Seeking a cheap preamp function for second system. Advice please.

There's a lot of love for the NAC72 and HC here. Olive though....

How about the classic mate for your CB 250 - a NAC32.5, 42.5 or 62 with a Hicap? 

A Nait 5 or Naim AV2 will do this for beer money. The Nait 5 has the pre-out, and the AV2 even digital inputs.

Richard Dane posted:

How about the classic mate for your CB 250 - a NAC32.5, 42.5 or 62 with a Hicap? 

My local dealer has a period perfect CB 32-5/HiCap which I’m considering and very tempted by, but I wonder if the input sensitivity would be a good match ? It may also still cost a little more than I was ideally hoping... would look fantastic though 

You already have the CB NAP250 half of the set.

"Period Perfect" indeed.  Is the fact that your dealer has it for sale coincidence, or something else perhaps?

You know it makes sense...  Serendipity.

I think an amp like this deserves a better digital front end, and will be very much held back by the DAC in the Sonos. If you want to keep the CB styling, I think you should at least budget for a little DAC that you can feed from the Sonos optical output. Plenty of options out there from Chord, Schiit, etc.

If you are prepared to lose the Chrome Bumpers, a Supernait 1 with its built in DAC would be a neat solution, but I'm guessing you like the 250?! 

Thinking about this a bit more, I do like Chris' idea.  The Supernait make as a lot of sense here.  It's powerful, so should drive the Shahinians OK.  It has a good quality DAC onboard, appreciably superior to the one onboard the Sonos I'd wager.  And... it has remote control, which I would imagine is rather handy. 

However, if you really want to keep the 250 (and why not - it's a classic bit of kit) and want something cheap to do the job then there's also merit in Ardbeg's recommendation of an AV2.  They can be  real bargain these days.  Many years back I had great fun with an AV2 and a NAP250.2 when I was waiting for my NAC552 and NAP500 to be built. The AV2 turned out to be rather a good pre-amp in its own right, oh, and it also has a pretty decent DAC onboard as well, so it'll make the most of the Sonos.  Oh, and r/c too...

Crikey, lots of choices...

kevin J Carden posted:

I therefore feel that I should liberate some cash value from it and am thinking of part-exing the SU against my new LP12, since it’s mostly only being used as a preamp.  If I do so I will need a cheap, but hopefully not too shabby alternative method of getting the signal from the Sonos Bridge to my 250. 

 

Hi Kevin - The amount of cash you'll liberate by part-exing will then get used up buying something else (and a DAC). It works well and as you say, sounds decent so i'd be tempted to leave as is and concentrate on that RP10... sorry LP12 purchase 

Richard Dane posted:

You already have the CB NAP250 half of the set.

"Period Perfect" indeed.  Is the fact that your dealer has it for sale coincidence, or something else perhaps?

You know it makes sense...  Serendipity.

You’re a bad man Richard, but I’m sure you’re probably right. I haven’t asked him the price yet. Will do that tomorrow and have a think. What about that input sensitivity? I recall CD being very difficult to match to my CB Nait, but here I guess I just open the 32.5 volume to a set level and then control it via the Sonos app volume control ?

Another minor concern is that the Silver printed double circle Naim logo, top left on my 250 has faded to a slightly strange reddish-orange colour and won’t be a perfect match for the very pristine looking pre/ps that my dealer has. First World problem as they say...!

Richard Dane posted:

Thinking about this a bit more, I do like Chris' idea.  The Supernait make as a lot of sense here.  It's powerful, so should drive the Shahinians OK.  It has a good quality DAC onboard, appreciably superior to the one onboard the Sonos I'd wager.  And... it has remote control, which I would imagine is rather handy. 

However, if you really want to keep the 250 (and why not - it's a classic bit of kit) and want something cheap to do the job then there's also merit in Ardbeg's recommendation of an AV2.  They can be  real bargain these days.  Many years back I had great fun with an AV2 and a NAP250.2 when I was waiting for my NAC552 and NAP500 to be built. The AV2 turned out to be rather a good pre-amp in its own right, oh, and it also has a pretty decent DAC onboard as well, so it'll make the most of the Sonos.  Oh, and r/c too...

Crikey, lots of choices...

I do want to keep the 250. It would have next to no trade in or auction value compared to its quality and it matches the Arcs so well. The SU on its own just doesn’t drive them properly..

AV2 is intriguing, but I see TomTom for e.g. want £850 for one. Quality no doubt is good, but top end of my probable budget for sure.

james n posted:

kevin J Carden posted:

I therefore feel that I should liberate some cash value from it and am thinking of part-exing the SU against my new LP12, since it’s mostly only being used as a preamp.  If I do so I will need a cheap, but hopefully not too shabby alternative method of getting the signal from the Sonos Bridge to my 250. 

 

Hi Kevin - The amount of cash you'll liberate by part-exing will then get used up buying something else (and a DAC). It works well and as you say, sounds decent so i'd be tempted to leave as is and concentrate on that RP10... sorry LP12 purchase 

Hmm, RP10 is an interesting one. I know a lot of folk on the forum, perhaps most prominently Richard have been glowing. Admittedly, I’ve not heard it with Superline and SuperCap, but I have heard it 3 times with Apheta and Aria, Ania with Aria, DV XX2 with DV P75 phono and it just didn’t move me at all on any of those 3 occasions I listened to it.  I’m prepared to accept that I am probably historically tainted by the LP12 sound, but LP12, Kore, Lingo4, Nima, 10x5, Stageline powered from 552 was utterly delightful to my ears. That’s what I have on order and am eagerly awaiting..

kevin J Carden posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Thinking about this a bit more, I do like Chris' idea.  The Supernait make as a lot of sense here.  It's powerful, so should drive the Shahinians OK.  It has a good quality DAC onboard, appreciably superior to the one onboard the Sonos I'd wager.  And... it has remote control, which I would imagine is rather handy. 

However, if you really want to keep the 250 (and why not - it's a classic bit of kit) and want something cheap to do the job then there's also merit in Ardbeg's recommendation of an AV2.  They can be  real bargain these days.  Many years back I had great fun with an AV2 and a NAP250.2 when I was waiting for my NAC552 and NAP500 to be built. The AV2 turned out to be rather a good pre-amp in its own right, oh, and it also has a pretty decent DAC onboard as well, so it'll make the most of the Sonos.  Oh, and r/c too...

Crikey, lots of choices...

I do want to keep the 250. It would have next to no trade in or auction value compared to its quality and it matches the Arcs so well. The SU on its own just doesn’t drive them properly..

AV2 is intriguing, but I see TomTom for e.g. want £850 for one. Quality no doubt is good, but top end of my probable budget for sure.

Between 300 and 400 GBP is the regular range. It's the quickest solution for your issue, but not the ultimate or best.

The AV2 makes music and is not too picky on sources.

If you have 850 GBP to spend, I would go nac72 / nac32.5 + hicap this would be way better than av2 or supernait.

I have the AV2, supernait 1, nac 72 etc... Compare them on a daily basis by using them. The AV2 + Nait 5 are resting now, tomorrow around 6 they need to fulfil their duty on Shaun the Sheep or so ...

Update. I spoke to my local dealer and he wants £750 for the 32.5/HiCap pairing. He doesn’t think they’ve been serviced, but they do look mint condition to me. S/N’s are 31xxx and 40xxx.

Do we think that price sounds reasonable?

kevin J Carden posted:

Update. I spoke to my local dealer and he wants £750 for the 32.5/HiCap pairing. He doesn’t think they’ve been serviced, but they do look mint condition to me. S/N’s are 31xxx and 40xxx.

Do we think that price sounds reasonable?

In short, perhaps !

They will both need service, calculate this amount on top

32.5/hicap/250 is a gold standard system. It means that you have to eat beans a few weeks and then you are recovered from the extra expense you have done.

The 32.5 eats good phono cards which will allow you to connect your LP12 to it if needed.

Since it is your own dealer, some guarantee should be possible, like: I buy them, when not satisfied you take them back in the first month or so.

The missing link will be the Dac in this setup. This system does deserve a good DAC, thinking mojo upwards.

S1 second hand...

+1 for the dac suggestions. I see a lot of buzz around the Beresford Caiman SEG as a cheap solution. 

Perol posted:

kevin J Carden posted:

Update. I spoke to my local dealer and he wants £750 for the 32.5/HiCap pairing. He doesn’t think they’ve been serviced, but they do look mint condition to me. S/N’s are 31xxx and 40xxx.

Do we think that price sounds reasonable?

In short, perhaps !

They will both need service, calculate this amount on top

To help price the service, I looked at an authorised Naim service agents’s site, he charges £145 for the 32.5 and £199 for the Hicap, so around £1,100 for the serviced pre. It’ll be a fantastic pre-amp, I have an olive system which was very very good when the 82/Hicap was unserviced after 24 years, and amazing after a service last year.

The 32.5 and Hicap would be great, and with the 250 make a classic amplifier. But I can’t help thinking that as a means of background music played via a Sonos bridge, it all seems rather wasted. If a dac is added then the cost is hardly less than the value of the SuperUniti. Maybe the answer is to flog the lot and get a mu-so. At least it would multiroom with the main system. 

Assuming the phonoboards are right in the 'new' NAC32.5, what about trying the forthcoming record player with it, and the CBNAP250 and the Arcs?

It's the sort of system, my Linn setup guy, Phil March, loves 

Thanks to all for a wide variety of suggestions! I’m wavering all over the shop on this , but current thinking is; much as I love the idea of this superb retro system, I am aware that it isn’t really the practical or sensible course given either current usage or potential future use after an imminent house move. Party pooper HH actually talking good sense I’m afraid 

so for now, James N has it. I’ll stick with what I have and make a decision of where to go next once the move is done and more is known about how it will be used. I’m more than a bit sad not to be getting those gorgeous CB boxes though..

Kevin

Sorry Kevin!!

hungryhalibut posted:

Sorry Kevin!!

Me too, but, sadly your counsel was wise! I’m grateful for it ..

Btw HH, on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is your main system, how good is Muso in your home? I’ve heard it at dealers ( always on the shop floor rather than in a demo room of course). It sounded surprisingly good given its compact form, but that’s a qualifying statement with praise attached. Just how satisfying do you find it yourself?

'come on, where is the spirit!