I’ve just got home from the show, some good stuff.
The Naim demo was great, seperates running Sopra 3’s great choice of music as well Kate Bush, Tracey Chapman and Level 42 to name but a few.
Dynaudio also grabbed my attention with their new floorstanders, all run with Naim seperates.
Also a mention to Fyne Audio and a rather impressive pair of F702 speakers.
Did they give any streaming tips?
Didn’t ask, they did recommend to burn your CDs to a NAS drive. The ND555 is an impressive bit of kit, but the jump from an NDX 2 paired with a 555PS wasn’t a huge leap in performance in my opinion.
Dynaudio Confidence 30 or 50?
Gazza, I am going to the Show tomorrow and of course will be at the Naim demo. I will feed back anything useful regarding streaming tips offered at the demo to this fine place.
Any reports of the Focal Kanta 1 and Naim?
Cheers matey, are you there both days, if so Alistair from Signals is out and about on Sunday. Listening to cables as I write…not conclusive. The Naim SL 5 pin din to din is faulty…bad humm at my music levels, say 9 o’clock on the preamp. Currently using True Signal audio 5 pin din to din, and Naim SL din to xlr twin mono leads for 252 to nap 300. The preamp to power amp makes a big difference to my ears. Still early days, and Signals are hopefully getting the True Signal din to xlr for comparison.
No, I am only there tomorrow, so I will miss Alistair.
Shame that the loaner SL din to din is faulty and hopefully you can get a replacement to listen to because for me the SL interconnect made the biggest difference.
It will be interesting to see how you think SL compares to True Signal cables which I am not familiar with.
They were on demo in the small Naim/Focal room in the basement. At first I thought they weren’t very impressive, but after a few minutes was impressed that they didn’t sound impressive if you see what I mean. It should be possible to listen to them for a full session without them being tiring or overblown. Definitely worth a longer listen.
And that doesn’t mean bland !
I will pick up another on Tuesday. True Signals sounds really good, but I need to hear a full SL interconnect vs True Signal…there was no din to xlr Truesignal…now being ordered. So I have a hybrid of True Signal 5 pin din to din Nd 555 to preamp, and SL din to xlrtopower amp. Sounds really promising…need to swap back in a day or so to standard.
Yes, basically use a Core 
Rip as wav is all I can remember. It was basic, sensible stuff.
However, despite my levity, it was a good session, some talk, some music and some comparisons. The improvement did come with increasing price, but not necessarily as big an improvement as the difference in cost.
And at one point there was some techno/dance played - everything rocked out really well - Wish they’d use more of this sort of thing and less of the jazzy and laid back stuff. It was also nice to hear some classical music too - like the techno track the equipment had no trouble handling it.
Thanks tallguy…perhaps overhyped, thought they might talk switches, cables etc. But glad it was a decent demo for you👍
Thanks TallGuy. I can’t make this year. What source/amp were they using?
30
Ditto with Tallguy’s assessment
Hoping to go tomorrow or Sunday but have competing commitments - haven’t been for over 20 years.
Were those the dynaudio evoke,and if so, any idea which of the 2 floorstanders were playing?
I expect that they will be available here in U.S. in April. Pricing seems to be similiar between the evoke and the new neat speakers. Anxious to hear both.
I’ve just arrived in that there London, ready to meet friends at Paddington coffee bar tomorrow am for our annual day out to the show, Chris and I are the two originals, and look a little older than when we used to slope off work on a Friday for public-access trade day back in the Heathrow days 30 or so years ago.
Confidence 30 and they were bloody amazing
Ouch on the price (and size) of the confidence 30. The evoke 30 is of more (realistic) interest to me. Do you know if the evoke line was being shown?