Having just fitted Gaias in Tasmania too (see System Pics), I can confirm that I would suggest: -
HA HA I love the directness. Can you explain the reasoning so I can understand a little more how a PS and Pre will help? Cheers
Thanks for this. Great questions in here to make me be clearer to you. I have recording studio felt backed panels on the rear wall and so there is no real reverberation. What I think I meant by grip I meant grunt. The speakers are superiorly tight in their response which is a revelation; it is just the bass on many tracks is just not as present as I would have expected, certainly not how I remember the audition. The cables I am hoping are up the the game - Chord Sarum T.
Hmmmm this is interesting Gryphon has been a direction I was told to consider by a few people now…. What’s the thinking behind your advice?
THIS. Thanks for the validation. It’s EXACTLY what I am feeling. I too am in a 9m x 5m space so pretty similar….
It sounded great in my audition.
Yes a hard lesson although slightly confusing as I have ALWAYS loved B&W with my Naim set up. I had 805s and they were brilliant. Please know that the 804 D4s are a revelation in the system. They have blown me away in terms of clarity, sound staging, soooo many more levels. And yet the bass just seems a little distant, less juicy than the audition I remember.
I fully get your point about lessons learned but my set up is hardly bottom of the chain and the combo of BW with Naim is not unusual. 
Neither is it anything compared to many on here.
Seems like you are aligned with others on upgrade - I was thinking a 555PS which would then allow a source upgrade later. And also a 552 or a 252 all of which are good eBay finds right now.
Lots of power. Great control over the drivers. Gryphon 333 integrated would be an amazing match. I think far surpassing any Naim except the Statement.
You could of course use a Naim Streamer/DAC to add some sonic Naim-ness to the system!
So what is different from the audition? The room, obviously - size, shape and positioning - including listening position will all have an effect. Is amp the same?
My present room is the first of many on my hifi journey where I had problems when moving in and siting speakers and listening position intuitively. There was no bass at all (from transmission line speakers that go down to 20Hz). It took a complete room rearrangement to fix (aided by REW software), which brought bass back and sounded good.
I moved from Naim to McIntosh to partner my 803 D3’s and have never kooked back. The jump from 80W to 300W made the B&W’s sound effortless and much better controlled. I’d suggest an audition, ideally at home if poss. That said, experimenting with speaker and listening positioning with your existing kit is the obvious place to start and identify if you can achieve improvements or not.
I am going to go look at REW. I mean there is a lot different to the room. Mine is way colder in its feel other than the felt backed cladding behind the speakers. It’s much bigger for a start. I think the other factor is that I speant an hour in audition with a few tracks and at home it’s been a month of solid listening which is amazing but just missing a little something…. OR maybe the speakers need wearing in? Interconnects may be different - I hadn’t thought about that. I am just also going to check that there was no power supply on the Source.
Thanks yes I am talking to another person about this as an option…. I deffo think a home audition is needed.
Thanks for this - this is what the dealer has talked about. As well as the source upgrade. S
I truly get where you are with things, having been seduced by the B&Ws but, per the previous thread, the dealer was right, in that these B&W really need oodles of power to get them to perform to anything near their best, and ‘best’ here means plentiful and very tight bass performance as part of a wide soundscape – which you will not deliver with a 300 I’m afraid. It simply isn’t powerful enough for the juice-hungry B&Ws.
As you go up the hi-fi quality chain, one thing which should strike you is the enhanced weight of the music, which is delivered-out by bass, and the tight control of it! Less-able sources and amps deliver some bass, but it can be flabby and even absent, when it’s in the recording, it’s just the chain of replay isn’t playing it!..and the 'speakers cannot make up for what’s not delivered to them.
The simple risk in all this is that with an improved source and front-end amplification (eventually - a must here), you may find the energy produced in your room to be too much for your ears and/or your listening space. Obviously, hopefully not.
He he this really is a very expensive sport isn’t it. I kinda love all the learning along the way and am so glad there are forae like this so I can come and ask questions but even then there are sooooo many factors at play that it really is all just a very expensive experiment.
What you describe is exactly what I am learning - what I am hearing is source first (I kinda already knew that but then my speakers overtook my source). Then the amplification which is a long term idea - most here seem to suggest away from Naim. S
It needn’t be expensive if you start and develop from the front end of a system, as the amp/speaker/room trinity is the most important thing, and this is where balance and the numerous choices in the market e.g. around speaker types and sizes, play for you. As was said on the previous thread, and here, it can cost a lot to marry a system backwards given the risks involved – but that’s where you are.
Naim, while being quite powerful & high quality amps for UK domestic purposes, have always been challenged by the likes of the larger B&Ws, as the latter require so much power – think Statement level in truth. It’ll be interesting to learn how the NC 350s handle them, assuming you get to this point. More power alone often yields benefits, even though the quality of the amp (in terms of pure sound delivery e.g. detailing) may not be as good as a less powerful one.
I tried the 350s in an audition and they showed up well with the 803s. However that was in the room in the dealer.
Just found out from the dealer that they didn’t have a 282 so they used their 252
Bass of the 600’s is superb even with lowly nap 200’s!
Yes S600 Bass excellent imo . I have more extension now but S600 was fine .