MF A308 or baby Naim pre power?

Hey guys, its been a wile! Good news is that after negotiating my butt off i am free'd of national service although i have just served 3 months over there! Not as tough as it sounds, back with nice tan and manley stories 4 girls in bars

Oh and a wad of cash to upgrade my dust covered hifi...

Obviously my amp is the weakest link of all and also speaker cable...I went round browsing today and a Musical Fidelity A308 caught my eye in 7oaks retailing at a knocked down price of £1200 but with haggling skills and cash in hand i reckon i can bag it for a grand got demo booked for saturday. It will be the priciest bit of kit id ever bought if i do like the sound so i want to know what the strongest bunch are out there for around a grand! It does look veeeeeeery nice and has a big shiny knob complete with blue leds and meaty heatsinks.

I have always been curious about the Naim sound too and am considering either the Nait 5i or the entry level pre power (2nd hand)

I find my humble marantz stuff is good all round but doesnt really excel with rock music and doesnt make me think "wow" anymore. Marantz amps tend to sound very smooth and abit soft with less than tight bass.

Any suggetions on alternatives plus if any has heard or owns the a308 can u fill me in on it? I know im demming on sat but im very impatient

Ultra

 

welcome back,
as you're prolly aware naim and mf are at opposite ends of the audio spectrum - i was faced with a similar choice between the original nait 5 and then mf integrated of the time and eventually went for the naim gear as it just seemed to conect me to the music more.
the drawback with naim kit is that it's a slippery slope into insane upgradeitis with various flavours of power supply and pre/power combos along with the bumper/ olive / black debate too.
i'm now totally naim free and if you are willing to think outside the box you can get some cracking kit for very little cash no matter what your preference.
i'd be looking at cattylink if i were you - especially vincent / sheng-ya, jungson and others as there are some cracking bits of kit on there if you're willing to take a punt.
cheers


julian.

 

£1200 buys a whole lot of decent amp if you're prepared to buy on performance rather than the name... though I read a lot of good things about the Nait 5i, you'd potentially be opening up a very big can of worms if you're prone to upgrade. After all, Naim isn't shy with their pricing and IMHO what you get at each price-point isn't exactly 'VFM' beyond the Naits and CD5i level (this from a guy who's been there, done that).

I couldn't be happier with my £1500 pre-power. Better than the 52/SC/250 I had previously owned (which would have cost some bugger £8000 new) and you can fine tune its sound by replacing valves if you so wish.

John

 

I'd second Julians suggestions. The Eastern Electric Minimax is getting some cracking reviews, there's lots of interesting valve stuff at that price point

 

It's the Minimax I'm using. I've changed the tubes to NOS, but there's NO WAY I'd go back to Naim. No bloomin' way on earth, matey. The Minimax has been an eye opener, and runs the £10k Border Patrol amps very very close indeed. I'd go as far as to say that the NOS'd Minimax setup, when used with sympathetic, moderately sensitive speakers, sounds better to my ears than a Naim 552/500 system. Of course, wild claim that the Naim-ites will refute, but I trust my ears not the hype.

 

Welcome back, and congratulations on the completion of your national service stint!

If you do buy a new amp, I'd definately choose a used Naim amp over a MF amp. A second hand Naim amp will keep its value, but an MF 308 for £1k will plummet over a 3-5 year period IMO.

As you probably know I prefer valves to solid state, and prefer big class 'A' solid state amplifiers to their cold running counterparts, although I dont like them as much as valve amps by and large.

Digital amps, well I like those I've heard more than class 'B' solid state amps, but not as much as class 'A' solid state amps, nor of course valve amps.

That is a massive generalisation and there are exceptions...

Anyway, I'd reccomend hearing the best alternatives of each technology if you can get the opportunity.

If you want to know what I would do - well if I wanted new I'd buy something from Cattylink (or another far east importer) just as Julian has done. You wouldnt believe how good his mosfet & valve monoblocks are, and they can be had for less than £500. Remember he preffered them to a Nap 250!

If you want used, then a careful purchase from Audiogon can be a good bet. You have to make sure its a reasonably easy job for the voltage conversion, but the good news is the strong pound and weak US dollar will give you more for your money than you can get in the UK.

I bought an amp from Audiogon for about £1,000 which will sell on ebay (if I ever sell it) for about £1400-£1600.

Anyway, good luck - hope you are not spending all your earnings on hifi, and have left plenty for having a good time.

Cheers
Chris

 

I don't think you'd like either ! A mate borrowed a Mf something something from 7oaks a year ago....he said it sounded fantastic in comparison with his old amp. I took my aged Quad 707 over and lets just say he's the proud owner of a new Quad 909, and saved himself some dosh to boot. Now I'm not telling you to go Quad just lok arround!

Theres some rally good cheap valve stuff knocking about too, as already said !

 

Get an AVI lab series integrated for it twill be better than a MF & will also give the Naim pre-power a lambasting.

 

I second the avi - their old preamp the 2000mp beat the nac52 at 20% of the cost so the lab series should be even better even though its an integrated.

 

Firstly, a big congrats on the completion of your national service

I've had both the Avi Lab Series amp (sold it about a week and a half ago) and an equivalent Naim pre/power. (a 72/HiCap/140) Here are my thoughts:

The Avi is VERY good for the money and has the added convenience of being an Integrated. I can't imagine you being dissapointed with it. However, I feel the Naim combo just edges it in sound quality stakes. I've heard the 112x/150x numerous times and it is superb. If you don't mind going second hand, I would whole heartedly recommend the 72/HiCap/140. It can be had for around £900 and is better than the 112x/150x.

Good luck with your search

Lefty

 

Perhaps the integrated isnt in the same league as the older avi pre powers then - the old pre-lab series avi pre and monoblock powers thrashed the naim 52/500. I havent heard the lab series integrated but AVI said it beat the old pre and monos but perhaps that is just marketing BS - seems like I should have been more skeptical. It may be that searching the older pre + monos combination (which I have heard) out might be a better idea. This should cost something like £800.

 

Well YMMV. I've run a 62/140 then 72/140 & the AVI trounced them, obviously its a very system dependent thing.

I should add that I am a big fan of the Naim sound.

 

Bradders - did you get to hear the 72/140 with a HiCap? Makes a HUGE differnece to the sound. I'm not surprised that the Avi was better than a 72/140, since it is more in the same league as the 72/Hi/140 - although still slightly inferior to my ears.

However, it must be remembered that hi fi is highly subjective and so it's always better to go and hear for yourself, rather than buy totally on someone else's recommendations.

Lefty

 

72/HI/140 is a nice balanced little system, but considering the s/h price, Ultra could do better with other options. As one who's had Nait 2, 52/SC/250 and 82/HI/250, plus spent a fair bit of time with 72/HI/140 and 250, I'd say that they all share a particular 'house sound', but as you go up the ladder, that 'house sound' becomes less apparent as the units start to be able to do things like imaging, timbre, tonal colour and the ubiquitous 'air'. But, one can buy better new than the cost of (say) a s/h 82/HI/250. Much better. 82/HI/250 is a bit of a pup. 52/SC/250 is where it starts to sound really good, though if your speakers are sensitive and your mains is sorted, you might find a Nait 2 with recap will do 95% of what a 52/SC/250 will do.

 

Might sound a bit strange, Ultrasonic, but Pathos amplification works really well with JMlabs speakers - an excellent synergistic combination that should calm your Electras down a bit.

Don't take my word for it, there are plenty of dealers out there who will attest to this (seemingly unsuitable) combination.

DT

 

A lot of what you imagine isn't always borne out in practise. In my case, driving a £7.5k pair of reasonably big floorstanders (with 3 ohm dips) with a puny 8wpc amp is a recipe for disappointment. However, the reality is quite an eye- and ear-opener...

 

Hi Lefty,

I tried the hicap for a few weeks before switching, it did improve things. In the context of my system it was a big improvement moving to the AVI. Again YMMV.

Spot on with your 2nd point. There's a hell of a lot of options for the kind of money we're talking about, so best to listen to a few options & get a feel for what you want.


Bradders.

 

That's a very expensive 5% then!!

 

I agree and as naim hold their value then you can get much better but less well known deals 2nd hand. Consider an avi 2000mp pre - costs around £350 and a bryston 3b-st at around £850 for a total of £1200 second hand. This combination will leave even a 2nd hand naim 552/500 for dead at 10% of the naims 2nd hand price assumming the top naim combo would go for £12k or so with the top psus.

 

That is a strong statement.

Have you made the comparison against the 552/500?