Naim NAP 250

Just spent an excellent couple of hours at Julians listening to some new music and an all Naim system (with B&W speakers).

Ive read a lot on here which is critical of Naim components and their sound.

The result that Julians got with his all Naim setup (apart from the speakers) was rounded, enjoyable, powerful, fun and all round pretty great really.

Bought second hand or ex-dem you can get some terrific bargains with Naim kit, and used appropriately I think the sonic results are excellent.

Sticking with 'flat' and 'round' you could say Im not supposed to like Naim gear, but his newish 250 and other Naim kit really does sound excellent.

Ive heard valve kit, digital kit and pretty much any topology sound no-where near as good.

Thanks to Julian for a top afternoon - and some great dance music for me to get into over the next few months!

Cheers
Chris

 

Yes, I agree. Julians system sounds most unlike any Naim system I have heard and makes very fine music. A great result.

It rather shows up the flat earth/round earth thing as being a load of bollox.

Robbo

btw Julian, check your PM!

 

thanks guys,
i do like the sound my gear makes a lot although the bakeoff at my place has placed nagging doubts about my cd player... still nothing i can do about that at the moment and when i'm deep in a listening session i tend to forget all about it and just enjoy the music, surely the sign of a well balanced system anyway.
thanks to chris for bringing some new music over too. some more cd's on the to buy list, the damn thing never seems to get any smaller.
cheers


julian

 

this mean i gotta take Julians advise of trying a 250 with dyn's??

 

hmm

TBH I think a NAP 250 amp will only work well with a Naim pre, so thats quite a lot of dosh required to get both items, even if you do buy s/h

 

I think so, too. Sounds like you've got a good'un Julian.

 

Joel's hit the nail on the head here, it's 'a good un', and not the typical naim sound either, the speakers and the isolda have help make something rather nice, a well rounded and good sound. Wm

 

I'm curious as to why you're putting questions down about your CD player.
Personally I thought it was the best there.
Clearly it was also the most expensive, and there things that the other two did rather well, but overall I still felt it came out on top.

 

I can sort of see where Julian is coming from, although it was better than the 5i, the 5i had more of that elusive groove factor which was rather appealing. Not enough reason to change players though.

to add to my previous post, IMO the main reason that Julians system sounds so much more to my taste than other Naim systems I have heard is that he is using trick non naim interconnects and has replaced that god awful NACA5 with Isolda speaker cable. The components in the system are not being strangled now.

 

Robbo that is mear supposition.

It might come down to the problems we all face, our room and how the hifi interacts in there. Perhaps Julian has found the right balance of excellent HIFI componants and a well behaved room. Always a good match!

 

I am not so sure, Ju's system has lost that veiled/coloured sound that I have heard from every other Naim system.

 

mike,
it may just be that old monkey on my back, upgradeitis, kicking in again however as has been said i thought the 5i grooved more and the quad was more transparent (although as has been said it had the advantage of mains filtering and trick leads). the 5/hi was a good compromise on the day however the others showed that it wasn;t quite as good at these things as i thought it was.
i very much doubt a cd player change will be on the cards for a long time but i found that aspect of the bakeoff most enlightening. one thing that has struck me is that my amp & hicaps are circa '91 so could perhaps do with a decent service which is another (much, much cheaper) avenue to explore.

gary,
don;t get me wrong i think naca 5 is a bit of a bargain for what it does but after hearing isolda it is a bit of a one trick bass pony. isolda hasn;t got the bass punch of the '5', it smooths off the bass a little however the mid and treble are very clean, clear and imho much better than '5'. i guess it comes down to personal choice but at the end of the day isolda won for me.

cheers

julian

 

As Gary suggests the system match is probably related to room interaction with the kit.

In comparison to my own Naim/Linn setup, Jules has far more bass in his system. From listening to different kit recently, I'm guessing that it's due to a room interaction. My old lounge had a terrible bass hump at around 40hz. My new room has virtually none. I'd put Jules at about 1/3rd of the way in from my present room to my old room.
So using the isola might have tamed down the bass a little to make it more acceptable in the room in question.

Jules, instead of going with the re-capping. Had you thought about replacing the two hicaps with a supercap? You can probably sell the HICAPs for nearly £400 each, add the cost of capping to them, and you're pretty much in the ballpark for a supercap. That would then facilitate a move to a 52 if you wanted.

 

Julian,

If you do service them, would you do it through Naim or would you go through someone like Avondale?

 

How much is isolada?

I am always interested in trying things, since the speakers have been put elsewhere in the room I do suffer a bit of a bloomy bass. This is not to much of a problem becuase of the music I listen too, but tidying it up a bit might be an idea.

 

gary,
isolda is 50 quid a meter iirc but they round the price up / down to the nearest meter so 2.5 m cost the same as 2. still expensive though. the good thing is that they have a zobel network built in which means you can use short runs and your 250 won;t become unstable.

robbo,
naim are currently not servicing their amps at the moment as their capacitor manufacturer went bust! i believe they are trying to find a new one. i've fired a mail off to avondale but too soon for a reply yet as it was late friday night when i sent it. i'm also going to have a word with a mutual aquantance and see if he has any suggestions. my main problem is that i'm lost without my music so i'd like to 'make a day of it' and drive the stuff to the place, get it done and then drive it back, which may not be possible. if not then i'll have to do a hi-cap at a time and nick my kids ghetto blaster while the 250's away
cheers


julian

 

Ju, they didn't go bust sir they got bought out by rifina I'll think you'll find, I also know a man who's just bought £25K worth of said stock too He'll be doing a lot of business soon I reckon

 

Garyi,

Isolda is worth every penny. You don't get less bass you get cleaner, tighter and more tuneful bass - a clear case of less is more.

Isolda does other things too like making your speakers disappear into a proper soundstage without sacrificing any PR&T.