Living with a new haircut, or how to slowly make it grow on you
Posted by: m0omo0 on 03 August 2014
[Disclaimer: This is a pre-Hugo-generation thread. It may not be hip, and probably not fashionable. It might not even be cool. It might also contain idiosyncratic views. It's written in poor english and is definitely devoid of any kind of humour whatsoever.]
tl;dr
Gone the mullet, source first at last, moved to streaming.
Hello there, chaps, [said with Gustave H.'s mellowest tone, in front of a barley field]
I have been away for a while, having taken a few months break from the forum. I've been trying to catch up a bit lately, and in doing so I have learnt devastating news, seen the rise of a new kid on the block, and skimmed through a good lot of controversies. It's been a bit rough at times, hasn't it ?
Anyway. As some of you may know, I've been running a mullet system for years. This system comprised -- and for the most par still does -- some of the officially most terrible components Naim ever produced: a CD 5 player, qualified by some as the poor man's CDS3, and thus derogatorily qualified as mellow; a 252 preamplifier, definitely and democratically voted as unbearably boring; and a 250 power amplifier, well-known in all circles to be slow and bloated. I spare you the speakers, for you may not know them. Let's just say they were being described at the time of their release as anything between cold, lifeless, and a total letdown compared to previous generations from this manufacturer. In addition, I managed to put the whole lot on a rigid support, stubbornly kept using NACA 5 speaker cables, pimped the CD 5 with a Hi-Line, put Power-Lines everywhere and even chained them.
How such a mess succeeded in bringing musical joy to my life for many years without leaving me in the deepest coma, is obviously beyond comprehension. Or I just woke up and didn't notice.
Fortunately, at some point reason came to me. Time to chop off the mullet and grow a fringe: I had to do something about the source. Fast forward and here comes a NDS, patiently burnt-in and tuned for a few months now, and now singing admirably in all its sonic glory. On a Fraim. Oh dear.
I was a bit anxious the source be too good, but I'm releaved the NDS has a few times now been compared to the CDS3, so no doubt it must display the proper collection of deficiencies to feel at home with my other system bits. And, very fortunately, I now have strong confirmation there already is much better kit available elsewhere. All is well.
The whole endeavour has been a fun and very interesting journey: I have found a great new dealer, spent time building a proper home network, as well as tuning it a bit (a work still in progress though). It took some time for all the pieces to come into place, but it seems to be on the right track. Strangely, I'm really thrilled with the result. Go figure.
As the NDS is anything but news these days, and a lot has already been published about streaming in general, I don't know if anyone would be interested in more details. All I did really, was barely leverage this forum impressive collective knowledge. Let me know if it's the case anyway, and I'll try my best to recount this tale. (Beware though, it may contain horrifying viciousness of various ilks, like disapointing audition at a dealer's, branded audiophile ethernet cables, network topology, a flat ferrite choke, unexpected results by the dozen, quite a bit of head scratching, you dare name what's next. And a cat. His name is Six.)
Something I really want to do however, is thanking the people whose knowledge, experience or bravery in trying new paths, was really helpful to me when jumping into streaming. It's going to be embarassing for I'm going to tell names; and even more embarassing (for me at least) because I'm going to forget many more.
So, in no particular order and in slightly arbitrary categories:
For marking out the NDS path: Allen (whose seminal post many will remember), Harry & Hook
For his fearless exploration of then uncharted territories: Aysil (quite a while ago now)
For his perseverance in chasing slam and microdynamics: AMA
For their incredible knowledge of all things network and electricity: Simon, Huge & Gajdzin
For their relentless will to chase every detail: Darke Bear, Aleg
For contributing their knowledge of all things hi-fi to the streaming area: Mike-B, Adrian F. and so many others (and duplicates, for the likes of DB, Jan-Erik, AMA or Simon also belong here)
Not particularly related to streaming, but for their different look at the world, which might well be close to mine, and of course their wonderful wit: Jan-Erik, Max, Wat & Adam
To all of you, and to all those I forgot to mention (hope you'll forgive me), but who brought their own bit of experience to add to this considerable collective knowledge, please allow me to say: THANK YOU.
Have a nice musical Sunday evening everyone,
Maurice
PS: Hopefully I'm not ruffling too much feathers. Controversy seems to be the new courtesy, so I'm having a try at it. I'm expecting to fail, but you never know.
It's always good news to hear when someone enjoys a new haircut. 
ATB
Steve
Shortly afterwards I travelled to Cheltenham, dropped some acid, and spent a considerable time in front of a bathroom mirror trying to turn quickly enough to catch a glimpse of my head from behind.
I often think hifi is like that.
that may be true about a quad system 
Four ears
I hope you're referring to roll-ups and not being smutty.
It's always good news to hear when someone enjoys a new haircut.
Thank you Steve. From someone who just got himself a new multi-coloured wig, I certainely appreciate ! 
Thank you very much, Hook. A lot less experienced than you, both with the NDS and in English writing, that's for sure ! I enjoyed reading your own experience at the time. I hope the NDS keeps bringing a lot of joy in your home.
Hi Jan-Erik,
Thank you for your kind words. Nice to be in touch again. I hope all is well with you and with your new multi-coloured friend.
Speaking of travelling, yesterday evening before going to bed, I made the mistake to start playing Zoë Keating's Into the trees. It's kind of ambient music, but that doesn't fully describe it. It's an album solely played on a cello, but with complex constructions and samples. Tired and yawning my heart out, I remained seated for the whole duration of the album, hypnotized by the music and completely lost in it. Check it out if you can find the time, it's on Bandcamp. I'm sure you'll like it.
Funny fellas, these Aperturas. They cannot stop to amaze me. As PB says of his Arts, these are very much my speakers, I'm afraid. If you're interested, I recently stumbled upon a review of the Edena, written by Srajan Ebaen on 6moons. It was interesting to me because he took great care in translating to English the philosophy and design principles of Christian Yvon, the Apertura designer. I knew about that already, but in French, and reading it in English struck me how close the words were to the ones usually used to describe Naim speakers. You can also find an interview of him in French on YouTube, where at the end he reflects on a comment people often make about his speakers: "some people say they're bass light, we just think they're bass right" [my translation].
I'm afraid I don't get that one !? 
Ah. It was a reference to an old trick where the Linn dealer would tap his foot during a demo, as a not so subtle indicator of how well the system timed...
But seriously, Naim sources have an uncanny knack of finding the beat in anything - provided one was put there by the musician - and the better the source, the better the beat detection.
Have you tried the NDS in hot-rod mode, where you shut down all inputs and just use a USB key ? If HiFi Critic is to be believed, you'll get a 15 % lift in performance
Jan
That still happens today Jan. 