info for Garyi - a possible solution for you

Gary

I have been listening to an i-book through a firewire M-Audio Audiophile (using it as a digital through) to my Quad 99 CDP the one with the digital inputs retailing at £900. I am very pleased with the results and cannot find much difference (sometimes none) between this and listening to the Quad on its own. I thought of you because I know that you have not been fully satisfied with your current setup and that you were thinking about saving up for another Naim. In a recent bake-off the Quad did very well against the Naim, I think having more groove, and thought that this could be a solution for you to use as a DAC with the backup of also being a conventional CDP. Works for me, so I thought that I would share this with you, but have a feeling that you are a little more critical than me in what you are looking for.

Dominic

 

Dominic>

Can I expand on the differences. The Naim CDP was a 5i, their cheapest unit.
The Quad was certainly better in the areas of "tonality", being IMO more accurate and simply having "more" tone. In comparison, I thought the CD5i had substantially more groove. Overall, just a question of personal prefence.
The fact that the Quad 99 could be used as a DAC is an interesting prospect, and I know that Zanash uses his in this way for AV work.

 

I was quoting WM and his PRaT comment but of course your view is equally valid! Dominic

Wm said "Next Zanash's Quad cdp/82/hicap same cable/din/phono adapter, bit of a dark horse this one, it dragged more detail off the discs, hearing things that the naim players missed or just couldn't resolve, tighter bass, far better grip, and more PRaT most surprising, could also be more polite, it did have the mains cables and passive filter on."

 

Dom thanks for the thumbs up.

A number of thoughts:

I had to get on and sell the naim CDplayer, my thoughts being that surely naim can't go on forever fixing the mechs in these things.

The sound quality from the mac for me simply is not good enough. I think what is required is a listen to different devices and outputs on the mac to see if this will fix the problems I am experiencing.

To recap. The sound is kind of hollow, there is top end and bottom end and nothing in between. In a direct comparison between it and a CDS2 the mac was murdered, fried in lard and buried. For every ones information a DVD player also sounded like complete crap in the same 'bake off'
I am prepared to accept that the sound issues might be to do with the compression I am using.
My thoughts however is that Arcam (a product base I have never liked) is not producing the goods, and being fed by ten metres of toslink cable is unlikely helping matters. I know this because the apple lossless compression also sounds dire.

Its important for folks to get this in context, I am not listening to music right now, not on CD anyway. If that wasn't enough the motor on my LP12 seems to have gone south so I don't have LP either. Luckily I am a pragmatic little shit and know that it will be sorted. I CAN Listen to the mac its not that bad.

Moving onto the practical side of things: I now have apples Garageband, anyone using OSX and dosn't have this software, just get it. I bought a midi keyboard and playing with loops and pressing keys is sooo satisfying, so far I have created nothing you would entertain listening too, but its support for industry standards and the new Apple Sound Units makes this very powerful for fifty quid, I know that larger music software companies must be well pissed off. Also I am playing with SoundFonts, and this is seriously good fun.
Anyhoo, although the mac is quite happy playing music from itunes into the hifi and the garageband music into my headphones, its a bit of a pain to sort out. Also if I want to play a game (Having a little go at the latest unreal tournament) then basically you can't be using itunes at the same time. A such no music.

Another practical issue is that in apple lossless I won't be able to g et all my music onto a 200 gig harddrive, I only just bought it and do not intend replacing it. And frankly guys not having a CD player is just damned unpractical, I sometimes just want to bash something on I just bought, its just not that simple on the mac.

So in conclusion, I don't regret selling my CD player, but I Do regret what I settled for as a replacement.

So now I am saving! I will probably hold onto the arcam because output from garage band as an idea to how tracks sound is very usefull through the naim

 

gary,
once i've sorted out a dac you'll have to come and have a listen to the pc audio solution i've plumped for it may give you some ideas...
cheers


julian

 

Gary,

Do remember that the dac64/Mac combo comprehensively slaughtered that Naim CD player you had, so please don't go wasting a lot of money on another Naim CD player without giving the Mac a chance.

My feeling is that unless you are using the Chord, the optical out is likely to be rather nasty. I have none of the issues you seem to using the M Audio Firewire Audiophile, as I mentioned some time ago.

At he end of the day, if you are a Naimee through and through then I doubt anything is going to resolve your problem, short of Salisbury realeasing a server 9which will no doubt run on Linux and cost megabucks c/w the essential add on PSU. But why not just get saving for the Dac 64 and audition a few alternatives in the meantime?

 

Agree with Merlin, I suspect having seen photos of your kit Garyi, that you hardly strike me as being skint (expensive Mac's, Naim amps and speakers, hardly cheap stuff is it), so dont be a skintflint and just get a DAC64

 

lol, so eloquently put Paul

i'm in the "that arcam DAC is a POS and should be burned alive" camp i'm certain it's the root of all your ills.

 

No I'm not skint but lets get to brass tacks here. The Dac64 is an expensive luxury item, an item that I listened to for a maximum of 10 minutes, in a bit of a rush on an afternoon some months ago. It was better than the CDi, but equally the CDi was more than 12 years old, so not really a fair comparison, especially as the DAC64 costs as much as the CDi. Its only fair that comparisons l,ike these are done like for like, for instance how does the 64 compare to other dacs? This is a fairer comparison.

I won't throw that sort of cash on the old shiney shiney until I am sure about what I am doing.

 

i've just noticed something very odd. i'm listenning on headphones for the first time since switching from the Sonica to the optical out on the G5. this one track, Lisa Germano - From A Shell (off the Underworld Soundtrack) SOUNDS LIKE PISH!!!

much strangeness. just cued up a few tracks i know better than the back of my hand, and some of them are suffering a distinctly dull mid & harsh trebble. now with the sonica everything was peachy. i'll have to do some proper comparisons tomorrow, to make sure i'm not going mad, but this seems quite odd...

not a jot of difference through the marantz/602's, but stick the DT100's on and it's a whole new ball game


i dunno, could just be my ears tonight...

[edit] hmmm.. i've re-ripped them and everything seems peachy :/