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Goodbye, Naim!

I’ve had a mostly-Naim setup for the last 12 years or so, and enjoy it daily. I have also come to realize that nobody really gives a sh*t how long I have owned Naim, or whether or not I enjoy it. The whole concept of fighting one’s audio corner, trying influence someone else’s purchase decision, seems silly to me. None of us hear anything the same!

I like Naim, others hate Naim or just like something else better. Fine by me. I honestly hope that everyone finds something (and more importantly, someone) they can be happy with long term.

Whew. Felt surprisingly good to get that off my chest. :)
 
My Nait 2 have seen many strange components replacing it for short and lenghty periods of time in the last 32 years. I now see audiophilia as a kind of mental disorder that happen to cost a lot and bring out frustations the more it gets into complexity. Simple things are always rewarding so I'l just get back to the small olive box. Welcome back, Naim!
 
"...nobody really gives a sh*t how long I have owned Naim..."

I'd give a sh*t, but not Naim. Try getting them to service your legacy equipment.
 
All very noble and praiseworthy but most of you 'ex-naimees' moved from said to often equally priced or more expensive options.

Hardly hardship is it now :).

Try as I did moving from (for me) reasonably expensive and well known brands to no-name chi-fi.

Admittedly it was curiosity rather than need but I haven't looked back.

No cold Turkey or sleepless nights bemoaning the loss of black boxes. Nop, just astonishment at what can be done for so little these days.

I would love to take this stuff to a show and just watch visitors faces when they are trying to justify why they spent thousands.
 
Why?

Just sounds like reverse snobberty to me.

Perhaps.

It would likely also show just how vain and hopelessly over priced much available hifi is.

That wasn't the only point though. I think that most folks nowadays can get close to very good hifi for not much. They can get high end with phones and headphones anyway but I think you can now get very, very close with home components too spending very little, except for speakers.

Nothing wrong with spending thousands if you got it and enjoy the result of course but for many, that's not exactly the reality.

Enough rethorics. I like Naim and think they are going the right way with their more life style and user friendly products, expensive or not and hope they continue to do so, but there are alternatives at a fraction of the cost.
 
Chi-fi ? I’d love to know the specifics.

Is that like cheap Chinese phones. That might not work next year. Due to support issues. Sorry I digress.
 
Perhaps.

It would likely also show just how vain and hopelessly over priced much available hifi is.

Based on my experience it probably won't - it'll just show that you're content at a performance level that others might not be.
 
Chi-fi ? I’d love to know the specifics.

Is that like cheap Chinese phones. That might not work next year. Due to support issues. Sorry I digress.

... or US bans.

Agree, cheap China phones I wouldn't touch. On the other hand, One Plus, Huawai etc make perfectly good ones.

As to cheap Chi-fi, no idea. I haven't used it long enough but so far, exceptional.

Looking at the bright side, if the amp and the valve stage go wrong, it would cost me all of a hundred and twenty quid to replace :D.
 
None of us hear anything the same!
I've been in situations where someone prefers one component, stating it has better timing, and I prefer the other option for the same reason. We can't know how another person experiences music and I think this causes much of the disagreements here.

Also, I'm beginning to think my preferences/needs are shifting as I get older. My wife is a nurse and informs me that men in particular find it more difficult to isolate conversation from background noise as they get older. I've noticed this get a lot worse the past year - I'm forever ask my wife to repeat herself. In busy traffic, I now find conversation more distracting when trying to drive. All this coincides with a switch to hifi that (to my degrading ears/brain) is more musically cohesive - i.e. instruments seem more in sync and it's just easier for me to follow and enjoy the music as a whole peice. My Naim Nait was one of the first changes away from Linn/Lejonklou amplification that possessed other strengths.
 
As to cheap Chi-fi, no idea. I haven't used it long enough but so far, exceptional.

My experience so far isn't that great.
- cheap valve headphone amp: Still works (and looks pretty) but is quite noisy so doesn't get much use
- cheap valve phono stage: Works but is so noisy it's unuseable. Might have sounded ok to someone who didn't have other phono stages to compare it to though
- expensive CD player with valve output stage: Sounded lovely until it went bang, and there isn't any realistic opportunity of getting it fixed (I've already asked some of the local repair places)

I've got another component coming (one of the same ones you use) and will report back once I've tried that.
 
...but there are alternatives at a fraction of the cost.
An oft-repeated assertion on here. Over the years I've gone out of my way to listen to suggested alternatives to my trusty Naim gear, and have yet to encounter anything I liked more, having eventually moved to Naim from many other makes. Some of it has proved laughably awful. But I'm still prepared to be convinced. You also need to define what flavour of Naim you're talking about because to my naffy old ears there's quite a difference between the various generations. 500 stuff or lesser? Active or passive?
 
My experience so far isn't that great.
- cheap valve headphone amp: Still works (and looks pretty) but is quite noisy so doesn't get much use
- cheap valve phono stage: Works but is so noisy it's unuseable. Might have sounded ok to someone who didn't have other phono stages to compare it to though
- expensive CD player with valve output stage: Sounded lovely until it went bang, and there isn't any realistic opportunity of getting it fixed (I've already asked some of the local repair places)

I've got another component coming (one of the same ones you use) and will report back once I've tried that.

Bad track record. I'm surprised you still buy cheap Chinese stuff.

No probs here. The thing is dead silent and makes the combination sound gorgeous.

There is a guy on the tube that did measurements on it. - At about 10.30 on the dial the valve buffer is volume neutral. Above or Before it will change volume accordingly. I have it set at that but also tried 12.00. No issues. Haven't turned it up beyond that as I dont need extra volume.

Also, the tone controls work perfectly, meeting somewhere in the middle of the frequency band ie. turning bass up or down will affect the midband as well as bass and treble adjustments will affect midband and up. Some will dismiss this as too broad but it seems to achieve its purpose to create a homogenous whole better than separate bass/mid/treble controls. The controls flat showed no measuresd deviation from the original signal. I have bass level at 0 and treble at about 10.30. I am sensitive to too much treble, one of the reasons I liked the Hegel a lot. End effect is the buffer creates a tiny bit of bloom and extra warmth which balances beautiful with the power, drive and control of the amp. Exactly what it is supposed to do then. Your mileage of course may vary.

Good luck with yours and hope you enjoy it.
 
An oft-repeated assertion on here. Over the years I've gone out of my way to listen to suggested alternatives to my trusty Naim gear, and have yet to encounter anything I liked more, having eventually moved to Naim from many other makes. Some of it has proved laughably awful. But I'm still prepared to be convinced. You also need to define what flavour of Naim you're talking about because to my naffy old ears there's quite a difference between the various generations. 500 stuff or lesser? Active or passive?

I got absolutely nothing against Naim.
 
Bad track record. I'm surprised you still buy cheap Chinese stuff.

I certainly won't be buying any expensive Chinese kit and suspect this might be the last cheap bit if it goes the way of the rest!

And for the record it's worth noting that I've some ancient Naim and Linn kit that still works great - despite some of it dating back to the 70's...
 
An oft-repeated assertion on here. Over the years I've gone out of my way to listen to suggested alternatives to my trusty Naim gear, and have yet to encounter anything I liked more, having eventually moved to Naim from many other makes. Some of it has proved laughably awful. But I'm still prepared to be convinced. You also need to define what flavour of Naim you're talking about because to my naffy old ears there's quite a difference between the various generations. 500 stuff or lesser? Active or passive?

I've cleared all the Naim of my main system but have no intentions of getting rid of the kit as I still think it sounds great - so for the moment it's being used as my bedroom system. It's pretty modest by Naim standards (CD3.5 & Flatcap, 32.5/SNAPS2/ IXO/2 x 140, active Credos) but I suspect it'll be back in one of my main systems at some point. After more than a decade I just fancied a change and the replacement setup is quite different (apart from the LP12 which was previousy used with the Naim set-up and the Mana racks) - Simaudio Moon phono stage, Simaudio Moon DAC being fed from a Cambridge Audio CD transport as well as a Chromecast Audio and my Alienware laptop, Krell integrated and Wilson Benesch standmounters).
 
I’ve just changed out my Naim 72/250dr amp for Yamaha as-801 for maintenance reasons temporarily.

The sonic emphasis, you might say, changes dramatically. I love the open neutrality of the Yam but miss the more dynamic drive of the Naim.

Two flavours. I’ll keep them both.
 
I certainly won't be buying any expensive Chinese kit and suspect this might be the last cheap bit if it goes the way of the rest!

And for the record it's worth noting that I've some ancient Naim and Linn kit that still works great - despite some of it dating back to the 70's...

Mmmmh, it reads more like you're out trying to make a point that cheap equals bad ... .

You pretty much seem to have made your mind up already.

Aaanyway, enjoy.
 
Mmmmh, it reads more like you're out trying to make a point that cheap equals bad ... .

No - just that if I keep buying cheap Chinese kit and it's not useable (or deoesn't last) then I'd be pretty silly continuing to buy cheap Chinese kit. I've had plenty of other decent cheap kit though.
 
These days you can pay some pretty chunky prices for British branded Chinese made stuff.

It doesn’t always convince me though. There’s still plenty of old fashioned British manufactured kit on the secondhand market that feels and sounds more genuine.
 


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