Dear Naim Community,
I am new to this forum and this is actually my first post. I am new to the world of the level of Hifi companies like Naim are offering. So I am very unexperienced in buying new hifi equipment.
At the moment I am using a 10 year old Denon AVR with a nice Denon CD player with some simple Nubert speakers and sub. My listening interest changed over the last 10 years a lot. Stereo is now more important for me than movie consumption via Blu-Ray or DVD. Even my opinion on streaming changed. I began watching hifi channels on YouTube about one or two years ago and I am reading a lot blogs about it. I tried to learn a lot about DACs, streaming, etc.
But I never went a step further and never made finale buying plans. I think the reason was that there was just too many interesting options. And I was a little afraid of the esoteric stuff your are reading and hearing here and there. I hope you know what I mean.
During the last weeks I asked myself the questions “Why waiting?” My goal is building up a nice and tiny system step by step. Due to some issues with my Denon AVR I would like to start with an amp with an integrated streamer. Later I would like to replace my speakers. Looking to my room and listening place I definitely prefer kind if an all-in-one solution to reduce boxes and making everything convenient and contemporary.
What is my goal sound wise? I am definitely looking for an upgrade in sound quality. It would be great having good sound with low to medium levels. My music taste is very broad: Lots or rock like Rolling Stones, Genesis, U2, The Beatles, Muse, etc. I am also listening a lot to Jazz like Tingvall Trio, Miles Davis, Tord Gustavson, Nighthawks. Electronic music like Daft Punk and Deadmau5 is appreciated as well. For me it is important to really enjoy the music and the overall song with all its emotions. I guess I am not looking for an “microscope” so much. I looking for a honest but rich sound with good food tapping capabilities. A system should not prefer a single music genre or style.
So I came to systems like the uniti, the NAD M10 and the recently announced Lyngdorf TDAI 1120. I read and watched a lot about those systems over the last months and I guess I am preferring the Naim due to a couple of reasons.
Today I contacted a dealer which was very kind and helpful. So they are now arranging a demo of uniti atom, unity star and for comparison reasons a NAD M10. He directly told me on the phone that the Naim clearly has the better sound than the NAD, which surprised me. I thought it is not as obviuous and differences are more a question of taste. They asked me about my room size and they will choose a listening room of comparable size. I can bring CDs and files (which I do not have) and I can use different streaming services over their iPad (with naim app).
Now to my question (sorry for the extra long introduction): Due to lack of experience with this class of equipment and demos in general, do you have a couple of advices for such a demo? Is there anything you would prepare? How do you fill those demos with life? Do you have certain playlists to challenge the system in a special way or do you just play your favourite albums and songs of different genres?
And are the any special strengths and weaknesses of the uniti line (and the altnertive the M10) you know, I should be aware of? Is there anything I should definitely have an eye (and of course ear) on during the demo? Is it a good idea to arrange a second demo validate the impressions of the first demo or would that be useless?
Thank you very much for your help.
Christian.