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Rega Naia

I'm going to play devil's advocate. There is a difference between accurate sound reproduction and satisfying musical reproduction. In a perfect system that may not be the case, but we don't have perfect systems, so we have to settle for whichever flaws we can tolerate.

A system might have remarkably undistorted sound below 100Hz, say, but slightly less clarity and separation than another system in the mid range where voices, guitars and pianos vie for attention. That midrange instrument separation may well matter more to music than the clean deep bass. A system which sounds less accurate altogether might still do a better job of providing musical enjoyment. Less inaccurate sound and the ability to convey enjoyable music are not necessarily the same thing. That's why it can make sense to say that one system sounded more musical than another, even if it sounded less accurate or impressive.

You can have a system which sounds worse, but is more musical. For me, the ability to convey music trumps the requirement for accurate sound. I hope I will usually choose the more musical system over the more accurate system if and when that distinction can be made. The desire for accurate sound can be satisfied by visiting a saw mill.

How else can you explain the enduring cults of vinyl and valves? Read my lips - it's the musicalitynessfulship.
 
fergch said:
It is not just the house pricing, I love the landscape...
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Even though I was born here, I don't want to live anywhere else. If it rained slightly less I'd be happier but hey ho.

We're not exactly loaded either but we're still trying to figure out options. The mother of one of my wife's friends moved to Barra years ago. She was a pensioner, she just found a place to rent on Barra and went. Maybe ten years ago and she's still there. Her son liked it so much when he went to visit he got a job up there and moved there too. Not for everyone. There really isn't much there and it takes a long time to get anywhere else. Forget going to gigs or many of the things you can do if you're more central.

Places like Helensburgh are a good compromise. By the water and close to proper countryside but you can get a direct train to Glasgow or Edinburgh and you've got decent shops.
 
Mr Pig said:
Even though I was born here, I don't want to live anywhere else. If it rained slightly less I'd be happier but hey ho.

We're not exactly loaded either but we're still trying to figure out options. The mother of one of my wife's friends moved to Barra years ago. She was a pensioner, she just found a place to rent on Barra and went. Maybe ten years ago and she's still there. Her son liked it so much when he went to visit he got a job up there and moved there too. Not for everyone. There really isn't much there and it takes a long time to get anywhere else. Forget going to gigs or many of the things you can do if you're more central.

Places like Helensburgh are a good compromise. By the water and close to proper countryside but you can get a direct train to Glasgow or Edinburgh and you've got decent shops.
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Sounds like you’re content.We often take a break up around Oban. I love the openness of the landscape and peace we find there.
 
Seanm said:
“Musical” is the single least useful and most infuriating audiophile term. Sorry! Even PRAT is better. I mean just say “I like it!” or “Nice!” if you don’t want to describe what you’re hearing.
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I'd rather have someone write 'musical' than many of the phrases used by hifi reviewers, which are the biggest load of pretentious tosh.
I take musical to mean, easy and free flowing, enjoyable listen, that is what I want from an hifi reviewer.
 
Del monaco said:
We often take a break up around Oban. I love the openness of the landscape and peace we find there.
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I genuinely have no idea why people live in cities. However I expect the highlands of Scotland to become increasingly developed in future. Travel and communication has become easier and more people have twigged that it's good. When I first traveled up North the roads would be very quiet once you got past a certain point. It's not the same today. There is traffic virtually everywhere. As more people move north to work from home, more shops and services will grow to support them and more trucks to supply the shops and the roads will be upgraded and more construction companies will appear and....
 
Del monaco said:
Often feel like getting the Oban ferry out to greater remoteness.
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You should. Just be aware that the ferries are a disaster just now. They've been so badly managed by the SNP government that breakdowns and cancellations are common. Look into the reliability of the service you plan to use as if you get a ferry to an island it's nice to be sure you'll be able to get back!
 
popol_vuh said:
Exactly. This is the essence of it. If you have a neutral system, you have a musical system, under condition that the recorded piece of music itself is musical. And if the recorded piece of music itself isn't musical, why would I want my system to change it?

We don't even have to go into debate about definition of "musical".
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Exactly, some music is not very musical should a system make it so? I don’t think so.
 
Mr Pig said:
I genuinely have no idea why people live in cities. However I expect the highlands of Scotland to become increasingly developed in future. Travel and communication has become easier and more people have twigged that it's good. When I first traveled up North the roads would be very quiet once you got past a certain point. It's not the same today. There is traffic virtually everywhere. As more people move north to work from home, more shops and services will grow to support them and more trucks to supply the shops and the roads will be upgraded and more construction companies will appear and....
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I work in a city but live next to several National Parks. My journey to work is via beautiful countryside and I work in the suburbs so I don’t pass through the city. Interestingly my wife used to favour city life but would not go there now.
 
Del monaco said:
I work in a city but live next to several National Parks. My journey to work is via beautiful countryside and I work in the suburbs so I don’t pass through the city. Interestingly my wife used to favour city life but would not go there now.
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People used to aspire to a place in ‘town’ (which in the UK apparently meant London or Edinburgh only) and another in the country. The former offered convenient shops, friends, culture and work (if applicable) and the latter offered everything else.


It still sounds like a great mix, if you are lucky enough to be able to do it. However, you are dead right about the country ( or at least the easily reached bits) filling up, because it is easier to reach, without the cities apparently emptying.

In my case the solution is to have the place in the country about an hour South of Hobart instead of 2 hours North of Edinburgh or 4 hours West of London, but less radical options may be available.

Perhaps more importantly, are we straying fractionally from the topic of this thread?
 
NickofWimbledon said:
Perhaps more importantly, are we straying fractionally from the topic of this thread?
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It's fine, that's what conversation is.

Joe said:
Which is an awful lot of whataboutery of a turntable that no one on here has heard.
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I don't expect to like it but it's an interesting product worthy of attention. If Rega are saying that the sound quality equals the Naiad it means those of us who will probably never get the chance to hear a Naiad will be able to get an idea of what sort of performance it gives by hearing the Naia. And I can't see why Rega would say that about the Naia's performance if it were not true.
 
What about the new technics
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popol_vuh said:
Exactly. And if the recorded piece of music itself isn't musical, why would I want my system to change it?
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I know of no system that can take an non-musical piece of music -or any piece of music- and make it sound more musical, or improve upon that what already exists in the groove of any given LP. As I said before, the best a system can do is pass the signal from the groove, thru the system and onto the listener without altering it too badly, and some pieces of gear/systems do this better than others, proper setup is also a big part of the equation.

...But saying that, the listener of a seemingly non-musical piece of, say, experimental music may glean a greater understanding of what it's composer was trying to convey to the listener with a more musical system.
 
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