always come from a neutral place. They listen to lots of kit (obviously), probably own a system or two (obvisoulsy), and have found what works for them and what does not.

To the extent that manufacturers are consistent in what they produce, this leads to a degree of predictability in the reviews. "If so-and-so reviews kit by manufacturer X, he will probably like it." and so forth. I don't see a way out of this.

There is a benefit to us when reviewers are familiar with a product line in that they are in a position to place the new piece of kit on context both up and down (how close to the next piece of kit is it?) and sideways (is this piece different from the ususal house sound?).

For me, I'd much rather read a review by a reviwer "in the know" than one who was blind to what Naim, for instance, is about.

Just my $.02.

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

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it seems unreasonable to me to expect reviewers to always come from a neutral place

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No one ever comes from a neutral place.

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood"

Dave,

You raise some interesting points - but I think all of us have a degree of bias, therefore every hi-fi review and every hi-fi reviewer faces this issue. Hi-Fi News have a loose policy of allowing equipment to be reviewed by whichever reviewer is likely to offer the best understanding of the design and philsophy of a product. As an example Andrew Harrison who owns an Orbe did the new Michell DC power supply and motor, Ken does lots of valve reviews because that's what he's used and loved for years and I got the Naim because I have been using their equipment at home for 18 years.

As ever, the best guide is to listen to the equipment at a reputable dealer ideally with a home dem before purchase. Reviews are there for entertainment and hopefully to indicate the kind of sound a piece of equipment makes. The core reason I like Naim amps in general is the fact as I said in the 552 review that they capture the stridency and speed of live instruments better than anything else I have yet heard. Listeners who prefer their sound warmer and slower can thus at least tell from the review that the 552 isn't in that camp.

It's interesting but I started the review thinking 'how can any pre-amp be worth over £11k'. After living with the 552 for over 2 months and hearing album after album sounding dramatically better than ever before I concluded that perhaps £11k isn't unreasonable for a lifetime of musical enjoyment.

Dev - thanks for your offer. I will discuss this with our Ed next week and let you know. Our original aim was to find a DBL user (don't suppose you fancy upgrading for your 15 mins of fame??!!

Best regards,

Jonathan

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Originally posted by Jonathan Gorse:
Dev - thanks for your offer. I will discuss this with our Ed next week and let you know. Our original aim was to find a DBL user (don't suppose you fancy upgrading for your 15 mins of fame??!!

Best regards,

Jonathan

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Jonathan,

I'm still up for it and might even have NBL's and my new CDS3 for your listening pleasure.

Let me know.

regards

Dev

Surely the role of the hi-fi critic is to give an informed opinion of the equipment he is reviewing. I don't tend to read hi-fi magazines unless there happens to be an article about something I am considering purchasing, in which case I am looking for suggestions for alternatives that may be worth considering. I do read a lot of music and book reviews simply because there is far too much new stuff being published every month for me to winnow myself. What I am looking for then are reviewers that I am generally strongly in sympatico with to act as filters and provide me with shortlists. The thing is that I am still the final judge.

As for bias, the reviewers that really piss me off are the ones that clearly have no knowledge or passion for the genre, author or musician. I have actually read reviews of jazz albums that start "I don't really like jazz .. ". I read a review of Nicholson baker's new book "a box of matches" yesterday that described the central character as unlikeable. To be plausible a reviewer must have a world view and either a knowledge of the artist or the genre. I would go further and state that the reviewer should have a positive bias toward the genre.

I haven't read this review of the 552 and I already have one so I know what it sounds like, but if I didn't and wanted to know if it was worth putting on the shortlist, I would want to know how it stacks up against similarly priced equipment from other manufacturers and what it sounds like compared to a 52, from someone who understands why I bought a 52. This requires bias.

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The difficulty came when Linn starting making amps and they couldn't slag 'em off like they deserved...

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Actually they were VERY scathing of the original amps, IIRC!

Andy