I can confirm that I was indeed using a Naim 500 system in our room…
I didn’t have a curated playlist, I had a fallback playlist when required, but in the main, I asked guests what they would like to listen to and played whatever came up. Most of the suggestions were very good and I came across a couple of things I have since downloaded for my own pleasure (once I get my system back home!).
I also asked about volume - a lot! Most of the time it was all very reasonable but I have to admit, the guy that wanted Metallica did play it pretty loud! Almost as loud as the guy that wanted to hear a Polish punk band he had been following for years…
Unfortunately, that can happen when you decide it’s the visitors day out and they should hear things they want to hear… not something ‘safe’ and probably repeated in every room anyway…
But it wasn’t all chaos, I ran a few dems with a selection of music that I could illustrate with little anecdotes and that tended to calm things down a bit.
In future, if any Naim forum members come to any of my demonstrations, please make yourself known… it’s always good to speak with like minded people, share some music and talk about the systems we use.
(I’ll probably get a telling off for commenting on here… sorry Richard or any of the others. If I’ve overstepped the mark, I’ll accept a deletion…)
Thanks for making the effort to acknowledge the listener and audience!
I figured it was the guy on the sofa enjoying something he was fond of rather than something safe and easy going
It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, just a little loud given the confined space and close proximity to the speakers.
The room itself was well thought out and inviting at least.
From reading the blurb, the main difference in the crossover is the cutover frequency to accommodate the new hf driver. As it stands the original crossover is exceedingly straightforward with MKT caps which helps give that characteristic sonic performance.
A famous speaker designer, mainly known for his DIY designs, but also has had his speakers at shows like the Munich High-End as driver manufacturers like ScanSpeak, SeaS, Purifi etc. tend to hire him to design speakers to exhibit their drivers. And who knows if any commercial designs are actually by him? Hey, maybe even your Rauna as they use his favourite brand of crossover components
I obviously can’t link anything, but you can google the name and plenty will turn up.
Do you normally like the Linn digital house sound. I have usually been underwhelmed with Linn, but clearly many like it… it just doesn’t tend to do it for me… but horses for courses…
That’s how I feel, I can’t say what it’s doing wrong, everything seems sonically good, yet somehow I don’t enjoy the music very much. Yet as I say all the parts seem there, so I can see why people love music on it if they have different “taste” to me.
Yes, I listened to the posh Linn system with the new mono-blocks, and I too was underwhelmed. I remember thinking this rig must have more to give, so stayed for a couple more tracks. Nothing. No engagement. So I returned later, and the same sterile presentation.
I don’t think the music played in the Linn room when I was there helped either.
I missed the visceral, raw, gutsy, warts ‘n’ all Naim presentation. But as we all know Naim can do delicate and refined too, when the music callas for it.
Is it Naim’s use of beefy power supplies with ballsy transformers that (partly) explains the difference in presentation? I have no idea.
I did attend a Signals Linn session precovid with a system/Linn speakers which i cannot recall. I agree with the lack lustre comments on most music i like……but there were some acoustic tracks where i thought it came to life.
But overall……not for me.
I didn’t help that I hadn’t heard of Rauna.
