You when things are bad when...........

I still can't explain why your CDS2 sounded so broken, the gulf between it and your at the time mid-spec LP12 was absolutely enormous – the Linn was genuinely good fun to listen to whereas the CDS2 couldn't even play simple acoustic guitar stuff like The Kings of Convenience in tune. It sounded painfully off key to my ears. I'll only start a flame war if I blame the Mana, so I'm not going there, but I'd certainly love to hear the system now with the DV amps, Hutter and Densen CD. I'll give you a shout when I'm next down in 'that London'.

Tony.

 

Tony

I reckon his speakers were out of phase.....it happens to the best of us.

Regards

Mick

 

It would be nice to say "My system sounds better because it's got x, your's sounds shite because you use y". Unfortunately, tempting as this might be, I suspect that room acoustics, set up and the requirements & taste of the listener come into play.

Or to put it another way, I'm happy with my Naim and what it cost me, if you don't like the sound that's your problem.:MILD:

 

Tom - I agree whole heartedly on the listening preferences, and especially the room acoustics. Comparing a sound at someone elses house with your own is no better than comparing the sound at a trade show with your own place IMHO.

Im sure you didnt mean it anyway, but I think its REALLY NOT nice to say someones system sounds shite because of Y!!... unless the intention is to piss them off of course..

 

I was alluding to the "Naim bashing" that someone mentioned earlier. Personally I wouldn't say anything was shite, especially without hearing it because taste is a very individual thing. I like Naim and find Musical Fidelity boring (and don't even mention Arcam) but others will find the exact opposite. And then there is also the fact that I've not heard all boxes in every range and certainly my listening space whilst chilling at home.

On a personal note, if you've ever read a Riders review you'll notice we always look for the strengths and not the weaknesses of kit we listen to.

 

Tom, you know what happens to green ducks that sit on large fences hello mate, have you moved to bonny scotland now? Tone

 

Three weeks 5 days to go

I'm not sitting on the fence. I firmly believe in the goodness of my system but I do respect the views of those who don't agree with me, even you I've noticed recently a treend for some on another forum to accuse anyone who doesn't agree with them of being deaf. Again that's an easy bit of abuse to hurl but shows no acceptance that views & listening requirements differ. It also shows IMHO a very limited understanding of hi-fi

 

Plus, Tom, it shows a really honest balanced argument! Not!!!

As I've said before - If you like the sound of your kit then good for you - whatever the make.

If you want to get into 'mine's bigger/better/bolder/brighter' than yours, or lets slag off Naim.MF. whatever make, what does this achieve? (Other than winding a few folk up)

Plus, stranger as it may seem, there may be people who listen to hi-fi who may be technically 'deaf' and then that lands as a personal insult. (PS to be termed deaf could be that your hearing is only 5% less than what is accepted as of a normal hearing level)

As some may say - I'll get me coat...

 

We buy kit to play music the way we like it played. End of story. If others like it too its a reassuring bonus.

Tony, it would be a pleasure to see you again. Adding the Densen, the Hutter, the Ben Duncans, the Well Tempered and, today, the P75 have all been good things. The P75 is a helluva fag packet BTW.

Alex

 

Tony,

you will be astonished by Alex's system. It sounded superb pre-BenDuncan and provided Alex hasn't gone totally round I think it should be among the best around.

btw, if/when you are down you are more than wellcome to visit Hectors House as well.


Cheers

Jason

 

Well it seems that Naim are indeed a very healthy company, when I can be bothered I'll post some of their "financials" on here so that we can put this to bed.

I was surprised as to how little penetration they have into the global market however, with over 60% of their trade being UK based. This is certainly not reflected by many other UK brands, whose products are reverred worldwide. Still most of those have little share of their home market so well done to Naim.

It will be interesting to see the next report, the industry really will only see the affect of the downturn in 2003-2004 financial year if reports are correct and we will have to wait for that to become available.

But all I see at the moment is a highly profitable UK based operation, whether you like the product or not, you have to accept their undoubted business accumen. One look inside a flatcap should demonstrate that!! Seriously, it's nice to see a UK company making Millions out of their customers. It would be even nicer if they could extend their success to the more competitive global market.

 

mike,
i think the new reference stuff is designed to crack the global nut as it were. it has a sound much more acceptable to american tastes (or should be that it's reported sound is much more acceptable to maerican tastes) and the introduction of the 500 series of components should statify the american equation of quality with price... all in all if they throw a bit of marketing spend behind the gear and offer some sort of special dealership scheme to encourage more widespread distribution (hmm i remember hearing something about this somewhere) then i doubt they'll be unduly effected by the 2003/2004 hi-fi downturn. also they've got into a/v quite early compared with other 2channel manufacturers. they just need a 500 series av processor to compete with levinson, proceed and lexicon and they'll be well away.l
cheers


julian

 

Thought some of you might find this interesting in relation to customer support.

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/features/survey2003.asp

 

Indeed, Naim did get into AV early with the AV1. Yet, they make speakers and amps and still have to use an MK sub. The 5 series DVDP is 2.5K making the need for the DVD5i rather urgent.

 

alex,
bearing in mind that the dvd5 is SUPOSED to have cd playback better than the cd5 and have 'jawdropping' video performance according to one company which has vowed to use it to demo their projectors from now on and it'll also play dvd-a's (titter) if you're into that kind of thing i think 2k+ isn;t such a bad deal - if it meets the above specifications.
i also believe there is a sub on the way - hey even naim can;t do everything at once, c'mon they've just revamped their entire product range, launched a new budget range, a couple of new speakers and are truing to make a dvd player sound good with cd's give them a break.
still at least dynavectors multichannel effort sounds good eh?
cheers

julian

 

And then there'll be the Reference DVD at >£4000 which you can add the XPS2 to. Tasty at >£7500. And it'll sell by the bucket loads even if you do think it's over priced.

 

Julian,

It was you who proclaimed Naim's early entry into AV not me.

Actually the Dynavector processor which costs as much as a Naim box works very well but I cant afford it. Just to be clear, the DV processors are the late Dr Tominari's DV Japan venture, all other amps are made by DV New Zealand.

Alex

 

alex,
yes, naim did manage to get an a/v processor in the shops before many other hi-fi manufacturers. your point is?

i was actually referring sarcasticly to your experiences with dv's superstereo multichannel doohickey as related in the nordost power cable thread to whit...

and using it completely out of context to infer that even you have found dynavector to be less than ideal whilst naim conquers all before it and will one day rule the earth from the naim satellite. mwahahahahahahahaaaaaaa
cheers


julian

 

Julian, you refer sarcastically to everything non Naim, well done, but to repeat , the processors are nothing to do with the amplifiers. Have you listened to Dynavector amps?

Meanwhile, I may have fried the processor on day 2 with a dodgy lead for a NAP110 so I guess I should reserve judgement until its looked at. . .

 

alex,
obviously i have to refer sarcasticly to everything non naim due to the dual pronged attack of feeling threatened by the massive quality and musical achievements of the MF's and krells of this world and of course by nature of being one of the undead followers of naims unholy path.
frankly i have heard enough anecdotal evidence about dynavector amps to be able to make up my own mind about their quality, of course they couldn;t hold a flame to the sublimity that are even the lowliest naim amps but from my anecdotal experience they do make a pretty fair stab at it....
i am also sorry to hear that you can;t wire a plug correctly.
merry winterval



julian