advertisement


Naim Archaeology #1

Hi Pinky,

It's a Kenwood KD650. A rather under-rated deck in my opinion. I've had the arm re-wired by Moth.

Cheers
Adrian
 
Oh right, not one I'm familiar with I regret. The arm certainly looks (and presumably sounds!) the part :)

Pinky
 
Having decided which one to keep, I indulged in a bit of board-pulling, as described in the PFM reference section. With the extraneous boards removed, there is a definite improvement. I'm on the list for a set of Neil J's boards and am interested to see what further improvements result....
Click to expand...

NJ's boards will no doubt clean up the sound, but I wonder why you'd want to modify an otherwise interesting old preamp that should sound quite good with a light service?

Mr Tibbs
 
Mr Tibbs said:
NJ's boards will no doubt clean up the sound, but I wonder why you'd want to modify an otherwise interesting old preamp that should sound quite good with a light service?

Mr Tibbs
Click to expand...

Ah, but the joy of both the board-pulling and of interchanging them with Neil J's boards is that it's all harmless to the preamp and entirely reversible. You'll note from this thread and it's successor that I've spent time and money building as 'unmolested' as possible a system of early Naim gear - I'm certainly not about to start wielding the soldering iron in anger. I see it as the equivalent of trying new valves in a pair of old Quads. If you don't like the new sound, you can easily switch back and lose no sleep.

Cheers
Adrian
 
You'll note from this thread and it's successor that I've spent time and money building as 'unmolested' as possible a system of early Naim gear - I'm certainly not about to start wielding the soldering iron in anger. I see it as the equivalent of trying new valves in a pair of old Quads.
Click to expand...

Just because the design allows unplugging/swapping of boards, this is in no way comparable to valve swapping. When you swap boards in a Naim pre you've effectively changed out all of the amplification circuitry.

Far be it from me to discourage you (and don't take this the wrong way), but what you're intending to do cannot be described as building an 'unmolested as possible' early Naim setup. Far from it.

Mr Tibbs
 
Mr Tibbs said:
Far be it from me to discourage you (and don't take this the wrong way), but what you're intending to do cannot be described as building an 'unmolested as possible' early Naim setup. Far from it.

Mr Tibbs
Click to expand...

Well yes, but it would surely be quite interesting to see what sort of a difference it makes. Could easily be swapped back. Just seems like some harmless fun to me.
 
Mr Tibbs said:
When you swap boards in a Naim pre you've effectively changed out all of the amplification circuitry.
Click to expand...

Well, yes and no.

It's my understanding that Neil's boards, unlike say Les's 821 boards, are basically the same circuits as Naim use, but with 'audiophile' components. I'd consider their use to be no 'worse' than using 729 boards in place of 324s, which is a common trick and is, depending on whom you talk to, even 'naim approved'.

If I wanted to be pedantic, I'd point out that swapping valves in a Quad also 'changes the amplification circuitry' as it's inside the glass bottles that all the amplification really happens anyway! :)

Either way, I'll end up with an early Naim system that has had no 'major surgery' and that's fine by me!:D

Cheers!
Adrian
 
It's my understanding that Neil's boards, unlike say Les's 821 boards, are basically the same circuits as Naim use, but with 'audiophile' components. I'd consider their use to be no 'worse' than using 729 boards in place of 324s, which is a common trick and is, depending on whom you talk to, even 'naim approved'.
Click to expand...

I understand exactly what NJs boards do. Their purpose is to create an 'open window' to the source. That's all fine and dandy, so long as your sources are up the mark. I don't know what your TT setup is, but it would need to be pretty damn good (think decent spec LP12) to take advantage of the newly opened window. Anything less will be ruthlessly exposed for what it is. The old preamp boards sound a little bit soft, don't delve too deeply, and can sound very good with, shall we say, less than top-notch front ends.

Cheers!

Mr Tibbs
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top