Hi-Fi Corner

Hello, I'm about to have my living room carpeted and I intend to run 2 lengths of 8 m Chord Odyssey 2 through a channel cut in the underlay underneath the carpet. The underlay is 8 mm thick as are the cables. I am thinking of running them along the gripper rods and around the corner of the room. A few questions:  1. Will it impair the sound if the 2 lengths are run side by side - should I cut separate channels in the underlay (I'd like to avoid this if possible)?; 2. Will the cables be...

Hi Folk, Do you know what is the function of the second Hi-Cap on 282 pre-amp ? Which part will it handle ? Regards, marcobb

Hi all, I'm just deciding whether buying a HDX or a good CD player like the CD5 XS and then a network reader as the NDX. Has anyone compared the CD5 XS vs the HDX in terms of sound quality? How they play? Thanks in advance for any answers/suggestions. PPT

First, I just wanted to say hi and thank you for accepting me to your forums. I recently picked up a NAC 152XS/NAP 150X, my first pieces of naim, and definitely not my last :) .. The question I have is regarding balance. The system sounds great and balanced as far as I can tell at normal listening levels, but, I noticed as I slowly turn down the volume to 0, for really low listening levels, that the left speaker goes out first. At that point I can still hear music coming out of the right...

Not trolling one bit as I love the brand, but.. Used to be IBL, SBL, NBL and DBL Recently (fairly) we've had Ovators, Arrivas, allaes (?) and Credos What, or maybe where, do these names come from? I'd just like to know..

I have a couple of questions and wonder if anyone can shed some light.  There are a couple of ideas I wouldn't mind trying with my system and i'm wondering if it will be possible to try them.  Current set up is a unitiqute 2, nap 100, LP12, project phono stage and SBL speakers. 1.  First option is to run and older olive or chrome bumper power amp instead of the New Nap 100 I have.  So say an older CB Nap 100 or Olive 140 or something. 2.  Could I run an older Hicap...

We are doing a little refresh of our home after being here for 5 years and what we did last weekend was to get a little (150cm x 90cm) carpet from Ikea which we had placed in the living room between both speakers and our sofa. To my surprise, it has robbed a noticeable amount of "sparkle" of life from the sound. I think it is fair to say that the carpet has absorbed the high frequencies but shouldn't that be a good thing that I have a carpet to remove some reflection? Apart from removing the...

Hi, My CD5i has started to skip slightly towards the end of around 50% of my CDs. Anyone else experienced this and is there anything I can do about it? I now live in France so returning the player would be a expensive and Naim dealers over here are few and far between. Thanks  

The issue is getting the nuts that hold the spikes secured in the granite. Drilling holes - is this something a supplier will do? Best adhesive? Potential pitfalls? Any recommendations on granite thickness or good VFM spikes (I have thick carpet) appreciated as well. I'm still in the thinking stage on this and wanted to gather some basic info before I start calling local suppliers. The plinths would go under my floorstanding speakers and Isoblue rack.

Good or bad idea? Can the Hugo's balanced XLR out connect to the NAP 300 XLR input? I've read Naim's preamps are bandwidth limited to prevent the power amp from 'spontaniously combusting' so to speak. Do Naim's latest generation of power amps still get very upset if they get fed full bandwidth? Does anyone know if the TT also is bandwidth limited for the same reason Naim do this? Last question, does any of this really matter as connecting the TT will do the NAP 300 no harm with no loss of...

HI everyone - I am new to the forum - after just purchasing a new N272... After purchasing a cast-away from a friend (ND5 XS) from a friend to replace a Marantz NA7004 streamer, I wondered how much a SQ improvement I could get with a N272 - after a visit to my friendly dealer and a home trial over a few days before X-Max, I place an order for a N272.... This is now taken over stereo pre-amp duties from my trusty Tag McLaren AV23R which has been with me for many many years from new...! The...

I notice a little difference in volume with the RCA inputs on my nait xs. The CD and TAPE inputs are a little lower in volume than the TUNER and AV inputs. All with same source. Sound qulity is about the same. I have only tried with RCA not the DIN inputs.  But is it normal with small differences in volume? 

I have just upgraded to nDAC 4.11.8 firmware with and compared the system performance before and after upgrade. I'm impressed with improvements. The system is nDAC/555DR + 282/HC/250.2 + Katana Speakers. Katana cabinets are based on transmissions line and capable of going very low (below 30 Hz). Transmission line is very sensitive to the bass transient quality -- when you feed it with slow source it sounds horrible. What I found is that the new firmware...

For some time now I have noticed that my 552 will only allow both speakers to work if I have the mono source button on as well as the source selection-no matter what source socket I use  on the rear panel,for my NDS. I only use NDS as a source.If i turn off the mono button only the right speaker plays and also this actually is clearer than when both speakers are playing.(?). Please can an expert advise me, I assume its a programming issue but I cannot correct it. 

Hello everyone and a Happy New Year! I'm a newly but very proud owner of a Nait 5 i paired to some Elac 2way floorstanders and I have the chance of buying a pair of Spendor S9e for around €2000 (£1500). My questions are: 1. Are these speakers worth €2000? (they do seem in mint condition, the owner took great care of them) 2. Will these speakers be ok with my small Nait 5 i until I can afford to move up to a SuperNait or better (no sooner than 1 year though) or will it be an exercise in...

I was offered this cable at a good discount for my NAP 300: is this cable worth the price ? Thanks

There have been a few threads about Naim's hugely expensive new cables, which perhaps inevitably considered their use in the context of Statement and 500 series systems. Well, shortly before Christmas I got myself some SL speaker cables, and last week bought the Din to XLR cable. That means that, owning 'only' a 272 and 250 DR, it's now 'full loom', as people seem to call it.  With a few days for the Din to XLR to settle down, these swanky wires have transformed the system totally. It's...

Following my last post, asking about the relative merits of the different Naim pre-amps and what they each bring to the party I'm now at the point where I'm going to make the leap and upgrade.  Or very nearly.... Before I do so, I've let my mind wander to a curve ball, which I wonder if anyone else has considered (even though I realise I'm posting this on a Naim forum!).  Whilst I am firmly of the vinyl persuasion I have been thinking that I may make use of a streamer when I need a...

Slight play on words there, sorry, couldn't help it. I've just replaced the wooden shelves that came with the cabinet that contains my amps with 10mm toughened glass. To be honest the main reason was to improve the looks (image..see?) and to gain an extra shelf in capacity. So, I think it does look much nicer and I have my extra shelf. The unexpected gain was in imaging. There was a change in sound quality, an improvement I think, but not night and day. But the change in the ability to place...

When I bought my KEF 105/3s over 25 years ago, I was able to audition speakers by KEF, Celestion, Quad, Wharfedale and Tannoy on the same day at the same dealer, in the same room and with two or three alternative amplifier and turntable combinations over several hours.  The choice, for me, was obvious and I have been so satisfied over the years that I had the KEFs professionally restored, updated and recalibrated a couple of years ago. Now that I have upgraded my system with...

I have just realised that my wife's CD of Adele 25 lists all the track names when played in my car, whereas all other CDs, so far as I have noticed anyway, show track 1, track 2, etc.  In her car it shows the track name of the track playing but the entertainment system reports that it is playing MP3 rather than CD which is what it normally reports.  After ripping the CD in my Unitiserve, the rip streams as a 44.1 kHz WAV as usual. Does anyone know what is happening here? best David

Hi I'm looking for a confirmation of the cable i need to link my NAC282 to the SC. Is it a Din 4/5 ? Assuming the folowing should be ok . => NAC282 (Aux2 not powered) to SC via Din 4/5 then SC to SL via Burndy. Today my setup is NAC282 (Aux2 Powered) to SL via Din (but different from the one i will need in my new setup as 240/5 if i'm not wrong). Tks for your tips/confirmation Phil

I post this cos i know it will give Dougy and PaulS a big giggle. Many moons ago when the HDX first came out, I reviewed it for HifiCritic. From memory, I wasnt particularly enthusiastic becuase the software was, shall we say, somewhat primitive and buggy. And tomorrow, I take delivery of an ex dem HDX SSD. And only because I know how much work has been done on the software in that time, and how much better Naim's software development process is compared to 2008.  It will be interesting...

I have posted here several times of late about recapping, servicing, etc.  In the middle of all of it, a fully serviced 160 showed up at my local dealer.  It was serviced by the new North American distributor.  It took it home for an audition, and once it was even slightly warmed up, I knew it was mine. All I can say is, "wow".  Other than going from a TD125 Mk2 to my LP12, this is the single biggest upgrade.  More significantly, my system has finally hit that place...

This might be a dumb question.  Before I splash out on cabling - i thought I'd throw this out.  I'm intrigued by what a NAP100 would do for my UQ2 system. But then I remembered, I have an old NAP90 kicking around.  Obviously I have to get a RCA to DIN to hook the two up (i think?) - but would there be any obvious benefit (and I mean blatantly perceivable, not just on paper) of running the UQ2 into a NAP90? And possibly for debates sake, how much better is the NAP100 than the...