The Naits compared

... and yes, love or the inability to part with the equipment is a very telling indicator. I would hesitate though to add it to the six criteria, as it's more of a long-term effect that I expect would correlate strongly with 1 (immediate involvement) and 2 (depth of insight) and, is very personal. I could never bring myself to sell my CDX, but many hate it...

Just home from the Nait evening in Bristol, many thanks to Jason from Naim, Tony? from Focal and Audio T Bristol. Speakers were Aria 936s, in a very very large room. Nait 5si/CD5i up first, and sounding not bad at all. He then switched to the XS2 but fed from an ND5 XS, plus adding power supplies and then finally a SN2 fed by an NDX plus again adding power supplies. Im afraid I didnt see a toe tapping in the front row all the way through. I found most of it rather bright, steely, the lower end of the scale pretty muddled throughout. In some respects the first simple system seemed most livable with but it was the first thing we heard of course. I sort of made my mind up it had to be the speakers. However, after Jason had finished, one of the guys from Focal stuck a USB stick in the NDX and played some lady singing some jazzy stuff. Finally for me, the system came totally to life, was open, transparent, and playing music at last, even the old feet started moving. Im not really sure what my conclusion is. It didnt help comparing the amps with switching the sources all the time. Im guessing perhaps the file quality on the USB stick was much better than files on the the Hard Drive of the NDX which brings us back to source first, but may stand to be corrected. It was also mentioned that a certain new amp will be on dem as a ticket affair next month, tickets to be obtained from Naim at the show......

Your comment maked me thinking back when JV demoed LP12/Isobarik on his amplication, its been a while and has the performance bettered ?

You would have to like the Barbaricks in the forest place to like them better than many other first quality speakers.

ATB from George

If you check out some of the audio gear demo videos on Youtube you'll notice that more often than not well recorded "lady singing jazzy stuff" is the type of music employed. Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Pat Barber, etc. It's not what I'd call toe tapping music but it has a way of making most systems sound quite good.

I cringe every time I see an audio salesperson reach for those types of CDs during a demo.

Ive always found to my surprise that at recent Naim demos Ive been to, that somewhat slow and pedestrian stuff is played, picked for it's 'recording quality' rather than it's musical qualities. Rarely do you hear music that 'boogies' a bit, which to me is one of their amps main strengths. One of the tracks played I believe was Rufus Wainwright(?), it just sounded like a monotonous voice over a robotic kickdrum and snare. How about some real music that twists and turns a bit? However the lady singer and her band were at least sounding alive and kicking, and the Focals really sang for the only time during the evening. I guess I came away unconvinced about streaming yet again. Looking forward to my old classic vinyl active system tonight. 

When I was demoing gear, one dealer insisted on playing a CD of two deep male voices talking back and forth on a stage, stereoscopically , with "big acoustics". Sounds great, I thought, but when in the hell am I ever going use my hifi to listen to two guys talking on a stage? Who even makes CDs of this kind of stuff? 

Dear George

I do certainly like the Barbariske knowing their compromises are very different to modern types

Hard pressed I like the 57 esl likewise

Owned both and true Classic they are

ATB

I was there last night and was massively disappointed. As JBGWild says, the first system sounded the best (and I don't even like choral music) - really impressive scale from the Nait in a huge room. The following tracks were turgid, pedestrian and the sound was very harsh and muddy from where I sat, half way back. The differences between the system set ups were barely discernable.

What killed it for me was that there was a long "technical hitch" after about an hour which led to a guy from Focal drivelling on about how great Focal speakers were because they used flax sandwiched between fibreglass as it doesn't stretch - apart from anything else my better half was with me and assured me flax does stretch (she knows textiles). Basically the lamest and most patronising hifi sales pitch I've heard in years. It then degenerated into a discussion of speaker finishes. Someone in the audience asked why the Focals only came in dark colours (black or walnut) - another Focal guy replied that walnut was "quite light actually" and in response to another query from the audience said that you should expect to pay way more than £3000 if you expect a choice of finishes. This went on and on to no purpose whilst the system was apparently ready to go but Jason had to stand by. It was like being trapped in Ikea - my worst nightmare...

At this point we had enough and left (at my instigation) - there are better ways of spending your anniversary!

It was a pretty thin sales pitch, especially the demoed speakers having 3 woofers and muddled bass IMHO. We were told Naim made speakers for Naim but Focal were designed for 'all electronics'.  I think there was also comment from the 'stage' however about a lower priced streamer in the works........