Used Supernait or new XS2

Compared in the same system using same source and speakers which would provide the richer/warmer tone, the XS2 or SN2 ?

Nina posted:

SongStream posted:

Dude, we have a valve amp convert, and one that's (according to all available data) female.  That's got to be worth another seven pages yet, hasn't it?  I mean, I had problems with NACA5, but no one offered to come round and re-solder mine for free.  BTW, where do you live?

He he he   

All available data is correct I am indeed female.....

Come on the next seven pages......

I live in sunny Portsmouth

But is that all the available data and is that data correct exclusively, or may there indeed be more than one female here?

The SN2 is still 'cold' so to speak however my first impressions of it back in the system are that it really is a smoothy and more 'grown up' than the XS2 if that makes any sense at all

Well Huge I hope I'm not the only female on here..

Hmm, no avatar to 2 avatars in 3 minutes, is this a quick change record?

Sorry about that Huge... I couldn't decide which Brian I prefered 

HEY 8 Pages 

No problem, isn't it traditionally a woman's privilege to change her mind (there's enough male privilege around, so...).

Huge posted:

No problem, isn't it traditionally a woman's privilege to change her mind (there's enough male privilege around, so...).

Maybe Huge but I don't think most would consider me as a very "traditional" women to be honest... I'm not so keen on female company as most women bore me to tears, with a few exceptions of course.

Nina posted:

Huge posted:

No problem, isn't it traditionally a woman's privilege to change her mind (there's enough male privilege around, so...).

Maybe Huge but I don't think most would consider me as a very "traditional" women to be honest... I'm not so keen on female company as most women bore me to tears, with a few exceptions of course.

Well amongst my disparate groups of friends there are mixed groups, but there's also one group who are predominantly male, and another group who are predominantly female; but they are about as far from traditional female as you can possibly imagine.  I believe it's just a case of finding the interesting people, wherever you look.

if you are still inclined to try 1 more thing - maybe the naim nait 5si  + Cd 5 XS + ( flatcap - later date )

your speakers are sensitive so too much power makes no sense. 

The Naim nait 5si should be able to do quite well too and with the Cd5XS ( maybe new ?? ) - you will have a wonderful pair of naim gear and save some money too.

In the past i had a combo of Cd5XS + Naim nait 5i-2 and i now know ( painfully ) what i miss.

Maybe then there will be no advise to change your speakers too.

If i remember - all you wanted was a good amp at the start and it looks like the entire complexion of your rig will change shortly with speaker change et al.. 

regards

mpw posted:

your speakers are sensitive so too much power makes no sense. 

This is a long thread that I haven't read through, but I'd dispute the notion stated above. My speakers are rated to 100-watts. I've used them with 50, 60, 80, and currently 200-watts of amplification. In each case, the bass command and overall control of the speakers successively increased.

Is a 200-watt amplifier too much power for a 100-watt speaker? Certainly not if the speakers are used at reasonable volumes, recognizing that there is a danger of overdriving and potentially damaging the speakers. I've never attempted to dial my volume beyond 12 o'clock with any of these amplifiers and SQ quickly falls apart at high volumes in my room anyways. Bottom line - I'd say that there is no such thing as "wasted" or "unused" watts with increased amplification. Amplifier headroom is a good thing and I'd not want to be in a situation where it is marginalized for fear of a speaker's ratings.

mpw posted:

if you are still inclined to try 1 more thing - maybe the naim nait 5si  + Cd 5 XS + ( flatcap - later date )

your speakers are sensitive so too much power makes no sense. 

The Naim nait 5si should be able to do quite well too and with the Cd5XS ( maybe new ?? ) - you will have a wonderful pair of naim gear and save some money too.

In the past i had a combo of Cd5XS + Naim nait 5i-2 and i now know ( painfully ) what i miss.

Maybe then there will be no advise to change your speakers too.

If i remember - all you wanted was a good amp at the start and it looks like the entire complexion of your rig will change shortly with speaker change et al.. 

regards

Hi mpw and thanks for your comments

Having tried on many occasions over many years to like, and 'get', the 'Naim sound' It is only when I moved further up the range that I finally 'got it' and now love the sound so I'm afraid I won't be trying a 5si/5i etc

I will be keeping either the XS2 or the SN2 and I won't be changing any of my speakers anytime soon

However I do intend to invest in a Naim cd player, probably the CD5 XS

Nina posted:

mpw posted:

if you are still inclined to try 1 more thing - maybe the naim nait 5si  + Cd 5 XS + ( flatcap - later date )

your speakers are sensitive so too much power makes no sense. 

The Naim nait 5si should be able to do quite well too and with the Cd5XS ( maybe new ?? ) - you will have a wonderful pair of naim gear and save some money too.

In the past i had a combo of Cd5XS + Naim nait 5i-2 and i now know ( painfully ) what i miss.

Maybe then there will be no advise to change your speakers too.

If i remember - all you wanted was a good amp at the start and it looks like the entire complexion of your rig will change shortly with speaker change et al.. 

regards

Hi mpw and thanks for your comments

Having tried on many occasions over many years to like, and 'get', the 'Naim sound' It is only when I moved further up the range that I finally 'got it' and now love the sound so I'm afraid I won't be trying a 5si/5i etc

I will be keeping either the XS2 or the SN2 and I won't be changing any of my speakers anytime soon

However I do intend to invest in a Naim cd player, probably the CD5 XS

Its nice to be reasonably decided on what you want from the music and thats always good.

It will be better to have a friend come over and do a A/B blind test on both the amps selected.

Maybe you could host Mr Halibut for tea 

If it is the CD5XS then maybe the Naim Nait Xs2 will match well.

If its the CD5X - then maybe SN2

Will you get a CD5XS for audition ??

That will be great for you then

In the end its the system balance and not the $$$ spent.

Good luck with all the hardware hunt and do post a few pics in the Systems 2017 page so we can all see your audio system.

joerand posted:

mpw posted:

your speakers are sensitive so too much power makes no sense. 

This is a long thread that I haven't read through, but I'd dispute the notion stated above. My speakers are rated to 100-watts. I've used them with 50, 60, 80, and currently 200-watts of amplification. In each case, the bass command and overall control of the speakers successively increased.

Is a 200-watt amplifier too much power for a 100-watt speaker? Certainly not if the speakers are used at reasonable volumes, recognizing that there is a danger of overdriving and potentially damaging the speakers. I've never attempted to dial my volume beyond 12 o'clock with any of these amplifiers and SQ quickly falls apart at high volumes in my room anyways. Bottom line - I'd say that there is no such thing as "wasted" or "unused" watts with increased amplification. Amplifier headroom is a good thing and I'd not want to be in a situation where it is marginalized for fear of a speaker's ratings.

There is a limit to the logic of increasing watts as well..joerand.

A point comes where more watts are meaningless.

In this case IMO the XS2 will have more than adequate headroom to drive 94 dB speakers with ease.

Weather the end user likes the sound produced - thats another thing altogether.

Cd5xs is asplendid player.about lv:from written coments by owners lv dislikes extra power.

SongStream posted:

All ridiculous banter aside, have you chosen between the XS2 and SN2 yet?  

For a moment, I thought we might be looking at a page 7 finish there  ;-)

mpw posted:

joerand posted:

mpw posted:

your speakers are sensitive so too much power makes no sense. 

This is a long thread that I haven't read through, but I'd dispute the notion stated above. My speakers are rated to 100-watts. I've used them with 50, 60, 80, and currently 200-watts of amplification. In each case, the bass command and overall control of the speakers successively increased.

Is a 200-watt amplifier too much power for a 100-watt speaker? Certainly not if the speakers are used at reasonable volumes, recognizing that there is a danger of overdriving and potentially damaging the speakers. I've never attempted to dial my volume beyond 12 o'clock with any of these amplifiers and SQ quickly falls apart at high volumes in my room anyways. Bottom line - I'd say that there is no such thing as "wasted" or "unused" watts with increased amplification. Amplifier headroom is a good thing and I'd not want to be in a situation where it is marginalized for fear of a speaker's ratings.

There is a limit to the logic of increasing watts as well..joerand.

A point comes where more watts are meaningless.

In this case IMO the XS2 will have more than adequate headroom to drive 94 dB speakers with ease.

Weather the end user likes the sound produced - thats another thing altogether.

 

There are a few points here...

"There is a limit to the logic of increasing watts as well..joerand.        A point comes where more watts are meaningless."

First, whilst in absolute terms this is obvious (you can't use more power than the speaker can handle), speakers can take overload for a short time without critical damage and you'll hear severe distortion long before the damage becomes critical.  On the other hand if you use an amplifier with too low a power rating it will go into hard clipping as soon as you reach the power limit and this will suddenly massively overload the tweeters causing permanent damage in a much shorter time.  Speakers are much more likely to be damaged by a low power amplifier than higher powered ones.

Second, at 94dB the maximum safe time to listen to music is 1 hour!  So with speakers of 94db/Watt sensitivity Nina only needs an average of 1 Watt, and this means that, to allow headroom for transients a 20W amp is more than enough (107dB transients).

"In this case IMO the XS2 will have more than adequate headroom to drive 94 dB speakers with ease."

Simply in terms of volume headroom, that's true, but then a Nait 5i has sufficient power available: Speaker sensitivity (dB / Watt or dB / 2.83V) has nothing to do with how easy a speaker is to drive, it only relates to how loud the speaker will sound with a given input power.  That this relates to a speakers 'ease of drive' is a complete myth. The quality of amplifier needed to drive a speaker well is determined by other parameters including the impedance and phase plots for the speaker.

SongStream posted:

Max_B posted:

Guys, still here? It's seven pages, haven't you got any homework to do?

Dude, we have a valve amp convert, and one that's (according to all available data) female.  That's got to be worth another seven pages yet, hasn't it?  I mean, I had problems with NACA5, but no one offered to come round and re-solder mine for free.  BTW, where do you live?

M.

Max_B posted:

SongStream posted:

Max_B posted:

Guys, still here? It's seven pages, haven't you got any homework to do?

Dude, we have a valve amp convert, and one that's (according to all available data) female.  That's got to be worth another seven pages yet, hasn't it?  I mean, I had problems with NACA5, but no one offered to come round and re-solder mine for free.  BTW, where do you live?

M.

 

 

 

I thought you were local.  Do you need anything soldering?  I'll solder it for nothing more than a cup of tea. 

N.B I'm not very good at soldering.

.....do like tea though. xx

You lot crack me up  

For a 'girly' I'm not too bad at soldering either, however my new NACA5 is perfectly done.  I have no idea yet if I prefer it to my TQ UB but I think the NACA5 is very good indeed

Back to the plot....  I now have the SN2 back in and it's sounding better every minute and I love it to bits.  It sounds much smoother than the XS2 but still very musical.  I am leaning towards the SN2 now as it sounds more valve like than the XS2 and as I've used valves exclusively for over 10 years I think that might be important to me.  It's not that the XS2 is 'harsh' but I think the SN2 is even smoother and has a more valve like quality to it....  I am rubbish at trying to describe what I hear so I hope that makes some sort of sense... 

I think I also have a CD5 XS coming in the next few days, just need to call the dealer tomorrow to finalise... can't wait  

Or Perhaps the SN just better to reveal current valve source ?

Should be interesting following your source change

Perol posted:

Or Perhaps the SN just better to reveal current valve source ?

Should be interesting following your source change

Might be Perol

We will see when/if I get the CD5 XS in the system..  I am in no rush to replace my current transport and valve dac but if the Naim cd sounds as good, or better, then I will indeed keep the Naim if not only that I can leave it switched on all the time which I don't do with anything with a valve in it 

Nina posted:

Perol posted:

Or Perhaps the SN just better to reveal current valve source ?

Should be interesting following your source change

Might be Perol

We will see when/if I get the CD5 XS in the system..  I am in no rush to replace my current transport and valve dac but if the Naim cd sounds as good, or better, then I will indeed keep the Naim if not only that I can leave it switched on all the time which I don't do with anything with a valve in it 

Nina

I have my CD5x switched on in periods

When running vinyl periods its off but do come on song again quite fast actually

I have a dedicated psu to power its analoq section

If your dealer can provide its a nice addition imo

My CD5 XS should be with me Tuesday or Wednesday, can't wait to try it out