Introducing myself

Hi Charlie great posts .... it's great that your getting interactive with this great forum...pls keep it up.....cheers good luck.

Good points above  (though Terry’s post was a touch extreme in the cynicism department - I think most of us ignore bland marketing cliches now) but PLEASE DO NOT remove the record button.. it allows so much flexibility as a second preamp bus.. I use mine regularly... a real PLUS for Naim and a few other higher ends... so many others have removed this functionality at the to for many true audio enthusiasts... arguably with many streaming digital sources as well as analogue sources aggregating at the preamp now recording, as for me, is possibly more useful than it’s been for a long time... yes perhaps call it Record as opposed to Tape.. though when recording I use DAT.

Simon, I’m intrigued. What exactly do you record these days? I think the last time I physically recorded anything was Pick of the Pops introduced by Alan Freeman to my first ever Ferguson cassette recorder!!

I think he means he uses it as high quality audio switching, to feed the signal to something he wants to listen via, so not recording per se.

best

David

Timmo, like Simon, I use the recording out functions on my Naim preamp quite a lot. It's very useful for recording an analogue source to a digital file for use on portables. And, of course, it allows the use of a Headphone amp, such as Naim's own Headline.  I would certainly miss it. 

The record out row adds very little to the cost of the unit. It makes little sense to muck with it. You could drop it and reduce the number of inputs to 3 but the cost to produce a unit would hardly change.

Richard Dane posted:

Timmo, like Simon, I use the recording out functions on my Naim preamp quite a lot. It's very useful for recording an analogue source to a digital file for use on portables. And, of course, it allows the use of a Headphone amp, such as Naim's own Headline.  I would certainly miss it. 

Ah, that now makes sense. It was the ‘record’ term that was confusing me. Perhaps renaming might be a good idea?

Congratulations on the new role.... and thank you for this thread.

Timmo1341 posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Timmo, like Simon, I use the recording out functions on my Naim preamp quite a lot. It's very useful for recording an analogue source to a digital file for use on portables. And, of course, it allows the use of a Headphone amp, such as Naim's own Headline.  I would certainly miss it. 

Ah, that now makes sense. It was the ‘record’ term that was confusing me. Perhaps renaming might be a good idea?

Perhaps Naim could pay a couple of grand for some marketing fartey called something improbable like Thad who wears designer glasses to 'reimagine' the name for the obsolete Record buttons.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Good points above  (though Terry’s post was a touch extreme in the cynicism department - I think most of us ignore bland marketing cliches now) but PLEASE DO NOT remove the record button.. it allows so much flexibility as a second preamp bus.. I use mine regularly... a real PLUS for Naim and a few other higher ends... so many others have removed this functionality at the to for many true audio enthusiasts... arguably with many streaming digital sources as well as analogue sources aggregating at the preamp now recording, as for me, is possibly more useful than it’s been for a long time... yes perhaps call it Record as opposed to Tape.. though when recording I use DAT.

Great post, not only clarifying the value of the Record/Output function but also putting the marketing in perspective, including Terry's comment.

I think what people here most dislike is precisely the "bland cliche" aspect: that it says nothing about Naim, doesn't embody its character or aspirations: in short, that it's bad branding. It could have been written about any high-end company.

Dear Charlie, 

Apologies for the direct approach, and for crashing this thread, but please make sure Naim Service Dept gets sorted as your first priority. Two months to change a streamer display is utterly unacceptable.

Kind regards,

Tony

Tony2011 posted:

Dear Charlie, 

Apologies for the direct approach, and for crashing this thread, but please make sure Naim Service Dept gets sorted as your first priority. Two months to change a streamer display is utterly unacceptable.

Kind regards,

Tony

 

 

Hi Tony,

It is absolutely a priority for me too. Work already underway,

Charlie

While you are at it, please could I have my 372 in time for Christmas?

A welcome, yes, but why don't we all stop making demands and offering 'advice'and let the man get on with his job!

Hi Charlie ......... one thing on my Naim wish list .......... the wonderful 552 preamp ........ is great, however, not all of us will ever have a chance of owning the stellar S1...the 552 does have one weak link - the analogue wiper volume control..........it would be great if this area was updated with an S1 type digital ladder control .........  Finally a minor mod to the NAP500dr to allow the fitting of two power supplies..........would be good. More sales for you - more sound for us.....win win???

Richieroo posted:

Hi Charlie ......... one thing on my Naim wish list .......... the wonderful 552 preamp ........ is great, however, not all of us will ever have a chance of owning the stellar S1...the 552 does have one weak link - the analogue wiper volume control..........it would be great if this area was updated with an S1 type digital ladder control .........  Finally a minor mod to the NAP500dr to allow the fitting of two power supplies..........would be good. More sales for you - more sound for us.....win win???

As a 552 owner I have nothing against the excellent pot control. I have heard so many execrable amps with the digital control ladders and unfortunately once owned one.I'm sure it works just fine and dandy on the S1 and offers all sorts of benefits, but not sure they necessarily include sonic superiority.

When Naim developed the 500 they tried two power supplies and very definitely preferred it with one so never made it an option.

Re 500 I read an article about that too ... my understanding was that whilst you are correct ........ I think there were in their opinion some earthing issues that needed looking into ........ aka development work ....... so as a quick trial no - although some immediate positives were noticed.......... so possibly with some serious attention it may well work. I also seem to remember reading some guys in the states were running twin supply NAP500's.

In my experience wiper pots are inherently a little lossy. Years ago I built a Ben Duncan Passion ....... passive and it was amazing - but alas not really suitable for Naim. I think when Naim originally developed the 552 - it was so far ahead sonically - that it was felt not necessary - but i think things have moved on from there - the S1 demonstrates this....and Naim now have critical development knowledge....

Charlie, I hope you are writing down this never-ending wish list of individual 'needs' and anecdotal evidence of 'issues' as you might forget something!

Nice one....good call

Charlie Henderson posted:

Tony2011 posted:

Dear Charlie, 

Apologies for the direct approach, and for crashing this thread, but please make sure Naim Service Dept gets sorted as your first priority. Two months to change a streamer display is utterly unacceptable.

Kind regards,

Tony

 

 

Hi Tony,

It is absolutely a priority for me too. Work already underway,

Charlie

 

Hi Charlie,

Great  to know some improvements are already taking place.  I would like to personally thank you in advance for your friendly but still professional  approach to these changes. I want to take the opportunity to also extend my compliments and gratitude to Mark, Rob and the rest of the crew. 

Best wishes for  the future.

Tony

Congratulations Charlie.

We have been a huge fan of Naim since the early days and I joined the old threaded Naim forum in 1996 when Paul and JV were very active along with some fantastic members. We hope you have a lot of success, your people at Naim are probably your biggest asset and we wish you all the best in your journey at Naim.

regards 

Charlie,

you are brave to post on the site but I am glad you did so.  As everyone is giving unsolicited advice, I will sheepishly as well.  To my mind one of the reasons for Naim's success is their products' ability to command good prices on the 2nd hand market (that is, excluding source components).  This allows the Company's customers to exchange equipment to dealers for upgrades.  It also allows customers to own very expensive equipment with the peace of mind that they can sell and still have a good residual value if needed.  I recently sold a 250.2 and a Supercap which I owned since 2006 for about 65- 70% what I paid for them new (excluding VAT).   I think some reasons the resale value is so good on certain Naim equipment include: the dealer support and repair service; the conservative styling which does not date; long intervals btw model updates; the active Naim forum community and the upgradability of some of the equipment (for eg the DR upgrades).  Financially, I would not have been drawn into the Naim world, or climbed the Naim ladder without the good residual values of the equipment.  I imagine there are a number of other customers who made a similar calculation.  

Trust me the 555 streamer is so much better tha the nds witch l also had.

French Rooster posted:

Sloop John B posted:

Can I echo .. echo...echo... the welcomes. No doubt by now you are aware of how serious some of us are about music and love/loyalty/affiliation to Naim.

But as Chrissie sang............ there's a thin line between love and hate................ and a lot of us here do show some bipolar tendencies when it comes to Naim.

Never easy to please everyone but honesty does help smooth over some of the bumps on the road ...........

big shoes, may I wish you the very best of luck in trying to fill them

.sjb

 

love, loyalty, affiliation to Naim.  

difficult to be more stupid....

Bob green posted:

Trust me the 555 streamer is so much better tha the nds witch l also had.

I trust you, Bob. Good man. 

.sjb