Moving away from their signature sound

Huge posted:

fred47 posted:

I know. But I"m told not to mention that scottish play ,( sorry Scottish brand)

(and I don't recall many suicides or murders either)!

Perhaps there's been lots Huge. For obvious reasons we just don't get to learn about them.

fred47 posted:

Am I right to assume that with the introduction of the new Uniti series Naim is moving away from their signature sound ( emotional envolment.Pratt) to a more generally acepted overall Hifi and there fore cleaner sound.

I just recently bought a Nova and after two weeks running in I think it is a fantastic sound but without emotion. Hard to describe sound but I am a little disapointed .

Last year at the Munich Hi-Fi Show the main Naim system (252, 2x300 biamped, NDS) was, to my ears, less "naim-like" (emotion) than the Nova/Atom etc.

Sometimes small adjustements to the the speakers positioning can make a good difference

tonym posted:

Huge posted:

fred47 posted:

I know. But I"m told not to mention that scottish play ,( sorry Scottish brand)

(and I don't recall many suicides or murders either)!

Perhaps there's been lots Huge. For obvious reasons we just don't get to learn about them.

Well, speaking from personal experience, I managed to avoid suicide last year and this (so far at least)!

Pev posted:

I worked my way up over 20 years to a full fat olive system (CDS2/XPS/52/SC/135s) then went to Uniti, then Superuniti and now Nova. Never been happier with my music system - Nova is a big step from SU for me.

interesting... I have the "full fat" olive system- happy with it and with retirement looming next 5 yrs , no desire to start investing in new black boxes.  What type of changes do you hear with Nova compared to top olive system?

david

Like David, I like the olive series very much. I started on black, and see myself moving towards olive (or pre-dr) more. Especially when using my turntable.

Ardbeg10y posted:

Like David, I like the olive series very much. I started on black, and see myself moving towards olive (or pre-dr) more. Especially when using my turntable.

Ardbeg- I love my system and the way it looks on Fraim- to start replacing all the olive boxes with black boxes would be very expensive and I really don't know how it would sound- never auditioned the black boxes.  I have a really, really large room and have no idea whether a Nova would drive my Focal speakers and would a Nova sound better or worse than cds2/52/super/135s??

What I do when my CDS 2 dies I don`t know.  Have not entered the world of streaming yet- just my cds 2 and my 01 which I do enjoy immensely.  One day my hand will be forced when the cds ends it`s life.

david

davidf posted:

Ardbeg10y posted:

Like David, I like the olive series very much. I started on black, and see myself moving towards olive (or pre-dr) more. Especially when using my turntable.

.............

What I do when my CDS 2 dies I don`t know.  Have not entered the world of streaming yet- just my cds 2 and my 01 which I do enjoy immensely.  One day my hand will be forced when the cds ends it`s life.

david

 

Nah.  When the CDS2 eventually goes to 'meet it's maker', ( JV, sitting next to God ),  just get yourself a pre-loved  nDAC and a seperate CD transport. Job done, and no nasty computer stuff ........ 

davidf posted:

Pev posted:

I worked my way up over 20 years to a full fat olive system (CDS2/XPS/52/SC/135s) then went to Uniti, then Superuniti and now Nova. Never been happier with my music system - Nova is a big step from SU for me.

interesting... I have the "full fat" olive system- happy with it and with retirement looming next 5 yrs , no desire to start investing in new black boxes.  What type of changes do you hear with Nova compared to top olive system?

david

It's hard to make a direct comparison as it's a few years since I traded my olive boxes in for an original Uniti and a wodge of cash that went a long way towards a BMW motorbike. The stimulus was the Bristol Show when the original Uniti was launched. Naim had 2 rooms next to each other - one playing a 500 series system and the other a Uniti with N-Sats and N-Sub. I found myself enjoying the music in the Uniti room more even though I could hear that the 500 series room was objectively better sounding. 

The Uniti proved a bit under powered to drive my large floor standers to my preferred (extremely loud!) levels but the Superuniti fixed that. I am a total convert to streaming and Radio Paradise and I am discovering to more new music that I have since I was a teenager. I always hated CDs and was glad to see the back of them but I still have my vinyl front end (detailed in my profile) to satisfy my inner hifi geek.

The Nova is better again and with the new streaming platform is a joy to use and listen to. I did say in my original post that I've never been happier with my music system - the access to more music easily trumps any issue about whether I could get a more realistic decay on a piano note. I suppose if I had my old olive system back it would sound "better" but I'm sitting here listening to the Grateful Dead and enjoying it as much as I ever have - I really can't point to anything I am missing. Maybe it's an age thing - back in the day I really relished every upgrade but now I'm at retirement age myself I'm not sure if it's my hearing or my outlook on life that has changed. I don't really care because I'm happy (and I've still got the bike).

I’ve heard the Nova but not the xs series. By all accounts it was fairly upfront and lively, enough to wake up a pair of Harbeths perhaps. The Nova might need a different speaker match to get the involvement you’re looking for. 

Wugged Woy posted:

davidf posted:

Ardbeg10y posted:

 

.............

What I do when my CDS 2 dies I don`t know.  Have not entered the world of streaming yet- just my cds 2 and my 01 which I do enjoy immensely.  One day my hand will be forced when the cds ends it`s life.

david

 

Nah.  When the CDS2 eventually goes to 'meet it's maker', ( JV, sitting next to God ),  just get yourself a pre-loved  nDAC and a seperate CD transport. Job done, and no nasty computer stuff ........ 

Nah. He must be racing up there.

yeti42 posted:

I’ve heard the Nova but not the xs series. By all accounts it was fairly upfront and lively, enough to wake up a pair of Harbeths perhaps. The Nova might need a different speaker match to get the involvement you’re looking for. 

i''m sure its not a speaker problem. they remainded exactly the same as with my XS gear.

An heretical assertion Fred. Burn the witch!

Cor blimey Guv'nor.

John.

But you aren’t using xs any more, system matching is what I’m on about. Anyway suit yourself.

fred47 posted:

Am I right to assume that with the introduction of the new Uniti series Naim is moving away from their signature sound ( emotional envolment.Pratt) to a more generally acepted overall Hifi and there fore cleaner sound.

I just recently bought a Nova and after two weeks running in I think it is a fantastic sound but without emotion. Hard to describe sound but I am a little disapointed .

Nope, to my ears the new series is distinctly a ‘Naim’ type of sound...  but Naim to me has always been a clean and insightful sound with a tendency to highlight bounce, rhythm and timings at the slight expense of excessive spatial and atmospheric cues.... but the units do all sound different to a fair extent  .... and the new Uniti series good as they are are not in the same league as the mid or high end classic series...

I’m sitting here listening to Rodrigo y Gabriela and uninvolving is pretty much the last word that comes to mind. 

I’ve retained CDX2/202/200 but spend more time listening to the Nova.

May I respectfully suggest you shouldn’t be so dismissive of Yeti’s comments. What have you got to lose from opening your ears to alternative speakers?

It took me about two years finally deciding on Harbeth and know they are perfectly able to produce a envolving sound., which they did on the XS set. So there is imo no need to change anything in that field.

FAT Olive system here on phased mana with 09 sl2 speaker all boxes serviced by Chris Murphy nz Naim dude. To my ears only bettered by 500’s. The nac52 and sl2 speaker are something special particularly VFM. While I long for a nap 500 and nac 552 (None DR) I’ll keep the 52 and SL2 until one of us dies.

I’ve have been on this journey (like a lot of you) I hope I dont end up like a lot of you. 

My wife would like a one box solution .... never going to happen. I’m sure they are good, had a play with an atom, but it’s not a big boy toy like the seperates, convenient yes, nice furniture maybe, but inside the note at a gig, I don’t thinks so.

 Naturally this is just my opinion and I totally respect for you in your life and your situation it’s a great solution, just hope I don’t end up like that. 

Oh, Naim have moved away from the “signature sound” no doubt.

fred47 posted:

Attracting an other crowd is a good thing for Naim and with  the Uniti series they are heading ( I think) in the right direction.) But still It took me years to find my personal sound in Naim , and  hate to let and see  it go when Naim is steering away from theit signature sound.And let me be clear about the Nova .it sounds GREAT. In every direction. But still theres in the back of my mind a little voice saying" should I buy another brand ( although I see no alternative). Should I keep the Nova and don"t bother about it. Should I wait for a firmware upgrade. Should I buy ( afer a good audition)  the new classic series...??????.

Fred why not go back to the XS? If it was working for you with the sound you wanted. There are certainly a group of members here who swear by the XS and speak highly of it quite a bit. 

I had a ND5XS/NAIT XS 2 for 7 months and loved it.  Then at the end of last year with the discounts offered on the NDX I went for a NDX and also swapped the XS 2 for a SN2 and have no regrets. At the time I listened to the Nova and 272/250DR as well to see how they compared. For me the sweet spot was the NDX/SN2. 

Good luck and hopefully you get to where you need to be........

 ND5XS/XP5XS/NAC282/Fluffytoy+NAPSC/

NAP250/Chord Epic/ATC SCM19'S 

It's perfectly possible to have the best of both worlds - musicality AND 'hifi', in my experience. Why deny yourself the Full Fat pleasure of it?

Also, re: item 3 - no more NAIM speakers. ATC fill the gap very nicely.

Whacko the diddle-o, ladies and Bruces. 

Wel many aspects in the Nova I do like a lot. Soundwise that is and often exceding the XS by far. Its just the emotion I do not feel in the Nova. It does not take you into the music.Maybe still to come. or I request the firmware version 2.3. I wait and see and think at the moment.

Maybe a ‘Naim sound’ evolving to be more neutral is a reason why in answer to a recent question views were mixed as to whether there was actually a Naim sound, and why it is so difficult to get meaningful descriptions of it by those who say there is one.

Or from a different angle:

Maybe Naim is moving more towards a natural sound than one causing an exaggerated sense of rhythm, forcing foot-tapping even when the music itself as recorded doesn’t have it. The insistence on foot tapping and “excitement” does seem odd given that:

I) Live music does not necessarily promote foot tapping, while music from a cheap and nasty TV speaker can, simply depending on the music.

II) Whilst enjoyable and involving, live music is not always ‘exciting’ (though of course it depends on interpretation of ‘excitement’). 

Observations?

Or to put in in percentages (My observation)

XS 65 procent flat earth.35 procent round earth. 

XS with flatcap: 50/50.

Nova: 70 procent round earth 30 procent flat earth,

give or take.

I really hope the naim signature sound isn’t being lost or diluted in any way, I’m one of the new breed of naim customer, in that I took a punt on a Mu-So a couple of years ago, then fell in love with the sound and became a fan of the Brand.

I've since bought a QB and just recently took my first proper step into HiFi and ordered a Uniti Star, which I will have to wait until the end of July for.

I just hope if there is an issue its gets sorted out sooner, rather than later.

Well..there seems to be an issue regarding the new uniti firmware.