The background
I am writing this as when I was looking for amps I found very little written about some of these models I was investigating, so I thought other people might be interested in a subjective view and listening comparison between these models.
In 2017 I decided that my Naim system required an upgrade – the power amp was a weak link and it was buzzing, it needed a service. The system consisted of the following:
- CDS3 with XPS DR power supply
- NAC 552 DR preamp with the NAC 552 PS
- NAP 250 power amp
- B&W 804 Diamond speakers
I felt that the very old 250 needed not only servicing but upgrading too. To get the most out of the NAC 552 I felt that I really needed a NAP 300. A NAP 300 meant I would need a new rack as the 300 requires a separate power supply and I was all out of shelves. A 300 and a new rack meant a big investment. So I looked at the alternatives.
I bought a couple of hifi magazines - what a waste of time that was. Hifi mags back in the 80s and 90s were interesting things with good writing and critical reviews. Now they are simply a sales brochure for the hardware with 5* review after 5* review. Each and every review was a testament to how brilliant and faultless each product was. And no surprise to find the same companies taking out pages of expensive ads in the magazine. But hey, that’s a debate for another day.
So I did a bit of my own research and over the next few months I home-demoed 4 different manufacturer’s amps: Vitus, Luxman, Devialet and the Naim with a NAP300. I always home demo if I can as my room has some acoustic issues (a bass boom) and things can sound very different in there. My budget was the trade-in value of the Naim amps, so around £10k. The aim was also to reduce the number of boxes without compromising the sound. Could this be done? Throughout the home demos described below both the source and the speakers remained the same (NAIM CDS3 / XPS DR and B&W 804 Diamond speakers). I did also demo the Vitus RCD-101 as an alternative to the NAIM CDS3 but the two CD players interestingly sounded broadly similar. But then the CDS3 is known to be a fairly rounded sound for Naim, and certainly a world away from the grit of the Naim CDX. Anyway, I digress.
Vitus Vs Naim
Naim NAC552+PS £20k NAP 300+PS £7k = £27k
Vitus RI-100 £10k (with on-board dac)
An integrated amp? Back when I was at school I spent my formative years with an integrated amp (I’m looking at you NAD 3020e) longing for the day when I could separate into pre- and power amp heaven. So the idea of an integrated amp took some getting used to. But cutting down from a potential 4 to 1 box worth of amplification was tempting. This was the first non-Naim product I had listened to at home for over 20 years. To start with I was rather unimpressed. The RI-100 was running cold, the Naim sounded as PRaTy as ever and after half an hour of A/B testing I had dismissed the Vitus.
A couple of days later, with the Vitus having been idling on heat for 48 hours, I sat and listened to some music. Now things were sounding very different. Instead of going back and forth to do A/B testing I just sat and listened. I was slowly but surely drawn into what was happening. This was different. I am no hifi poet, as the writers in the mags are, but what I can say is that for the first time familiar tracks began to sound more complete, more like music. Whereas the Naim sounded exciting and toe-tapping (the over-used but perfectly described PRaT) the Vitus sounded like music. Getting as technical as I am able: the Naim had a lower-mid and digital treble boost, this made it exciting but it had always had a tendency to grate on certain recordings, what's more I would have a fatigued ear after an hour at anything other than low volume. Not so the Vitus. And I now understand the word transparent. The music just is. And the music had depth, I mean a three-dimensionality.
After living with the Vitus for a few evenings I went back to jump-up & sit-down A/B testing. The 552/300 combo would somehow overemphasise parts of the music. So, John Martyn’s Solid Air: the Naim throws the vocal as a distinct ‘thing’ in front of the speaker, separated form the music behind, but now I realised this was not a natural thing, and there was little more depth than that. The Vitus sat music from the plane of the speaker and behind, a long way behind, into the space. But it sounded somehow more organic. I want to be able to describe the differences but I am finding the words hard to articulate.
So with the Vitus we are looking at a sweeter treble, a less forward sound but no less detailed, and a very transparent mid. And the bass? The B&W 804 Diamonds are light on bass, the way I like it as I have a boomy room, but the bass was tighter with the Vitus, much tighter. The Naim sometimes sounds like it has a bit of a lower mid or is it upper bass exaggeration and this was absent from the Vitus. That effect (colouration?) on the Naim yields some recordings a warmth in that register that the Vitus would sometimes lack. But that very exaggeration in those frequencies meant that on direct comparison that the Naim didn't sound quite as organically whole.
If I was playing rock or dance/electronic or current, heavily compressed, music the Naim was initially more impressive. But with a balanced diet of music I was all-in for the Vitus. Given the price of the Vitus new is a bit over 40% of the price of the Naim new, and it is one box vs four…it all seemed too good to be true. Who’d have thought an integrated amp could sound so good. If music could sound so different I was excited to explore the other options.
Luxman Vs Naim
Naim NAC552+PS £20k NAP 300+PS £7k = £27k
Luxman C700U pre £6k and M-700U Power £6k
Next up was the Luxman two box solution. If the Vitus made things sound more natural the Luxman was a different beast altogether. The Luxman was like listening to velvet. Music enveloped you, it was SO warm and lush. There was not even a hint of the harsh treble the Naim could throw out on certain recordings. Female vocals were sumptuous, and best of all 50s and 60s swing recordings (I’m talking Sinatra et al) sounded incredible. In fact most recordings up until the mid-70s were presented beautifully by the Luxman. Even rock sounded good, or at least Dark Side by Pink Floyd did, grittier rock such as Led Zeppelin was a little soft. Where the Luxman fell down for me was the lack of excitement and detail. So when the music was simple and swinging (Sinatra), or had good rock textures (Floyd), or had a harder-edged female vocal, it was excellent, softening the edges to a sound of luxury. But if the music had a lot of detail, or a strong beat to it, then it lacked the excitement of the Naim and it lacked the natural transparency of the Vitus, and I missed these big time. Classical music, which I thought would benefit here, could sound muddy when it got complex,and lacked detail when it was simple chamber music. Daft Punk or Kraftwerk sounded soft and a little turgid. But despite that I really liked the Luxman, really liked it.
In a few years I can see myself returning to the Luxman when I want a softer, gentler sound. It’s a return to the womb, for times to be enveloped in blurred but sumptuous music. But for now it just lacked the dynamism I wanted.
Devialet Vs Naim
Devialet 220 £6k
Naim NAC552+PS £20k NAP 300+PS £7k = £27k
This is a unfair on the Devialet as we are not comparing like with like. The Naim gear is £27k’s worth compared to a £6k Devialet. Nevertheless I will report on what I heard.
The technology and look of the Devialet is impressive. Here is an integrated amp that looks a little like a sleek set of bathroom scales, and certainly no thicker and not much heavier, and it was up against the 4 box Naim, the 2 box Luxman and the chunky tall and exceedingly heavy Vitus. The Devialet was optimised for my speakers through the on-board software.
But I found the sound was not to my liking. It had the brashness of the Naim without the excitement and the refinement. Whilst the 552/300 combo is exciting it really does have refinement. And when you hear the Devialet at one-quarter of the price you really notice that refinement difference. Compared to the Luxman and the Vitus (still unfair as the Devialet is an amp at around half the price) the Devialet had detail but it lacked the musicality of the Vitus and was not subtle in the way it portrayed the music. The bass was looser than the Naim. I don’t have so much to say: whereas the Vitus and the Luxman were very different to each other and to the Naim, the Devialet was broadly similar to the presentation of the Naim, but just not as good in all departments.
CONCLUSION
The Naim, Vitus and Luxman are all very different beasts and all have their attractive qualities. Like much high-end hi-fi some of this amplification suits some types of music and some ears better than others. For my ears right now the Vitus was the clear winner. There are types of music which sounded more impressive on the Naim, and types which just sounded better on the Luxman. But for all-round detailed, transparent, three dimensional, musical presentation the Vitus was a clear winner. And in one box, who’d have thought it?
The Vitus did most things better than the Naim, whereas the Luxman just did things differently. So between Vitus and Naim there is no contest for me, and with the new price being £27k Naim v £10k Vitus the Naim makes no sense to me. With Vitus v Naim I would wager most extended blind testing would fall for the Vitus as it does most of what it does better and it does not fatigue at all. There is the 'Naim sound' which is very evident when you compare it to the transparency of the Vitus, and I can see there is an immediacy to that which some may prefer. But after you have heard the Vitus the Naim sound actually starts to sound wrong. It's an odd sensation. With Vitus v Luxman the difference needs to be heard as it’s warm velvet vs clear water. You have to hear the difference to know which you’ll like better.
If only I’d known this 20 years ago I maybe would never have gone blindly for Naim. Though maybe it’s that other manufacturers have caught up with Naim, or maybe I just fell for the marketing of Naim and those lovely olive boxes back in 1998 when I finally moved my NAD 3020e on and into the basic Naim system. After that I just blindly followed the Naim upgrade path.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of demoing of cables, speakers and sources recently. If that is of interest to people here on this forum then let me know and I’ll get around to writing them up one day.
