272 or NDX with a XS-2

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Jay, I don't think that is what HH and certainly I meant. 

I was describing the effect of listening into and noticing andappreciating subtlety and nuance.. you notice things if you listen for them, like the breath control or movement with respect of a mic of a singer, the fingering of a guitar, the pressure of a pianist, the clipping distortion effect of sample riff join in EDM, the reverb and gating used on snare drum by the engineer.  You can listen casually or with less capable equipment and you don't notice it and really you can't hear it even if you try unless obvious ... you've maxed your iterations on your Mandelbrot set as it were... you have hit a solid colour.

For me this is a really great part of enjoying recorded music .. there is so much more than what is immediately obvious, and good replay equipment can give you this added enjoyment (if of course you want it to) .. it makes (most) tracks come alive rather than sounding as a sterile repetitive facsimile  of a piece of music

 

Sorry Simon. I had misunderstood what you meant.

Myself, I'm not hugely analytical, which I think goes against the grain of a lot of Hi-Fi buffs. I'm interested in whether I feel I'm getting more of the performance. I know that sounds arty farty but that's just the way I am!

Jay

Don't worry Jay, I'm with you entirely on that. 

Jay - yes my attention span is not great enough to be overly analytical either - I would probably make a lousy accountant... and my music appreciation is a bit like that - I also enjoy the performance - what ever it may be - even if recorded in a 'bedroom studio' - in fact some of those tracks can be fantastic as they are not too polished and raw.. however my mind likes to flit in and listen in when I notice something or want to listen out for something I am familiar with and then pop out again - thats the way I am .. probably weird... and yes I usually have my eyes shut when listening like this - my family just put up with my eccentricity as they know how much pleasure it gives me..

Well no one has a monopoly on how to enjoy music!

Huge posted:

I haven't told Naim, I believe that they do know about it.

Looking at the manual for the XS 2, I can't see anything that indicates how to connect the amp for use as a power amp only - this may be different from that for the older XS model.

Using an XS2 as a power amp isn't something that we support - as Huge has said, it can be done but you need a FlatCap to do it so it really isn't practical.

Phil

Thanks for explaining that Phil. I had always, clearly wrongly, thought that it could be used as a power amp without needing a Flatcap. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

Thanks for explaining that Phil. I had always, clearly wrongly, thought that it could be used as a power amp without needing a Flatcap. 

No worries ... just good to get it cleared up.

Cheers

Phil

Phil Harris posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

Thanks for explaining that Phil. I had always, clearly wrongly, thought that it could be used as a power amp without needing a Flatcap. 

No worries ... just good to get it cleared up.

Cheers

Phil

Naim missing a trick here in marketing terms, I think, Phil. The Nait 5 of old, and the Nait XS were easily splittable into pre and power, making two stage upgrading possible and less of an all in one  financial hit.

Chris

Christopher_M posted:

Naim missing a trick here in marketing terms, I think, Phil. The Nait 5 of old, and the Nait XS were easily splittable into pre and power, making two stage upgrading possible and less of an all in one  financial hit.

Chris

I do see your logic but it hasn't seemed to have proven to be an issue in reality ... the upgrade path on an integrated is normally that people upgrade the power amp first and use the integrated as a pre for a while before then upgrading to a dedicated pre.

Cheers

Phil

Phil Harris posted:

Christopher_M posted:

Naim missing a trick here in marketing terms, I think, Phil. The Nait 5 of old, and the Nait XS were easily splittable into pre and power, making two stage upgrading possible and less of an all in one  financial hit.

Chris

I do see your logic but it hasn't seemed to have proven to be an issue in reality ... the upgrade path on an integrated is normally that people upgrade the power amp first and use the integrated as a pre for a while before then upgrading to a dedicated pre.

Cheers

Phil

This was my path - XS2 into NAP 200.  I was content (a step down from happy) with that combo until I traded for new speakers (Davone Grande) which had me running, not walking, into the arms of a 282 + HC DR.  Happy now.