Bass & Treble adjustment

I don’t think so. What might be naive is to buy £6k of gear without audition, preferably at home, but that may not be available where you live. We are fortunate in the UK where this is fairly common practice.

Roger

Even in Runcorn :joy:
I demo’d Arcam & Cambridge Evo 150 at Richer sounds, but didn’t want to lose ability to play cds.
Saw reviews of Atom, which lead me to the Star.
Took a chance after speaking with HiFi corner in Edinburgh.
I DO like the clarity, just miss setting my own choice of tone.

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A possibility for you is to get a copy of Audacity, and use that to digitally edit files which can then be played back via the Star. If you always process files in 24/192 (or 24/176.4 format for data derived from CD sources) then redither the data after processing, then the loss of quality is fairly small.

Note that, unlike copying digital data, reprocessing such as applying digital filters does inevitably cause some loss of quality even if at these data resolution that loss is quite small. For you, this could be the best of both worlds.

If you’re prepared to rearrange your room and/or use acoustic treatment in the room, it is is likely to give an even better result, but lacks the adjustability of using Audacity to implement ‘tone controls’ in the files.

Have you tried to position the speakers nearer to the wall. Free bass boost!

Ah! There’s a couple of good and friendly Naim dealers in Chester if/when you do decide to move on from the Star.

Roger

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So there was no excuse for not getting a demo then :roll_eyes:
To be fair the correct speaker cable requirements should be specified in the manual and from what I can see it’s not.

If you are not happy return it under “distance selling rules”.

Unfortunately, one of mine is in a bay window, or 2ft out of it, other is 6 inches from wall.
My RS-8s have 2 bass reflex holes, 1 at rear top, other front lower.

I’ve only just moved into the Star!!!

Therein lies the problem: you’ve got used to a sound with excess bass boost (the so called ‘bass enhancement’ is nothing more than making the mid-bass artificially loud); now you have more natural bass it seems tinny by comparison.

I’ve looked up those cables and they aren’t ideal, particularly in terms of being driven by a Naim system. With relatively large conductors joined close together, then compared to the ideal configuration, the capacitance will be too high and the inductance too low. This won’t allow the power amp in the Star to work at it’s best. Ideally replacing this with 3.5m each side of Witch Hat N2 or Naim NAC A5 will allow the power amps to ‘breath’ better.

Even allowing for the speaker cables, then either you have a problem with the position of the speakers (MA silver 200, 300 or 500 don’t lack bass), or you’ve simply got so used to having excessive bass and are now you have a normal bass balance you’re interpreting that as a deficiency.

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Yupp, I’m coming round to the 3.5m Witches Hat solution.

Please be aware that this still won’t give you the higher level of bass that you get from the Denon when you have the Denon’s bass boost (“bass enhancement”) switched on.

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Bummer!
I don’t want Wu tan clan bass, just want more at low volume levels.

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You might want to think about adding a sub-woofer, then you can turn up the really low bass (the sort you feel rather than hear) when you need it, without screwing up the essential sound quality performance of the Naim kit the rest of the time.

Best

David

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That is what a loudness option is indeed intended for, since human hearing is less sensitive to bass frequencies at lower volumes. Naim equipment has no specific features for this purpose.

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Except that the Mu-Sos do, but then I guess it can be done without an unacceptable performance compromise because of the all-in-one design and the DSP.

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I didn’t know that, good to know :+1:

But if you turn a muso (well a muso Qb as I haven’t tried it myself on a muso) loudness to on, it sounds terrible - muffled and boomy.

I think this is just a matter of trying some subtle changes with the speaker positions and furnishings and if you want more bass, add a sub, which would be beneficial anyway.

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Or you need full range main speakers (generally dictating floor standers), and to do it well more expensive than speakers not going as low.

This is what I also want from my system. Proper bass at low volume. 3 choices here.

  1. More sensitive speakers with more/bigger drivers able to move more air and use the power from your amp more efficiently.
  2. Add a subwoofer
  3. Increase amp power and keep the same speakers.

Either choice implemented well will give you what you want. However option 3 might be considerably more expensive to achieve the result.