System Pics 2016

I am one who tries and then admits failure. I've tried (alternatives) and all I could get was boredom. So, since I cannot live without a (Naim) system, here's mine (it's deja vu I know).

CDX2 (my third one)

HiLine (lost count)

NAC282 (a first!)

NAP200DR (my third 200, my first DR)

N-Sats/N-Stands (my fifth pair, third in cherry)

Only derogation from canon, TelluriumQ black speaker cables instead of NAC A5 (or the excellent Vertere Pulse X mini I last had). The only apparently successful experiment.

P.S. Guizu SRW-2A rack.

Or is this CDX2 my fourth one? I am so nuts I sometimes try the same thing as an alternative.

It all looks very lovely. Your home just isn't right without a pair of nSats. 

Looks great Max - i'd forgotten how elegant the nSats look on their dedicated stands. 

Thanks to both. I presently lack telluric bass (in spite of tellurium cables) but I have clarity, coherence, immediacy. A NAP300 will provide the rest...

Joking.

Massimo Bertola posted:

Thanks to both. I presently lack telluric bass (in spite of tellurium cables) but I have clarity, coherence, immediacy. A NAP300 will provide the rest...

Joking.

Funny.... but true!

Massimo Bertola posted:

Thanks to both. I presently lack telluric bass (in spite of tellurium cables) but I have clarity, coherence, immediacy. A NAP300 will provide the rest...

Joking.

I ran my nSats on the end of a 300. They liked it 

Lovely system Max, beautiful interior space and nice equipment rack too 

N-Sats - still an inch I've not scratched, but want to ! 

Well done Max, try to keep them a little longer this time

R.

HX is now going in my second system

Regards

Roberto

Massimo Bertola posted:

. I presently lack telluric bass (in spite of tellurium cables) 

I suggest you add a high quality sub in a corner of the room, well calibrated going to integrate with the N  Sats

Anto68 posted:

Massimo Bertola posted:

. I presently lack telluric bass (in spite of tellurium cables) 

I suggest you add a high quality sub in a corner of the room, well calibrated going to integrate with the N  Sats

That'll be the lovely (and very configurable) n-SUB* then.

* If you can find one !

James (and Anto68),

yes that could be the lovely N-Sub, which I have had in one of my previous lives... And it is not impossible that I might find one. In this very moment I'm replaying orchestral music by Toru Takemitsu, and the level of realism (speaking of pure timbres, of 'air' and of the aural feeling of an auditorium) is indeed surprising for a pair of Sats. So, the idea of a Sub is not so far from my mind.. Just for the sake of that missing octave.

But of course I must acknowledge that it was HH (Nigel) who first suggested an N-Sub... again.

Not posted for a while, had a few changes. I realise that for some people here the the combination of Naim and Macintosh is akin to heresy,  but trust me, it sounds great.

Do you have a pet snake, or is that a big coil of speaker cable lurking behind the R speaker? Does it affect performance having it coiled up like that? Lovely looking room and system, though.

rsch posted:

I just received this beauty  from a French gentleman and fellow Naim owner, like a gift for a deal we had recently.

i just  sold him my CD555 head (2010) and took another one of 2013 vintage from the same retailer who sold me the Nap 500 , he was so happy for the deal that in occasion of a mail exchange, when i showed interest on his CB boxes he had for sale, he decided to send me this for free.

It's a very very nice condition 42.5 from 1985, originally fitted with "K" phono boards (an evil feature reminding me  LP12 Troika/Archive days) he was probably still the first owner since 1986 and came in his orignal box and  Naim brochure.  i just placed  here on display after a bit of detailing (the aluminium sleeve is as new)                                I' ll probably move it on my second system., i already have period Audiotech tables for it and i 'll probably match it with Nap 110 or 140 like my very first Naim Kit

Regards

Roberto

... And its new mate, a '88 Hi-Cap from a Naim vintage specialist in Hertford. Now i' m looking for a power amp but CB series is really scarce now, It seems  they are selling like hot cakes.

Regards

Roberto

Chris, many thanks.

Having the speaker cable coiled doesn't seem to affect the performance, but the necessity of having equal runs of cable means I was left with little choice. Ideally, I suppose I should have a straight run, but I suspect the differential in cable lengths would then have an even greater impact! Unless anyone here has a different view of course. There is always going to be a balance between aesthetics and the pursuit of Hi Fi "heaven", especially if your married. My good lady has always viewed my hobby with a kind of benevolent disbelief and I suspect that stretching out several meters of speaker cable around the lounge would be step too far.

greentg posted:

Chris, many thanks.

 

Having the speaker cable coiled doesn't seem to affect the performance, but the necessity of having equal runs of cable means I was left with little choice. Ideally, I suppose I should have a straight run, but I suspect the differential in cable lengths would then have an even greater impact! Unless anyone here has a different view of course. There is always going to be a balance between aesthetics and the pursuit of Hi Fi "heaven", especially if your married. My good lady has always viewed my hobby with a kind of benevolent disbelief and I suspect that stretching out several meters of speaker cable around the lounge would be step too far.

I can see that running it straight along the wall could be tricky - we all have to make compromises. There was a thread on a certain fishy forum recently where people swore blind that (very) unequal lengths of speaker cable made no difference at all, and it was just a con to make you buy more of it!! Don't tell your wife, though....

greentg posted:

Not posted for a while, had a few changes. I realise that for some people here the the combination of Naim and Macintosh is akin to heresy,  but trust me, it sounds great.

 

 

Lovely system - big fan of ART speakers (one day...). The coiled up speaker cable (as others have mentioned isn't a good idea) would be better concertinaed - used to be something in the FAQ but i'm sure someone will post a picture of what it should look like. 

ChrisSU posted:

greentg posted:

Chris, many thanks.

 

Having the speaker cable coiled doesn't seem to affect the performance, but the necessity of having equal runs of cable means I was left with little choice. Ideally, I suppose I should have a straight run, but I suspect the differential in cable lengths would then have an even greater impact! Unless anyone here has a different view of course. There is always going to be a balance between aesthetics and the pursuit of Hi Fi "heaven", especially if your married. My good lady has always viewed my hobby with a kind of benevolent disbelief and I suspect that stretching out several meters of speaker cable around the lounge would be step too far.

I can see that running it straight along the wall could be tricky - we all have to make compromises. There was a thread on a certain fishy forum recently where people swore blind that (very) unequal lengths of speaker cable made no difference at all, and it was just a con to make you buy more of it!! Don't tell your wife, though....

Thanks James, the ARTs are lovely speakers and I guess I forget how lucky I am to be able to own a pair. With all the wonderful systems on this forum, it's easy, on occasions, to think of yourself as the poor relation, when, in reality, that's very much a relative term.  I think what put it into some kind of perspective for me, was when a friend of mine pointed out the other day, that I could buy a very nice car for what I'd spent on my system. So for now (never say never), I intend to focus on buying and listening to more music rather than plotting the next upgrade.

Anyway, enough of this introspection and back to the distinctly first world problem of dealing with my excess speaker cable. I did some research on-line (now there's a minefield!) and it would appear that laying the cable in a loose figure of eight, is much better than the concentric circles mine was in. There is also a strong school of thought, that for the cable lengths we are talking about here, I could shorten the nearest run with out any noticeable impact on the sound. Whilst that might be true, psychologically  that just doesn't work for me, so I won't be doing that. Anyway, I've sorted out the cable and I'm sure that's improved things immeasurably, even though I've not actually played anything yet!

Winter antiquities:

Luxman tuner and LP-12 from 1978, Nait 3, 3.5 player, 2 Flatcaps, Proac Response 1.5 from 1999, Quadraspire arrived in 2004. Things change rather slowly around here, or in other words, we are trying to age gracefully.

That Luxman looks great! (So does everything else, for that matter...)

Haim Ronen posted:

Winter antiquities:

Luxman tuner and LP-12 from 1978, Nait 3, 3.5 player, 2 Flatcaps, Proac Response 1.5 from 1999, Quadraspire arrived in 2004. Things change rather slowly around here, or in other words, we are trying to age gracefully.

 

Love a simple system. Nicely done Haim 

Haim,

I have already commented on your choices of gear, now I appreciate your choice of words: gracefully is how I too will try to age. Beautiful pictures.

Best

Max