Seattle Naim Meetup Part Deux

Thanks Sneaky.  We had a great time, with much talk about hifi and especially music.   You and Gary brought a great selection of vinyl, and we barely got to play a few selections - so much good music and so little time!   I gave a short demo of Tidal streaming some Larry Fuller through my UQ (which I had just updated a couple hours before).   Then I played a few of my old standards from my Mac mini with Audirvana+ through the nDAC.  Brubeck, Jennifer Warnes, CSNY?, Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell.  

You guys were browsing and playing tunes while I was long in the kitchen waiting for water to boil, spilling coffe all over, boiling water again then finally making coffee.  (Sneaky, did I ever get you your second cup?).  I heard Ten Years After, Rolling Stones, and ???

 From my humble TT we played Dylan, Stan Getz,  ... Several others.

We watched Travelling Wilburys on the big screen, then Roy Orbison.

Gary and I enjoyed some Pink Floyd, after joerand and SS left.

I was looking forward to feedback from you all, since my system departs from the norm in two significant ways:

  1)  Instead of near wall, my speakers are designed to be out into the room and to fill the room so-to-speak with rear tweeters.

  2)  Subwoofers are used to fill in the missing bass below 60Hz.  This is a tricky business, fraught with compromise.  

More later...

Charlie

Glad to hear you all had a great time!

Yes indeed a great time was had by all. A couple of the guys had to leave after a few hours but I stayed late and Charlie and I kept finding more things to listen to, more music things to connect on, and simply enjoyed the great feeling of being around other folks who appreciate music first and great hifi second.

Charlie's system really did sound great. The kind of sound and experience I always associate with Naim systems - fast, dynamic, emotionally engaging, and keeps you thinking of the next thing you want to hear. 

Charlie has some serious chops in the area of setting up and tinkering with systems as he was an engineer by trade and specialized in the areas of vibration control and structural rigidity (I think I am getting that right Charlie?) so naturally a lot of the things we deal with around are systems are in his wheelhouse as they say.

It was good meeting Sneaky Snaic and Joerand as well. Nice to get a chance to meet the local folks and put some faces to the names and posts on the forum.

I am getting ready to make a couple of possible upgrade moves with my system tomorrow... will see how it goes. If all goes well I will get into my profile and make some changes.

Looking forward to the next get together.

Gary

Thank you, Naim Gary.  High praise indeed.  I am glad you could join us, and very much enjoyed your company and music.  Clearly we will continue to have these gatherings. 

Charlie

From Tuesday's Playlist:

Hi Sneaky,

Any photos??

M

I left these cassettes (maybe a couple more?):

Good work, Sneaky.  Sorry, I didn't get the Nak cassette deck hooked up, but there was so much music...  A few more:

We watched "End of the Line" on the DVD:

 and "Pretty Woman" from:

Cheers,

Charle

I streamed this from Tidal on the UQ (digital out) for Sneaky (before Gary and joerand arrived):

Larry Fuller is coming to Seattle in Nov if I'm not mistaken.

marcusman, yes he is. Our plan is to go see him.  Of course, he will not be playing with Ray Brown.  You have just reminded me to get tickets...

Charlie

+1

Hey Sneaky and Charlie good job posting those album covers. That was cool seeing those when I jumped on today. Had a chance to listen to a bunch of vinyl in a store today, which was great, and I was able to just left the house and grab the same bag of albums that I brought over to Charlie's the other night. 

Definitely looking forward to the next get together!

Gary

Sorry for the late reply. My daughter just got home after eight weeks in Europe and I have been enjoying time chatting with her the past two days.

Great get together Charlie! You're a grand host and have mastered the art of brewing a fine cup of coffee and whipping up some tasty guacamole. Nice to welcome Gary to our group as a guy from the chrome and olive era of Naim gear. Seems everyone is coming from a little different angle with their gear so it makes for contructive, interesting conversation. Gary is wondernig about moving into streaming and one of our fun topics was phisical versus virtual media. Everyone seemed to agree the obligate process of having to get up every now and then to change a disc is probably a good thing from a physical activity perspective.

As for the sonics, three factors struck me most about Charlie's system; immediacy, transparency, and efficent transfer of energy throughout the replay chain. By immediacy, I mean the music was direct in its presentation. Fast and tight without lag on attack or spoil on decay. Notable on percussion. By transparent, I mean the music seemed accurate and truthful, without coloration, a virtue I appreciate. Still, there was nice timbre on acoustic strings. By efficient transfer of energy throughout the replay chain I mean that the system itself just got out of the way and presented an open, dynamic, room-filling musical atmosphere with Naim's signature PRaT. There was not a sense of anything lacking or a meddling contributor in the replay. From what I could gather, these result from Charlie's self-designed speakers + subs, "homemade Fraim", and attention to cable dressing. His selection of Naim components sounded very well balanced. The bass transistion from speakers to subs is natural in his spacious listening room and draws no attention to the fact that two hidden subwoofers are present. I suspect the dedicated external power amp for his subs, seated on his "Fraim" probably contributes to the natural sound. Plus, Charlie has a cutoff for his speakers at 60 Hz so they don't overlap with the subs.

After seeing Charlie's handcrafted speakers, subs, and racking in person, I can appreciate that his system has been a labor of love. My assessment of the result is that he's achieved a lovely high-end sound in his home. By comparison, my own system sounds a bit broken, but hearing Charlie's and Sneaky's system gives me a perspective as to what I need to address and where I need to go. I've found our local meetings highly constructive!

Joerand,

Thank you.  I am speachless.  Do drop by anytime and I will be pleased to make coffee and play a few tunes.  I think we owe it to Sneaky for getting us rolling on these local gatherings, and they are and will be very constructive indeed.

Charlie

Charlie,

Good thing for you we live just far enough apart to make it inconvenient for me to be there all too often enjoying your system (and coffee), otherwise I might be. Next time though, I'll bring a bag of beans .

As you say, thanks to Sneaky for initiating our meet-ups!

Joerand,

Great "review." Loved reading what you wrote and matching it to my experience of being there. Very clear descriptions of what you were hearing. 

And I know what you mean about thinking more about your system and it's set up after seeing Charlie's. I haven't seen Sneaky's but it made me come home today and get to work at least cleaning back behind my rack, doing a little bit of sorting of the crazy mass of cables. I have been really thinking about how to create, in my much smaller room, the sense of space and openness Charlie has around his equipment.

And lastly, +1 more for props to Sneaky for getting things going.

Gary