advertisement


life in a PRAT-less world ?

LOTUS HIFI

LOTUS HIFI

LOTUS Hifi
In the last 6 months or so i've had a load of chrome bumper here, plenty of olive, active and passive, a bit of black series, a couple of LP12's and to me they have always had the same common dna. Rhythmically they kind of hold your hand. The sound seems to be emphatic at the leading edges and very strongly etched. The music has a sort of synthetic sense of forward drive and excitement to it and there also seems to be a tonally anemic and lean quality that goes hand in hand with all this. Good pyrotechnics yes, but hand on heart it didn't sound very much like music does in real life.

Now I am not knocking this as such. It's fun for sure and when I was a lad of 21 yrs old I had the full on lp12/ekos/250/sbl rig. I'll be the first to say that it's involving and hooks you in very strongly and bottom line is we all like different things. For me though, at my age, in my room, it all gave me a headache before too long and I found that it was way too intense compared to my ideal in terms of how I want my music delivered. It also didn't escape my attention that this character seemed to be a function of the actual equipment, and the fact that I was listening to the 'boxes' as much as the actual artist else did start to bug me a bit.

So thanks to people on this forum and certain dealers, I moved to a slightly different place. I have now discovered a sound which to me is more natural, more real, a lot richer, more textural and tonally beautiful and faithfull. The frequency range seems to be greater and better balanced and there isn't a hint of leaness or an over pronounced or bright midrange. Someone said to me on here that after Naim gear I will find it "not as exciting but that feeling will pass". Well I want to thank that person because they were dead right. After a while you realise that the music, the pace, the beat, the attack is all there and the music is intense when it needs to be but intense in a way that seems a lot more faithful to the source. You can listen for much longer periods, you can sit there completely absorbed or you can run it all as background music. And the funny thing is, when you get used to being able to find, follow and become absorbed in this more natural delivery, when you again go back and hear the other gear, it's actually quite shocking to your ears just how rhythmically enhanced and supercharged it sounds.

I notice on forums a lot that plenty of kit gets rubbished because it doesn't "do prat" or it "doesn't swing like an LP12", "doesn't boogie" or "is a snoozer" (while at the same time conveniently forgetting that fact that it also sounded more real, more accurate and more resolved !). It's funny because having gone on a bit of a journey this past 6 months I now know that when some says that about a piece of kit, CHANCES ARE I'LL PROBABLY LOVE IT ! 'Swinging' and 'boogieing' to me is now perceived as a form of contamination, an added extra that has been engineered over the top. I guess its only when you get used to living without it that you come to hear it in this way.

So the question is, has anyone else migrated to a PRATless world and found happiness. Did you think it was a big change and what do you think you gained and what do you think you lost (if anything) ? :)
 
I migrated to thermionic PR&T. I get the involvement and rhythmic acuity of Naim/Linn but with more detail, better tone and texture and tbh, in terms of tunefulness and timing I would say it's possibly even better.
 
All hifi is a massive compromise, naim head in one direction and do what they do very very well.

That is not to say that other approaches might not suit you better.

preferring something else doesnt negate the attributes that naim represent however.

You have simply realised that rhythm and timing are less important to you than some other aspects of the musical presentation.
 
david ellwood said:
All hifi is a massive compromise, naim head in one direction and do what they do very very well.

That is not to say that other approaches might not suit you better.

preferring something else doesnt negate the attributes that naim represent however.

You have simply realised that rhythm and timing are less important to you than some other aspects of the musical presentation.
Click to expand...

Kind of. When i put a record on the rhythm and timing are all there to my ears and it's still important. It's more that I don't need it spelt out for it to be there and me to hear it. When I see live music it never sounds rhythmically enhanced either and no one ever walked away from seeing say Hawkwind, Steve vi, the Stones or Sonny Rollins complaining that they couldn't follow the pace and the rhythm properly.

That said, I agree completely that no one is right and thta its horses for course and yes, for sure, Naim do it all very well. Look at them today compared to the 1980's.

Mainly though I was intrerested in people who have moved from one type of system to another and their story. Maybe someone has gone the other way.. from say a quad system with electrostatics to Naim ? I think its interesting how your listening tastes change massively with age.
 
Being not all that familiar with Nain kit, how do they create PRAT ,( if index they do) by emphasising certain frequencies in the upper bass?
Keith.
 
To be honest lotus340r, your description of Naim gear is rather a pastiche (such is the nature od making so many changes so quickly) - how exactly is "a synthetic sense of forward drive" achieved? I don't 'rubbish' other peoples choice of amplification (in fact, I rarely comment on it at all) - I don't use it either mind you :).

Thermionic = valves.
 
I had an LP12/Ittok/AsakT/32.5/HiCAP/250/Saras in my early/mid 20's , its not a difficult thing to achieve , music was and will always be a huge part of my life. I recently moved away from Naim and hooked up with the company I now support and offer dems at my house. I now have completely forgotten about the "system" and just listen to Music whenever I can. I'm still not convinced all music , through whatever system doesnt reproduce rhythm and timing , how the "pace" is needed when you have the former two, is beyond me.
 
The title of this thread seems very apt (life in a prat-less world) as it sounds like the title of a typical 80s band song that could be re-mixed in the 90s or 00s and be re-cooled from passe to post-rock.

Like: Walking in My Shoes, Mad World etc

I will now think of Tears for Fears as a chrome bumper 80s band.
 
All hifi is a massive compromise, naim head in one direction and do what they do very very well.
Click to expand...

Not always. I would say that what I have now gives nothing up in terms of what Linn/Naim can do. Nothing.

Not so long ago I heard an Naim 82/180 driving a pair of PMC FB1s. It was the classic Naim sound with emphasis on the key elements of the rhythm but it sounded somewhat rudementary. I then swapped in a Tube Distinctions grounded grid pre and TD modified Puresound A30 and the sub rhythms of percussion came back in to join the snare and kick drum which in themselves were even better defined. In fact the bass guitar made the door hinges rattle!

The Naim couldn't do that.
 
I find it quite funny that a rather nebulous and extremely subjective marketing term - PRAT - is now being used against Naim. It's the implicit belief that Naim equipment has some kind of supernatural rhythmic circuit inside which tickles.
 
Steven Toy said:
Not always. I would say that what I have now gives nothing up in terms of what Linn/Naim can do. Nothing.

Not so long ago I heard an Naim 82/180 driving a pair of PMC FB1s. It was the classic Naim sound with emphasis on the key elements of the rhythm but it sounded somewhat rudementary. I then swapped in a Tube Distinctions grounded grid pre and TD modified Puresound A30 and the sub rhythms of percussion came back in to join the snare and kick drum which in themselves were even better defined. In fact the bass guitar made the door hinges rattle!

The Naim couldn't do that.
Click to expand...

What kit do you use Steven ?
 
Blzebub said:
What is his mega setup now?
Click to expand...

I dunno, it's moved so fast you can't keep up. If I changed my underpants as fast as the man's hifi I would have one massive laundry bill.

IIRC there is some Dynavector in there, Shahinian something expensive, a WTA turntable and some very expensive CD player or streaming device. None of it's cheap, what it sounds like I don't know but I'm sure it works.
 
lotus340r said:
Whats thermionic steven ?
Click to expand...

Inside the little glass bottles you can see miniature gas fires burning.Look for the blue jets. Its as though the singers/musicians were actuallly in there and when you turn the wick up as we in the Parey of Gentlemen would say, the musicians start singing/playing even louder. Its a modern miracle, of that theres no doubt.
Some say its addicitve, I would call it wickedly moreish myself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top