Elsewhere on this very forum, the NAT01 is being praised as being one of Naim’s best ever sources on a Radio 3 live FM broadcast. Now, can someone remind me what the UK FM broadcast network is restricted to? 12-bit, is it?
Go (as they say) figure.
Mark
Nostalgia and rose coloured glasses. 
What you say may be true, but I invite you to come and have a listen to mine and perhaps you’ll agree.
Numbers mean nothing to me if it sounds right it is right. 
Life’s too short. 
I heard not long ago that we have long since passed the point where the ever increasing number of Megapixels that camera has affects the quality that the human eye can detect.
One wonders if that target is long since reached by Audiophiles in their quest for the perfect sound and yet the quest goes on because different things sound different, but not necessarily better or worse…
Peter Thomas the owner of PMC speakers spends a lot of time installing in recording studios. For him the low hanging fruit of speaker design has been picked……but he has not heard any speaker that recreates the musicians playing in a studio…….some very hard work ahead. Peter also owns a large collection of original master tapes and loaned his Madman across the water tapes for the recent Elton remaster.
Fear not mate I’ve got a cd 5 si and I have to say it rocks I’ve got over a 1000 CDs and have just upgraded my amp and I don’t think you need more where do you draw the line in conclusion amplifier and speakers wot make the difference at end of day so many folk steam now naim got make money 
probably only enough market for the one cd player happy days
The BBC R3 FM broadcast is analogue, so bit rate doesn’t come into it does it?
Unless they’re broadcasting material that is itself digital…
Yes I also have one and it punches well above it’s weight but on my next upgrade I may want to consider something more versatile (SACD) and better display. Call me fussy but I would like “time remaining “ shown
Having said that, I could live with the cd5si quite happily for years to come.
Oh, I don’t doubt it - I wasn’t suggesting the NAT01 listeners were wrong at all. Rather, that claims of high bit rates being necessary for great SQ (and, specifically, that the 16 bits of CD are insufficient) are somewhat belied by the repeated praise heaped (correctly, IMO) on the BBC’s FM broadcasts.
Mark
No it’s still analogue. Everything they broadcast is digital in origin these days, but it’s analogue by the time they transmit it on FM radio.
Interesting info on the digital distribution system to the transmitters
https://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20Reviews/pcm-nicam/digits-fm.html
True but it’s an analogue representation of a bit-limited data stream. The resolution is still determined by the source material.
Oh yes it does! The signal that comes from the transmitters is (frequency modulated) analogue, of course, but the signal gets to the transmitters from the studio via a 32kHz 13-bit PCM digital system over phone lines. Here’s a detailed description of the system that has been in use for many decades:
https://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20Reviews/pcm-nicam/digits-fm.html
Therefore, anyone enjoying a UK FM stereo broadcast on a NAT01 (or any other system) is listening to a signal which been squeezed through a 13-bit 32kHz system. The fact that it nevertheless produces enormous listening enjoyment shows how little we should allow considerations of bit-rate or sampling frequency to influence our opinion of a system.
Mark
(@james_n - great minds Google alike!)
It’s still analogue.
And I think you will find that your reference link is somewhat out of date. A lot has happened since 2011.
Do feel free to post a link to a more up to date description: I’m always keen to learn.
Indeed, it’s a long time since I’ve had a tuner so wasn’t aware of how distribution methods had changed.
and…we’re back in the room.
Very odd.
Who are ‘we’?
And which ‘room’ are we in?