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System conundrum again

I’m currently using a CD5 with a Flatcap2. I really does sound very good indeed. Personally, I’d get some Neat Motive 2’s as well. There is a superb synergy between Naim electronics and Neat speakers in my experience.
 
I’ve never liked all Naim systems so my knowledge of the CD players are in that context. I’ve owned the Rotel CD player you have and Gaius is right - it is good but it is still budget.

My sense is that you need a better CD player too. If you’ve tried other Naim CDPs Im not sure why you’d continue down that road. A really nice detailed player is a Meridian 506.24. They hold their value too so you won’t have a problem selling if you don’t like it

I still have a nagging feeling about your speakers though. I have no experience whatsoever of Ruarks so my comment here is a general one. You say that you’ve only recently acquired the speakers. Whenever I change speakers I find Imneed many weeks to get used to them. Invariably I love them for a week, then dislike them for several weeks because they aren’t the same character that I’ve been used to. Then my ears adjust to them. I wonder whether you need more time to get used to the speakers before spending more on a better CD and still being unhappy.

Chucking out the whole amplification sounds wrong if you’ve had it a while. Whether you like the anaim sound or not, it really ought to have your toes tapping...

What speakers were you using before the Ruarks? Do you still have them? Can you borrow a component from a local fishie?
 
I have the Rotel. In my Yammy system it sounds fine.No thinness or brightness. I did used to run an 82 with a 180. In that system most CD players did sound bright, thin and sometimes harsh. It was hard to integrate some auxiliaries. I believe it is your amp set up rather than the CD player. This is how PRAT sounds I’m afraid. Some like it, some don’t. It’s an acquired sound. It was a little too relentless for me but I can understand why some liked it.
+1. Also if the speakers are reputed to be thin and harsh too then together they really will be nasty.
 
It would be pretty extreme to ditch the amps and speakers without trying out a different source first.

My suggestion would be to ask @Mike P of he has any of his excellently restored tda1514a cd players available. Should add some tonal weight and refinement to the PRaT elements of the system.
 
The 82 is too ruthless and hard with not enough grace IMO. Had one with hicap/2 Hicaps/Supercap and it was never satisfactory in hindsight.
 
An Arcam Alpha 5+ shouldn't sound bland or coarse. They're nice sounding players as standard and can be elevated to being really superb players with some carefully executed upgrades. It would be interesting to know exactly what has been done to your player.

The standard or work on modified CD players can vary from brilliant to shameful. It's much easier to make a player worse than it is to make it better!
 
The 82 is too ruthless and hard with not enough grace IMO. Had one with Hicap/2 Hicaps/Supercap and it was never satisfactory in hindsight.

Having been through these processes (1 HiCap, x2 the S'cap), I wouldn't go so far as your description, but WITH hindsight (or IN retrospect) it wasn't much of a leap forward from the 72. The 52 was definitely a jump.
 
The relative merit of the 82 depends on what you are trying to achieve.

In a linn tunedem sense the 82 is miles ahead of a 52.

so it’s really down to what ethos you decide to follow.
 
I tried an 82 in various configurations with various other stuff and it was universally horrid. I must have listened wrong.

The 52 is a really nice preamp but was way overpriced new, even by Naim standards. A good, well matched passive pre is far preferable to either.
 
OP, your amps and speakers were designed when analogue was the main source. A phat sounding 80’s LP12 would sound balanced in your current system !

Have you got access to borrowing a different CD player? Players from Meridian, Micromega etc from back in the day had a musical smoothness that could work well. From the modern era, Unison Research CD players have a lovely balanced sound and would work in your system to bring a better balance.

Failing that, selling the Naim gear could raise a few quid and you could start again. System synergy and room synergy for speakers are at the heart of good systems!
 
Your 2 x cd players are out of there depth with the amps and I never liked ruark speakers ,its the ported cabs with simple x over thing, makes them sound all over the place, like missions.
 
I used to have 82 and 250 for some years. It does sound better with two hicaps (DIY ones in my case), but when I sent it to Naim for servicing I used a passive preamp with the 250 and discovered that the 82 simply wasn't as good as no preamp at all so sold it and bought a DAC with volume control, sold my cd player and converted to streaming. However - try other speakers as speakers make more tonal difference than the electronics.
 
Fisbey,

Move away from the CD player and look to go down the streaming route would be a suggestion from me as a first step and then see what things sound like. I'm really intrigued that people are still 'pushing' CD players, I must be missing something.

Regards

Richard
 
I recently sold an Audiolab 8000A and tried it briefly with the Ruarks and it sounded more relaxed and even, but from memory the Audiolab doesn't have the oomph or excitement of the Naims.

I believe that this is where the problem lies.

Accurate, higher-fidelity systems sound "bland", "boring", "flat", "unexciting" to some people.
It is likely that some types of distortion give a subjective impression of loudness and dynamism.

There's a chance that outhe cause of the problems is not in the CD players but in the amplification or the amp/speaker combo.
You have to decide whether you can live with the "harshness" and perhaps find a pair more forgiving speakers if you wish to keep the Naims.
 


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