My first Naim system
Posted by: Lanesra on 31 January 2016
Just before Christmas I was fortunate enough to receive a sum of money from a legacy, which has finally enabled me to afford my first Naim system. Yesterday, my wife and I visited the Sound Organisation in York to listen to a demo of a pretty high up the food chain Linn/ Naim system: Linn LP12/Ekos, NAC-N272 pre-amp/ XP5 XS power supply, NAP250 power amp, SuperLine phono stage/ HI-CAP power supply and CD5 XS CD player/ HI-CAP power supply driving Spendor A6R's and Neat Motive SX2's.
This not surprisingly sounded fantastic. However, there are a few issues:
- I own a heavily upgraded Manticore Mantra/Musician arm/MB6 power supply, which I was unable to bring to the demo as I have to catch a 'plane to visit any hi-fi dealer. So, is it going to do justice to the proposed system?
- Even though I can afford the system and am keen to purchase it, my wife doesn't like the idea of me spending so much money on a hi-fi system. Is she right on this, as it's a massive upgrade on my current Cyrus CD6/ Cyrus 6 amp/ Quad 11L system? My logic is to get several upgrades done at once (i.e. top of the range phono pre-amp + buying power supplys straight away), thus saving me money in the long term.
- I preferred the Neats for their "fun" sound quality. The Spendors sounded more detailed in the mid-range and with vocals and the bass was deep but slightly soft, but they lacked the drive and tightness of the Neats. My wife, in the demo, said she preferred the Spendors. Subsequently, when we were enjoying a late lunch, I asked my wife whether she really preferred the sound of the Spendors and she admitted that she preferred the sound of the Neats but preferred the appearance of the Spendors. Typical woman! However, I did dismiss a proposed Linn active system of similar price on the basis that I didn't like the look of the speakers/ stands!
Apart from deciding to replace the CD player with a UnitiServe and wishing I had more time in the demo to listen more thoroughly to the speaker options, I have paid a deposit on this system. I'm going to use Hi-fi Racks Limited Podium Reference racks as I can have them made to bespoke widths. So I've gone for one full width rack and one half width rack to fit the hi-fi into a 1m width alcove.
Apparently it's the rack that's going to take the most time to be delivered. So I'll be waiting a while for the Sound Organisation to come to the Isle of Man for the installation.
Yipeeeee! Party at Lanesra's 
Lanesra, at long last the set up is complete, pleased it's sounding good from the off, the good news is it will really start to sing once it's all bedded in, happy days 
Well Lanesra I suppose something good had to happen to a Gooners fan sooner or later ( says he being a Villa fan
). Looking forward to some in depth reports especially as your new system has several features in common with mine such as the 272/250dr combo and you have the big brother version of my Neat Momentums. ENJOY
Adam Zielinski posted:Yipeeeee! Party at Lanesra's
LOL. I don't think my neighbors were too impressed with me last night when I started playing loud music at 10:30pm!
sjbabbey posted:Lanesra,
Did the Mannanan's recent coming together with the Douglas harbour wall cause you any delay? I was due to sail on the Mannanan on the Thursday before Easter to visit family on the island but was lucky enough to get a place on the Ben My Chree out of Heysham.
sjbabbey, No. They were booked on the Ben anyway. There was a manufacturing delay with the NAP250, though.
wenger2015 posted:Lanesra, at long last the set up is complete, pleased it's sounding good from the off, the good news is it will really start to sing once it's all bedded in, happy days
Wenger2015, as much as I love my UQ2, it really struggled to drive my Momentum SX5i's. So the NAP250 was always going to be an improvement even from cold!
Belfast Taxman posted:Well Lanesra I suppose something good had to happen to a Gooners fan sooner or later
BT, I've lost interest in football for this season! I've never really done in-depth reports for sound, but I'll have a go: all the separate instruments are easy to follow regardless how complex the music is. Singers sound like they're performing in front of you. Drums have real weight to them and the bass is "tight" and goes deep. But as well as all this, the music sounds as a cohesive whole and is great fun to listen to, with excellent PRaT.
It would have been easier to just say "superb"!
It's good to hear that it's all come together nicely, and that it's working so well. Remember that it will improve considerably over the coming weeks. It's also good to see that there is room for an XPSDR in your new rack.
Hungryhalibut posted:It's good to hear that it's all come together nicely, and that it's working so well. Remember that it will improve considerably over the coming weeks. It's also good to see that there is room for an XPSDR in your new rack.
Hungryhalibut,
Yes, I should have ordered the rack just 4-levels high to remove that temptation! Although I've got the NAS drive I still think my CD player sounds better (probably because I was multi-tasking when ripping CD's). It's a shame Naim don't do a half-width CD transport that can use a Hi-Cap as its power supply, as that will fill the "half-width" rack nicely.
Robert - it is possible for the NAS playback to reach the same quality level as a CD player.
I used my CDX2.2. as a reference and tweaked my network setup and NDX until they sounded almost the same (CDX2.2. and NDX both feeding the nDAC). Essentially what I was hearing then were differences in the digital transports of CDX2 and NDX. Whether you want to do that tweaking is altogether a different thing
Adam
Adam Zielinski posted:Robert - it is possible for the NAS playback to reach the same quality level as a CD player.
I used my CDX2.2. as a reference and tweaked my network setup and NDX until they sounded almost the same (CDX2.2. and NDX both feeding the nDAC). Essentially what I was hearing then were differences in the digital transports of CDX2 and NDX. Whether you want to do that tweaking is altogether a different thingAdam
Adam,
I think I'll leave well alone at least until everything has bedded in fully, as my system is very enjoyable to listen to anyway.