An open post to the forum's Naim representatives

180 wpc seems a little wimpy considering the price. Good for sensitive speakers in a small room, I guess. No wonder Stealth struggled to drive the passive ATC 100s, and with the hardware downgrading of the ECS amps, even more care with partnering speakers might well be necessary.

 

Actually, the Hi-Fi+ one did shut down rather often; probably the sight of RG so nothing to worry about there. Trouble is the blue light starting flashing and I don't want Marco to worry unduly. Its imperative that the 0.2 amp quick blow fuse is kept in place though: sadly, Memera RCBOs just can't keep up with all the ECS transformer mods.

 

Hi Paul,

why is PSU regulation arguably unnecessary?

And if your only problem with the ECS is the colour of the LED, I'm sure you're handy enough with a soldering iron to fix that problem.

Markus

 

I am sure Marco was only jesting as I know he is not lookng to fall out with WM.

Marco behave yourself

 

Short memories

Last Feb I was at JTC's place and I phoned Marco. He mentioned the little Italian café then.

 

'Mini-Me' speaks out again

Nice one, Steve.

 

Steve, I'm quite sure WM can take a harmless bit of banter; he dishes it out often enough himself.

Btw, mail me when you want to come over for a listen.

Marco.

P.S Alex, you're a hoot!

 

Jason

Quote

Re: Merlin

But Mick that is almost certainly true of all of the more expensive brands, in fact more true Naim at least offer a system solution starting at around £3k, that buys you 50% of the entry level MArk Levinson CD player!

There is much more to it that that. A decent dealer will sort out cable worries for you if you don't want the hassle and perhaps this is the biggest difference. Naim dealers have, historically, been real enthusiasts and themselves extemely loyal to the brand. Some of the extreme Naimees are actually extreme <insert dealers name>ees. This all came out of the years when Naim were growing as a company with Linn and a Linn/Naim dealership had a licence to print money, that certainly helps brand loyalty imho. Back then the momentum behind the brand was huge with magazines pretty much dedicated to Linn and Naim gear. Dealers and hence their customers have been very slow to look at alternatives. Often because they handily forget that building a system is harder than plugging company X's preamp into a Naim system and expecting it to work better than the Naim pre it replaced. Also you should never underestimate the sense of well-being that is often found in belonging to a club that looks down on every one else ;->

Cheers

Jason


Jason

I think this posting says it all. Good dealers are Naim enthusiasts.

Finally, Naim owners do not look down on everyone else and well you know it.

Regards

Mick

 

Re: Jason

Now Mick, I know you are probably havng a laugh but my experience of Naim dealers is quite the contrary. Probably the most arrogant bunch of money grabbing shites this industry as produced, who think it is the customers' "honour" to visit their establishment.

I'd say the best dealers I have ever visited, purely from an enthusiasm and friendliness perspective, all share one thing in common - they don't sell Naim.

I feel a trip to the Jeremy Balwins and John Roberts of this world would be one of the best uses of your time in future, you'd be amazed what you could learn

 

"I feel a trip to the Jeremy Balwins and John Roberts of this world would be one of the best uses of your time in future, you'd be amazed what you could learn" merlin.

No! No! don't do it Mick JR will try and tell you your Naim kit is as cheap as chips and offer you a few quid for it.

Regards

Barnie.
http://barnies-place.co.uk/lounge/index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=16&

 

Don't go there Girlfriend

 

This is a bit sweeping. I've had pretty regular dealings with Cornflake re. my ATC gear and they're an excellent outfit, couldn't be more helpful, and they sell a lot of Naim gear.

Just over a year ago I bought a bargain s/h NAC42.5/110 combo which is still doing sterling service as the second system, and Grahams were exceptionally helpful, giving it a look over and swapping over the phono boards FOC even though I've never bought anything from them.

-- Ian

 

Merlin

Does the fact that you fact that you do not like Naim, make you a lousy dealer ?

Regards

Mick

 

Usually a power amp has power supply rejection, it generates its output with reference to its input within the capacity of its power rails but without reference to them. So the ripple implicit in a transformer/rectifier/capactior setup doesn't appear on the output (much...).

A conventional regulator for this arrangement is much like a power amp, you give it a constant input reference voltage and it generates and holds the desired output voltage without reference to the raw supply (pretty much).

The reason power amps rarely use regulated power supplies is because of the currents and voltages involved. The regulator is about as expensive as as the power amp itself, requires as much design input but from a much smaller pool of experience, and tends towards wild oscillations when driving anything other than a resistor...

A power amp with a regulated supply is like two power amps in series, the raw supply passes through a device controlled by an error signal, then through another device controlled by another error signal, and then to the loudspeaker. It might be worth considering combining the error signals, and spending more effort on the power amp itself rather than on the supply.

OTOH there are some very fine amps with regulated PSUs, engineering anything is all about compromises rather than abstract purism.

I think one of the best arguments for regulated PSUs is to implement non-intrusive current limiting and DC offset protection. You can shut the PSU down in the event of a short circuit rather than have relays or other interference in the signal path. This is the kind of functionality that DIY amps can live without, but real customers probably get quite annoyed when their new amp goes up in smoke during installation because they were careless with the speaker wires. And then because they didn't quite believe it they blow their speakers up too....

Paul

 

"Don't go there Girlfriend" merlin

Well you started it

 

everythings going well in the shire gandalf

 

I've been reliably informed that Marco, would easily have made a stunning hobbit, without the aid of 3 hours in make up too, lost vocation there I feel

 

Re: Merlin

Nothing to do with it Mick, and to be fair my sweeping statement was in response to an equally ridiculous statement

 

Re: Re: Jason

This is how I was treated at JRs place, I thought his rooms there looked like an indian trinket shop, you know all gold and silver shiny things that sound like s***

Best regards

Barnie
PS I don't know how you've got the gall to call yourself merlin

 

Re: Re: Jason

That's precisely my experience from the only Naim dealer I've ever been to. It's the main representative in Portugal and the shop is called "Attitude" - says it all really

Barnie - merlin's nickname is from the speakers he uses (Merlins) and is nothing to do with Arthurian legends

Michael.