Classic!
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If toe tapping is ânot your thingâ why would one go for Naim?
No idea - perhaps thatâs why I donât have anything Naim at present! Iâd like to hear the amps because, though Iâm wary of the Naim emphasis or whatever it is causing parts of my body to move when I donât want them to! However my impression is that aspect id primarily due to the preamp, and I as donât need a preamp with my DAC I would be free to benefit from the power amps if they are neutral enough in character. If there was a convenient dealer Iâd pop in and hear, but there isnât, so it may well have to await retirement and possible house move. (And even then maybe no point unless I have a lottery win, as Iâd need three of them because I triamp, with at least one one probably needing to be at least the 300.
But I donât believe it is possible for me to get more engaged with the music I like than I do already, whether or not I tap toes!
[quote=ârgcrow, post:28, topic:118, full:trueâ]
Some times I tap me toes other times not. Depending on mood perhaps. The big test is if it takes me to âanother placeâ. Rich
[/quote]If its both feet and youâre standing, they might - less of a risk if youâve got your feet up. 
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Iâm definitely a going to another place person. But it depends on so many variables coming together at the same time. Iâm not sure I have one album that will always take me to that place if Iâm not in the mood. Another good sign is that I stop listening critically which is where I always seem to start. Best listening sessions are those where it has all come together and itâs midnight and you feel like you only played one album.
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Blockquote
Believe me, it is! You may be mentally engaged now, but full physical immersion is required for the complete visceral experience
âIâve a problem with this in so much as my system does nothing but make my toes tap.â
If thatâs the only thing it does it may be worth getting your dealer to have a look/listen 
âŚa variant, which lyrics bring a smile to your face?
ââŚHis tights are nylon, his nails by RevlonâŚâ
Heck, that line is amazing in Dark Mavis.
Great thread Loki - I shall reply properly when Iâve given it more thought - the answers should be obvious but theyâre not!
Full physical immersion doesnât necessarily mean fidgetingâŚ
Meanwhile the visceral experience comes from the feel of the bass, whether the punch of the bass drum or sustained low pedal notes, vibrating my clothes and the chair.
And I wouldnât want the system to emphasise parts of the music to give an exaggerated sense of the beat, because the beat is not what gives me pleasure.
I had mentioned this two CD live set on the other forum. We got it for Christmas and it makes the most of every penny invested in our Naim system. I like it better every time we play it. If anybody has any pull with Mr. Morrison, ask him to reissue it. I understand it is only available if you purchase it at one of his concerts, so they must use the rare CD to generate ticket sales. The secondary market is ridiculously expensive. It is worth it but ridiculous.
Wow - $183 Amazon.com - ÂŁ85 Discogs - ÂŁ105 eBay.
No, repeat, no album is worth anything like that ridiculous amount of money! Those amongst us who fuel such grossly inflated prices should desist.
My patience was eventually rewarded when Tom Paxtonâs Live double album was re-released (I waited 10 years!) and prices tumbled from ÂŁ75 down to ÂŁ12!
Timmo:
You may be right, of course, as a matter of principle. As a practical matter, the CD on Amazon is cheaper than a trip to see a concert in Vegas or LA this week. If you find it cheaper, pick it up. It has been a lot of fun at our house.
Just been watching Bohemian Rhapsody and now find that pretty much all of Queenâs greatest are on the foot-tapping, head banging list.
Have seen The Hamsters live a few times and love them, but the first CD of theirs that I remember buying was awful on a previous âhifiâ. 10 Years Of Rodent Rock, it was. I stuck it on on Friday night whilst no-one else was in and wound the volume up. Boy did it rock. The same CD, a gap of a few years and a jump in hardware quality; it blew me away, all the way to the last couple of tracks on disc 2 when I noticed the family were back watching through the glass door indicating that itâs time to curtail the enjoyment.
Not saying anything new but just more emphatically: these are two questions that the OP poses, and (for me) they are independent. I am - as I write this- listening to Sibeliusâs violin concerto, a work I accidentally discovered toningt. I definitely connect to the music but (equally definitely) there is no toe tapping here. So what makes me feel the music? 8 suppose the âabilityâ of a piece of music (and itâs rendering by my set up) to invoke emotions. Some can do that better than others!
Yes - Some people seem to equate the rhythm/beat of the music as key to conveying emotion, with systems that play to the rhythmic attributes, such as maybe can be done by emphasising the mid bass, with tendency to induce toe tapping, as the epitome of âmusicalityâ. However whilst with some music the beat might be the main thing, in my view music has its emotional content as written and as played by the musicians, which rarely has anything directly to do with the rhythm itself. For me, emphasis of the beat can detract from the depth of the music, whereas hearing the music unadulterated all in its glory as played, which with a good recording means played through as accurate and neutral a system as possible, can do the opposite.
In essence I am asking which music you connect with at an emotional level, and if you do does the quality of the recording have anything to do with it. Itâs that connection I seek to explore. Can you feel it? ( first and foremost metaphorically) Can you lose yourself in it? Does the medium (not of the spiritual kind) get in the way?
Thanks for the clarification.
For me, whilst I would say that at some level most of the music I like connects with me emotionally, some music is certainly more emotionally engaging than other music. Things that particularly come to mind at this moment are Roger Watersâ Amused to death and Is this the life we really want, Verdiâs La Traviata and La Boheme, Genesisâ Lamb lies down on Broadway, Pink Floydâs The Wall and Final Cut, Beethovenâs 6th symphony and Moonlight sonata, Twelfth Nightâs Live and let live, Pucciniâs Turandot⌠and as I write these I realise I can keep going for ages. These pieces of music connect with me on any system, and engage emotionally. But the better they sound, the more the enjoyment, and perhaps the deeper the emotional feeling - in the case of some of the prog music in particular that feeling is significantly enhanced by hearing the bass in full. Then I can get truly lost in the music, oblivious to everything else around me, including the passage of time.
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