@Kiwimac : Harbeth Monitor 30.1s
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PMC are available, from one dealer on the South Island and one up towards Auckland so impossible to listen to easily.
Consumer law does not permit āBuy and send it back if you do not like itā either. No sending back unless itās faulty.
It is one of the downsides of being this far from the real world - you sometimes have to accept that things people take for granted elsewhere are either unavailable or very expensive! Google, for example, do not even sell Pixel phones in NZ at all. Apple do not sell Home Pod (if you should want oneā¦) here at all either.
You just have to make do with what you can get, what you can listen to and read a lot of reviews to help you before you start.
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Lets not exagerate: āreal worldā sounds ā¦ not polite. 
each country haves his rules and depending of localization, logistics matters.
If the speaker canĀ“t go to you; you go to the speaker. take youĀ“re time. dont buy by impulse. wait for the oportunity to go to the dealer, even if its away.
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Thatās rather unfortunate, and more or less the opposite of UK and EU consumer law. Here, for the purchase of any item that you have not been able to examine in a shop, the law requires the seller to take it back and give you a refund. In practice you have 28 days to do this.
(People often post here about the willingness of, for example, cable suppliers, to offer home demo without obligation as if they were doing you a huge favour. In fact they are merely obeying the law, albeit willingly in many cases.)
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Iām not sure that is correct. A lot of NZ retailers have a return with 10 days policy if not happy. Anyway, you should be able to do a home demo that you keep and pay for if you are happy, if you have a good relationship with a dealer.
I agree with what a few have said, do check what is locally available and focus around that.
For long term satisfaction in your room, I would definitely focus on speakers first, and amp to driveā¦ get a feel for what sounds right and comfortableā¦with speaker and ampā¦
Once you have a degree of comfort with that focus on the NAC or preampā¦ this will drive the quality and performance of the systemā¦ unless integratedā¦
Once you get a feel of that then look at sourcesā¦ really in my opinion sources should come last when matching in a room ā¦
Ultimately match your sources so they match or slightly your NACā¦ whether integrated or notā¦
But first I would absolutely nail speaker and amp control and work backwardsā¦ speaker / speaker control / room matching - coupling is pivotal to an enjoyable sounding audio system that doesnāt always have you itching for an upgrade.
As your dealer is coming from a distanceā¦ ideally ask them to bring a diverse albeit limited selectionā¦ speakers can be very marmiteā¦
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Limited choice is always a problem - but having said that, I would seriously look around for pre-owned kit - youāll get a much better sound for your money if you buy well. Either talk to your dealer for ex-demo or possibly used kit from others trading up, or look on eBay or similar. Of course, you need to know what youāre looking for, but checking out reviews and listening to what you can will help - and buying used, if you donāt get on with it, you can resist it and sell with little to no loss, which is never the case if you buy newā¦
I agree - but we have no Ebay in NZ, only a local similar thing called Trade Me. Currently, 9 items of Naim gear are listed! They range from a Ā£15,000 equivalent NAP500DR to a Naim i-Supply for 50 pence.
It takes some getting used to to realise that NZ only contains 5 million people in total and of that 5 million, about 1% are probably Naim potential owners, less than that would be actual owners I suspect.
Second hand bargains do come up from time to time, of course, but it certainly isnāt as big a pond to fish in as the UK, USA etc.
As a comparable, I checked for the Scottish Company and they have 7 items listed - two of which are turntable drive belts!
I do get what @Kiwimac is saying. It can be frustrating dealing with the issues of living in a low populous country. Many items that everyone else takes for granted, are either very expensive or not available at all.
I live in Canada and run into the same issues. I believe that the problem is often a protectionist attitude of the Canadian govāt, making it difficult thru tarrifs and taxes and regulations, so that itās just not profitable enough for some importers.
Itās very noticeable, being so close to the states when all the ads are seen by us as well, and most items are half our price, and also shipped for free to anyone in the US.
So we get kind of pi**ed off at the whole situation, and it shows sometimes.
Everyone likes to rationalize that itās because thereās more people in the US, but if our country was more accepting of importers, it would be no different shipping to Buffalo NY, or Toronto Ont. We have always been, immediately across, a very soft border from the US, which is a very enviable, international trading position. But it does little good for us consumers.
OK, end of rant. Sorry about that.
Dave out.
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It may be true in some instances that some components are half the price in the United States that they are in Canada - I really donāt know - but a quick comparison of SuperNait 3 prices doesnāt really bear that out. It retails for $4990 USD in the US while in Canada it retails for $6490 CAD. With the exchange rate today $4990 USD is the equivalent of $6327 CAD. So a little more, but not that much.
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Taking a bigger picture view, you can order any Naim gear in New Zealand and it will be ordered from the UK. You will just have to suck it out waiting and it will cost a bit more, especially with limited flights due to the pandemic. If you have immigrated to New Zealand, you are likely significantly more wealthy than the average Kiwi and your home is twice the size and nicer for the same price of what you left behind. And you get to live in a nice country free of that nasty bug. So paying a bit more for a black box isnāt that much of a hardship. 
.
As we stay here, you can always go back to āthe real worldāā¦
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Actually, Iāve done OK on used Naim gear here compared to the US. Itās things like tires and cars and TVs and really almost everything.
I donāt know where you live, but you notice it more when yer paying more as opposed to paying less.
A 555PSdr would cost me $16k with taxes here, so I donāt have one.
And when I shop on Amazon, almost every item I select, is half the cost on Amazon US. And many times it isnāt even available in Canada, and the US company doesnāt ship to Canada.
Itās a much bigger thing than just Naim gear. Search 5-600 different items like I have.
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Hi @Kiwimac, as a now Sydney based person who spent time in ChCh I found the pricing of HiFi in NZ to be a little excessive. If you need any help getting anything from Australia into NZ just let me know and I would be happy to help.
Thanks!
So I had a call from the dealer today and they are bringing their stuff over tomorrow mid morning for a listen. We shall see how it sounds!
The Nova alternative from the Scottish Company might make an appearance for a listen over the weekend too so all go here.
I will be discussing the various suggestions raised here - thanks for those - with the dealer. Most especially, how do I audition a Nova (or ND5 XS2) with speakers that they do not sell without buying the Nova first.
If I like the sound overall enough, I may head into town next week to the shop to hear some alternative speakers. The dealer only stocks Focal, Fyne, Totem and Rega speakers so I will have to see if I can sweet talk them into lending me their Nova if I want to listen to other brands.
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If your dealer is bringing stuff Iād suggest at least trying the SN3 as well as the Aethos. If you went the ND5 route you could then use system automation to control the volume via the Naim app.
While Iām not keen on the Nova looks, the new Linn Majik DSM looks awful with a huge slab of plastic on the front and a little knob thatās about as sturdy as new born babyās neck.
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Iām sure youāre right. There are big price differences on plenty of things. I was just curious to see how prices on new Naim gear compared between Canada and the US. Iām in Winnipeg, by the way. Cheers.
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Winnipeg, thatās cool.
Some of the Naim products are priced alright over here. The SN3 is one of them. Naim dropped the price on the SN3. The SN2 can be had for a very good price pre-owned, because itās discontinued.
In the UK, the prices are more reasonable, and the tax is included in the prices.
Itās all the other stuff that we pay so much more for that drives me nuts. But thereās nuthin I can do about it ā¦ Justin isnāt returning my calls.
Best of luck with this Covid thing.
Cheers.
Dave
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I got a demo SN 2 for a good price from my excellent dealer and couldnāt be happier. Itās a wonderful amp. So itās true that there are good deals to be had in this part of the world.
All the best to you too, Dave.
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Soā¦
Today we heard the Nova with Focal Sopra 1 and then the ND5 XS2 with the Rega Aethos with the same speakers: the ND5 and Rega combination smoked the Nova with those speakers by an obvious margin.
However, although quite obviously very good, I found the Focalās uncomfortable to listen to at volume. I am not habitually someone who enjoys music loud - I wear earplugs at concerts - but the Sopras were grating on me after about 30 minutes regardless of the source and amp.
Cue the Fyne Audio 502SP. Far more pleasant. Initially I felt that they were not gelling well - it was as though there was a left and a right but no synthesis of those two channels into a single stereo image, as it were.
The dealer moved the speakers apart further and adjusted my sitting position about a foot closer. Well, the speakers simply disappeared The music hovered in space. Quite astonishing really.
I still feel that there is a slight irritation to my ears - a slight brightness that is at once revealing and detailed but at the same time fatiguing, especially at moderate to high level (does not seem to be an issue at modest listening levels). I mentioned this to the dealer, whose view was that none of the gear was particularly run in, including the Sopras - indeed the amp and streamer were NIB for the demo.
They left the kit less the Nova and the Focals in our house and suggested we leave the electronics on all the time and play it as much as possible.
The ND5 XS2 is a very obvious improvement over the Nova and the Rega amp certainly grips the speakers (even the Sopra) with more authority than the Nova amp, perhaps unsurprisingly.
The Fynes are indeed fine - I certainly recommend them if you are looking. Fit and finish on the SP grade is stunning and they are talented speakers.
I am cogitating whether to audition the next step up in streamer - the NDX2. It is double the price of the XS2 but does have a screen and remote (as well as better sound, the dealer said āIf I play one for you, youāll want it for sure!ā)
On Sunday the Scottish Company dealer is calling in with part of his suggestion. It will be an interesting comparison.
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