Life after Naim
- Thread starter cayorob
- Start date
Gervais Cote
Predator
paulbysea
pfm Member
It is not only Naim who have put up their prices, it pretty much across all manufacturers and those that haven't so far will be following suit soon. Whilst I don't like the idea of paying more for Naim equipment, I recognise in this post-covid and post-Brexit world it is an inevitability. A possible bonus for people with bits of used kit to sell is that it might attract higher prices.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
I departed from Naim mid 90s and after listening and owning Shahinians and Dynavectors I did work in the industry and although I hold Naim in high regard they are not for mere mortals sound for pound its definitely SHARCS, Dynies and Well Tempered.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
Always felt the Naim frame was pretty damming when it first cam out, if I recall correctly if has glass shelves just like mana.
The last iteration of the great wall of Naim used to drive SL2s and an nSub actively. Sold it all when we moved house in 2014. Now using SME/Pass Labs/Aesthetix/Lumin.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
I quite liked the Linn Kairn Klout it did a decent job against my Naim NAC 82 Hicaps and NAP250 to be fair just found it was a little more fussy and less romantic.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
I had just purchased a HX1.2 Mk two when the NAP 500 came out and installed it for a client remember walking away being thrilled with my Dynavector however the NAP 500 had not run in so not a fair comparison just pleased 25 years on that my newly purchased HX1.2 does everything Ive every wanted to listen to.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
The original Nait and Nait 2 where great fun amps to live with.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
A chord DAC and £100 transport would be my suggestion balanced if possible.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
I was in OZ in 1995 and a pal had a pair of ARC 1s and a Berdenni Amp at the time I had the NAC82 2 Hi-caps and a NAP 250 and it was so fast that I longed and purchased a Dynavector HX 1.2 Mk 2 in 2000.
Prior to that I was captured by the HX75/HX1.2 and L100 and shahinians. We started to shift a huge amount of Compasses and Naim Naits based on system synergy. Clients basically went from yeah that's hi-fi to wow that's music and we are engrossed.
I listened to a B&W nautilus and Linn six pack of Klimax amps and put a naim nait driving a pair of sonab shoe boxes with a Sony pro walkman and realised the entire top down source thing wasn't for me. Something was serious up and thereafter questioned the whole audio reproduction game.
Remember listening to ridiculously expensive kit and thinking people where off their trees for purchasing such kit. To the point where speakers in my mind come first then drive them properly then improve on source components. The old saying you can't polish a t**d no point expecting great things from poorly designed speakers. Throw all the money at it and it just fundamentally won't work, improve yes but you can't make a bad design good.
A pal had a pair of original Quad electrostatics and quad 2 valve amps and they where lush to listen to properly challenged an extremely old Thiele and Small speaker box design that is near to 100 years old. The Stats just lacked base and thus the Shahinians gripped me to this day.
Prior to that I was captured by the HX75/HX1.2 and L100 and shahinians. We started to shift a huge amount of Compasses and Naim Naits based on system synergy. Clients basically went from yeah that's hi-fi to wow that's music and we are engrossed.
I listened to a B&W nautilus and Linn six pack of Klimax amps and put a naim nait driving a pair of sonab shoe boxes with a Sony pro walkman and realised the entire top down source thing wasn't for me. Something was serious up and thereafter questioned the whole audio reproduction game.
Remember listening to ridiculously expensive kit and thinking people where off their trees for purchasing such kit. To the point where speakers in my mind come first then drive them properly then improve on source components. The old saying you can't polish a t**d no point expecting great things from poorly designed speakers. Throw all the money at it and it just fundamentally won't work, improve yes but you can't make a bad design good.
A pal had a pair of original Quad electrostatics and quad 2 valve amps and they where lush to listen to properly challenged an extremely old Thiele and Small speaker box design that is near to 100 years old. The Stats just lacked base and thus the Shahinians gripped me to this day.
Amber Audio
This is the Day
I loved the 300 and actually left Naim cos the 500 didn’t live up to my expectation, it does seem to tick the box for all the other Naim guys who buy one, probably a case of don’t meet your heroes, had a similar experience with the Quad 34. Only had DV stages and carts (quite a few of each) might get round to their amps in a year or two.
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
I thought the NAC52 wasn't the limiting factor either the power amps such as the NAP 135 where, I pair of modified Quad 405 Mk 1 that where mono blocked for me by Geoff Bull helped open my ears to the Naims power amps although they where raw and unforgiving in many cases. The Naim amps in all guises where never unenjoyable in fact quite the opposite just questionable in active mode when needing 6 NAP 135s to drive DBLs that where less detailed than my EPOS ES 11 and less fun than my Saras
Julian Slinn
pfm Member
Love THE THE anyway if you can get your hands on a Dynavector Pre Power do so, its taken me a few years looking weekly.
Now I had my previous HX 1.2 whilst owning a NAC82 and that was great superb brilliant all sold back in 2005 managed to a get a L200 Mk 2 last year and the an HX1.2 10 days ago and it the best system I've lived with or listened to without doubt.
I never really bought into the philosophy Naim demanded in terms of upgrading boxes, I went from a 160 to an Avondale many moons ago. That Avondale ended up being loaned out for 12 years, I recently got it back and upgraded it with new caps, Shottky diodes, dual transformers and Qudos output modules - essentially a new amp. Compared to the previous NCC200 boards in the amp, which in my view still had vestiges of the Naim sound, the newer boards have a much more open and revealing sound, but also retain the driving power and grip. In those interim 12 years i've had many amps including ARC, Audio Innovations, Hypex, Threshold and a few others.
I would say in this form you would have to make a very big investment to improve it. It actually sounds more like a really good Class A amp now.
I would say in this form you would have to make a very big investment to improve it. It actually sounds more like a really good Class A amp now.
Gervais Cote
Predator
If I may ask.......
On a 10 maximum rating, would you say your upgraded Avondale is a 10 and the NAP 160 a 8 ?
Ratings are obviously very subjective and the rest of the gear is different now, but considering my speakers were NS1000's at that time ( revealing ! ) it's not impossible to make a comparison from memory in terms of resolution etc. I know there is a tendency to over rate the equipment we are using sometimes but I can say that its a much bigger gap than that. The original NCC200 Avondale was a fair step up from the Naim, but still retained the graininess albeit to a lesser extent. This is bigger step again compared to the NCC200's - the kind that you notice instantly and that was done recently with the same equipment so an easier assessment. Lets put it this way - I have a fair sized room ( 25 x 20 x 12 ) and with this amp now it can make a pair of smallish Response 2s's fill the room with a very convincing sound, and to fairly high SPL's but not harsh and 2 dimensional but harmonically rich, with an abundance of natural sounding decay and detail. Fair play to Proac as well, these speakers really do reward better ancilliaries more than most.
I also have a very good P/P EL84 amp and it does not come close in terms of believability though it's a nice pastiche in its own right. So a long winded answer, but if I had to give a rating then it would be 9 plays 4 by comparison.
Gervais Cote
Predator
Thanks for the feed-back, much appreciated.
I also heard some Proac Response D2 driven by a Naim NAP 300 and I was flabbergasted so definitely a serious bookshelf speaker.
I also have a Avondale TPR4 in my CB Hicap and the step up is also huge compared to the original so they really know what they do at Avondale.
There's some Qudos monos for sale on this very forum ( Nothing to do with me ). For the money I am scratching my head to think what might compete.