Out with the old, in with the new?
Posted by: Alley Cat on 09 September 2018
Classic system of NAC 72, Hi-Cap (multiple), Paxo/Naxo, SBLs, olive 250 x 2.
Primary sources - cirkus LP12/Ekos/Lingo/Linto/OC-9 II / Nova.
Speakers - SBLs active or passive, or currently Epos ES 14s which I've always loved and remain superb with better bass extension than the SBLs ever had as far I can recall.
Ignoring the Nova I've posted about mostly, though mainly played via newest olive 250, there are too many options to contemplate, without infinite financial resources .
Majority of Naim equipment 20-25 years old, never serviced.
The Nova (and prior to that the Atom) were the first streaming products I felt might actually suit me, and the new Unitis were a great form factor during domiciliary changes.
So, currently confusing myself demoing:
NAP 250 DR/NAP 300DR using Nova as a source including LP12 via analogue in.
NAP 250 DR - fantastic improvement over olive 250 - however how much better than servicing the older 250(s)???
NAP 300DR - problem - cannot output direct from Nova without non-standard cables, so eventually found old NAC 72/Hi-Caps and hooked up - in all honesty quite soft but probably compromised by Nova's variable pre-amp output I was wary of setting too high. Again how much is compromised using unserviced 72/HiCap?
Enter the NAC 282, into the 300DR via HiCap I'd been trying via the NAC 72/old Hi-Cap:
Wow! Not rough but as many suggest but considerably better spatial separation and complex musical passages far easier to follow, though some music became a bit anaemic.
Advantage of 282 is the ability to use my older Hi-Caps.
Enter the NDX 2:
Gobsmacked. Biggest difference of any newer items for streamed audio and the first item I feel sounds as good/even better than my LP12.
Speakers:
Epos ES 14 - marmite I guess but I regard them as utterly fantastic and they sound better and better with any source/pre/power upgrades - heck I have no idea what could match these under £2,000-£3,000 these days.
SBLs - still in storage - when I got them I chose a 2nd hand NAXO over a SNAXO as it sounded more 'analogue to me' - I could never quite convince myself that I needed the power of a NAP 250 for the 'tweeters' as well as the 'woofers' but the older active crossovers for SBLs meant NAPs powered a speaker each. Extremely tempting to get a new SNAXO 2-4-2 which might allow a mixture of old/new NAPs to power the SBLs.
Comments, suggestions welcomed......