I’m not sure if I’m interpreting it correctly but I may share the same experience. Most of the time my Naim system sounds good but there are few occasions it doesn’t. There are few possibilities, and one of them include the mood or physical condition of the person at the time he is listening to the music. On a bad day the system may not sound good to the listener although there is nothing wrong with the system. But now I think it’s more to the cabling, the connections between the cable plugs and cable dressing. Over time the cables or connections at the plugs may have a slight shift or change in position, or signal cables touching power cables etc.
These days I power down the system, unplug and plug all connections and dress the spaghetti of cables at the back of the rack once in 2 to 3 months or whenever I feel like it. I admit it did help in some ways.
I admit I find the loose connections of Naim plugs, 4 or 5 pin to the amps a bit annoying. The connections are not exactly a tight fit as the cable ends can still move a little even though the cables are pushed all the way in.
OK - but what has gone wrong to make you lose your love of music?
Is it that ‘Naim have lost their way’?
Probably not.
Is it about your interconnect?
Probably not.
Is it that you have a system in storage that you once loved: CD3, NAC92, Flatcap, 2 x 90.3, IXO?
Maybe you miss the simplicity of whacking on a CD - and the fact that it was impossible to fiddle with changing tracks on a CD player (whereas on a streamer it’s very tempting to muck about with tracks and not listen to whole LPs - and also to stare at an iPad screen instead of really listening - or dancing)?
Do you miss your CD5si - NAIT5si and Neat Motive SX2 speakers?
Ditto. I’ve heard many owners of this type of set up who always miss the boogie and fun factor of it.
Are you still listening to the same music you did a decade or 3 ago?
If so, perhaps you’re bored of it and need to explore more?
This is a wild guess, but this just happened to me - I moved on to focus on and explore in depth a whole new region of music.
Maybe get that stuff out of storage - flog it and buy a killer streaming system?
I’d gently suggest that the issue is in your head. With the amount of time you’ve spend endlessly comparing cables it becomes impossible to simply enjoy music. When you play music you shouldn’t need to even think about the hifi, it should be like it’s not there. I went through a box-swapping fiddling upgrading phase - more than one actually - and lot my simple enjoyment of music. Jim makes a great suggestion above - sell every single box and wire you are not using. With it not there you cannot fiddle about and the only option is to enjoy music. It’s important to remember that the only point of owning a hifi is to enjoy music, the gear itself is simply the means to the end.
It’s beyond me why people have to go on endlessly about which is better and who is right and who is wrong. Gary prefers his lavender. You prefer your Hiline. That’s it. Each to their own.
This might be a challenge, the units are side by side on a cabinet. The cable would either be on the shelf, or I could run it through holes at the back do that it hangs like the burdy, but it will still touch the side of the holes. I wonder how critical that all is?
Just gone back to lavender interconnect after din plug was twisted off my ‘upgrade’ cable when the furniture was being moved - I think the original lavender cable now sounds the same as the cable that I once thought was ‘better’ - so I’m another lavender keeper.
I’m very much enjoying this interconnect. All of the virtues of the HiLine and none of the vices. Scale and openness, drive and coherence without the frequency imbalance (to my ears) of the HiLine.
Can u describe some of the improvements over lavender or hiline using the Sarum T analogue.
Also is it stiff or flexible? The way my 2 Fraim stacks are set up my 52 and cds2 are side by side on top shelf. There are 32 inches between the sockets. Some some concern whether 1 meter (39 inches) would be long enough. Big add on price to get 1.5 meter length.
David
I’ll try to convey my take on the cables. When I switched from lavender to hiline (din-din), I had a cds3 and 552, with the 552 sat on the same fraim stack two shelves down.
I have often questioned the build quality/ robustness of the hiline connectors and I wonder if this could lead to the variable reaction folks have to it ie different hiline cables may sound better than others. In my case, the mid to upper musical register just opened up tremendously and I was able to hear notes, sounds, textures through the hiline I had not previously been aware of. I don’t have a clear recollection of impact on bass and perhaps there may have been a compromise on overall balance across the musical spectrum. I simply didn’t notice this at the time and was hugely impressed with the improved clarity.
I later changed the hiline for a sarum t cable and I’m not sure if by that time I had already swapped out the cds3 for a cd555. There is now an additional shelf between cd player and 552 following the introduction of a soon to be departed nds.
Initially I was probably expecting yet another boost in clarity, more fine high notes and textures etc similar to the impact of the hiline. This was not close to my initial impression. If anything it may even have sounded a little flatter. There is a big BUT however. With further listening it seems to me that the sarum t conveys all of the detail portrayed by the hiline with an additional balance/ coherence which just makes it all sound significantly more natural. I’m rubbish at explaining but it just sounds right to me and perhaps this quality may fill in the gaps others have experienced with the hiline when they moved back to lavender. We do all seem to hear things differently and, as always, with cables I’d strongly recommend borrowing a set of demo cables from your dealer over a weekend to hear for yourself if at all possible.
I had a similar experience with in ear headphones where the shure se846 had a slightly bright sparkly sound but I found that a pair of audiofly af180, whilst not nearly as detailed, have a wonderful balance and coherence to them which I much prefer. But that’s yet another subject… Good luck with your search.
