Naim Nat-03 anyone?

Wait -  Classic FM is out of UK!  I was thinking of “All Classical” of Portland, which is only 96.

Sure do Nick,  but not in your area,  although enjoying KING Christmas Channel at the moment. 

I'm in UK & although the national stations are 128 or 192kb/s,  we can get all the BBC's it on Naim iRadio from the BBC HLS (HD) service & thats at 339kb/s,  so 339kb/s is probably why I tend to favour iRadio with some stations & some genre over FM.   The problem I believe is the compression that we have on FM & the top 15KHz limit because of the FM pilot filter.   The local (regional) stations are mostly 128kb/s  some 192kb/s,  & a few low ends are sub 112kb/s.  

Its been a while since I lived in Minneapolis,  when in those days it was FM only,  but I do go surfing around the cities once in a while to keep abreast of the local issues & news,  128kb/s seems to be as good as it gets tho'.      

RDS info from FM visible in the Naim app is another perk of the on-board FM, not available with a NAT.  

Nick

NickSeattle posted:

Mike-B posted:

NickSeattle posted:

NDX-FM in service here.  I have the choice of listening to KING, KNKX, and KUOW via FM or iRadio.  I think the kind of person who hears the benefits of Naim gear (and cares about these details) is likely to hear how much better the FM sounds, and prefer it as I do.

I'm not surprised you prefer FM over KING, KNKX, & KUOW on iRadio,  they are pretty low bit rates with 48 & 96kb/s,  KING has some nice selections  

Hi, Mike.

Agreed.  Do you have any favorites with higher bit rates along similar lines?  Naim Radio and Radio Paradise are out there, if course, but I prefer regional stations, even outside my region. Classic FM of Portland, OR, plays good stuff — their bit rate is 128.

I tend to lose interest in low bit rate stations very rapidly, even if they play good music. The recently introduced Radio Paradise lossless FLAC stream is quite an improvement though, and I’m hoping other stations will do this too. 

Maybe just get a tivoli - standalone unit? Anything else out there (non-naim?)

The MD Etude is very very good and indestructible but industrial looking. Look for one with both low and high outputs and use the low outputs with the 552.

MangoMonkey posted:

Maybe just get a tivoli - standalone unit? ....

Just tried my Model One into my set from the Tivoli's 'Record out'. Brighter than the 03 but not bad for what it is

I had a NAT 03 for ten years, a bit soft sounding but I always enjoyed it.

Have now had a NAT 01 for even longer, an old one that was converted to Olive at the factory in 2002. It's my most used source. As JV allegedly once said, let someone else change the CDs for you.

I agree with Claus, no net radio I've ever heard, even the high bitrate ones, comes close, but getting the best from the 01 requires an external antenna, in my case a Ron Smith Galaxie 17. I guess few would bother with that, even if they could.

Hi Mango, the NAT03 is a cracking tuner, albeit fully manual. Best use with a Hiline if you can.. slightly soft presentation, but that works well with the eq emphasis used on many radio stations, it’s like more a vinyl type presentation. I prefer it I think to my NAT05, albeit the latter gives me presets and auto tuning. Yes you do need a descent aerial and quality coax, but you don’t need to go over board with exotic metalwork.. just ensure you have good signal strength and not excessive interference or reflections... best use a Yagi of some sort from three elements up, depending on distance to main transmitter. If your cable run is long or goes past sources of electrical noise.. then ensure you have a BalUn transformer mounted in the aerial. Oh yes ensure aerial is on the roof, chimney or otherwise in clear.. inside lofts is not great for prime SQ, stereo imaging and performance.

PS the only web radio I heard that matched or exceeded  FM was the lossless FLAC test streams the BBC ran on R3 for a while... they were outstanding... other than that web radio is a lossy compressed collection of meh, with only choice and diversity in its favour at the expense of SQ.