Does anybody have the wish to downsize their system and why?

Thanks Ian!

Been using Naim since 1983 and currently own more Naim black boxes than I ever have but then Iā€™ve never had a system that comes close to what my system sounds like at the moment so the answer is definitely not.

Have gone from a multitude of boxes (all Naim) active cd driven system with SBL, to streaming with separate power supplies for the streamer and pre with a two box power amp to my current single box 272 front end with active ATC speakers

Its possibly the lowest box count I can achieve with the minimal loss of SQ

Happy as can be too, really enjoy the results and minimal looksā€¦

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Iā€™ve also down-boxed to one black box into active speakers and am enjoying the best sounds Iā€™ve heard in my listening room. All I have to do now is resist the temptation to add more boxes once again. Perhaps I should stop reading audio forums.

Roger

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Iā€™ve just been through this process myself.
The previous iteration of my system comprisedā€¦
Rotel Pre
Rotel Power
Rega CDP
Turntable
Phono Stage
Pioneer TX9800 FM Tuner
External Roof Mounted FM Aerial.
This all meant 6 power cables needing six plugs and lots of interconnects. A Snake Pit.
I loved it and it sounded great but having to move it and move it againā€¦and again due to moving house and renovations it became obvious to me that things had become a wee bit complicated.
My first objective was to lessen the number of cables closely followed by no loss in quality of music.
Where we live now, FM is quite limited so internet radio became a real option.
Out with the CDP and FM Tuner.
Enter the ND5xs.
As usually happens with an upgrade, the new digital player now raised questions of the rest of the system.
Out with the Two Rotels.
Enter Supernait 2.
Now my speakers are telling me theyā€™re not the greatest match for the new Naim gear.
New Speakers.
In the meantime Iā€™ve bought the dedicated PSU for my Well Tempered which will also power my Phono Stage so now I need only one power cable for the analogue set up.
Iā€™ve gone from six power cables to three. And apart from the Snaic between the ND5 and SN2 I only need two pairs of RCA interconnects.
Before I started on this wee trip I was really only thinking of replacing the two amps with a large Rotel integrated with the ND5xs however that Naim sound got its claws into me and that as they say was that.

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Sounds like a good system , did you audition the Nait XS?

I would (if starting afresh) go down a very similar route and ditch the five box amplification with either a Supernait 3 or Nait XS3

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Nope. No auditions apart from the A23 speaker cables, Spendor A4ā€™s and Powerline. Iā€™ve got a great relationship with my dealer so just went with his recommendations re the SN2 and ND5xs. Due to being a two hour plus drive from his location auditions werenā€™t easy.
Itā€™s all opening up really nicely. At the moment Iā€™m hearing different improvements every couple of days.
Interestingly Iā€™ve ended up with a far superior system with less cables, not really less boxes. It cost a bit but that was accommodated really more by chance as financially all the moons seemed to align at the right time for a change. The Spendors are beautiful. Classic English two way quality. The 704ā€™s were beautiful too however Iā€™ve always missed that high quality two way sound.

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Iā€™m going to throw this out for the OP. If you wanted to really down size but keep the sound quality Iā€™d suggest a Devialet Expert 220 Pro. I had the previous model the 200 and it was super. Just a thought. And itā€™s very green :evergreen_tree:

When we move in a few months, we will be temporarily (18 months) in a place with no mains earth so the big Naim system (which I am committed to) will go into storage.

But I am excited about the downsize as I plan on going for a small Luxman tube integrated and separate DAC. I just need to find a decent pair of speakers to drive with a 10w tube amp that are not massive horns. Iā€™ve set myself the task of building this temporary system for no more than the cost of one new SuperCap all in.

Am thinking a tube amp with some JBLs might be a fun itch to scratch for a couple years.

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Wow thanks Rick, I had never heard of them - those are seriously impressive bits of kit . I had a serious drool when I saw them and read up. And they even show the price, Naim and Linn could learn from that.

When I started this thread in April it was over the frustration of having a five box amplification system , knowing that I find it horrific whenever I have to touch anything on the 202. Also if I left it to somebody , it was an incredibly complicated system.

Since then we have the Supernait 3 and the Nait XS 3, with built in phono stages. Having a HiCap I am giving serious thought to decluttering four of the boxes and switching to a Supernait 3
or (and this is the left field choice) keeping the NAP 200 and replacing the 202/phono stage and the other box with a one box NAIT XS 3 as pre-amp .
Yes, there will be a reduction in SQ but there will be a vast improvement in simplifying the system and I have a strong suspicion the downturn may not be that vast if I go down the Nait XS3 route .

Many thanks for your answer and if starting from fresh I think the Devialet would be high, no make very very high on the audition list

Best wishes

What would you be using as source ? I saw a very cute Luxman CD players recently announced

Hi Ian, nice and terrible question I am often confronted tooā€¦

It is a recurring topic in my mind and I think I will get to that point. I come from the era of the TurntableAmpLoudspeakers and often I think I should return home.
Most often the doubt come when I am using or restoring vintage devices.
A sort of ā€œwe were happier when we had lessā€ feeling. Also lurking back to my huge collection of vintage magazines (1972 till todayā€¦) I have that sort of feeling.

A classic Sondek-Nait-Kan or Thorens-Marantz-AR with todayā€™s technologies would be great I think. But you need a lot of maturity and courage to go that way :smile:

Since years I went on the bi-amp way and itā€™s a way of no return and I am seriously considering powered loudspeakers.
There are some aspects to consider as well:

  • getting older does not match with weight lifting so that tubes and class A may be an issue
  • one day it might be needed to resize the house so that horns may no longer be the option
  • downgrading to SourceAmpLoudspeakers is not necessarily cheap and then the risk of being infected again of upgraditis is still high
  • as you said it would be an issue to leave such complex systems behind you to people not skilled or interested

Certainly I will never turn to an all in one system, in case of troubles, or I go broke I could easily stay with one of my several vintage systems and live happily for th (few) remaining days of my life.

Last but not the least I will never regret the wonderful path I had in the hifi world, itā€™s been funny, joys and tears for sure but it saved my life and always supported me along the way in my life.

Good luck for you dilemma Ian :grin:
Alessandro

Iā€™ve been going back and forth on this for a while. Currently, I have a mid-width 40cm Quadraspire rack for my headphone system and I thought it would be great to get a system that fits entirely on this and have the 2 full width racks in storage with the big system.

With that in mind, I was thinking about this:

DA-150 DAC (just recently discontinued)
image

Or possibly this
D-N150 CD player & DAC (Luxman make all their CD players usable as DACs)
image

Into this
SQ-N150
image

None are full width. Theyā€™d all go nicely on my tiny 40cm wide rack driven by a mini PC as the transport. Finding speakers to fill a decent size room on a 10w amp will be the challenge. With kids around and earthquakes, floorstanders are better than standmounts. Hence Iā€™m thinking of JBL compact horns.

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As simple or simpler is source-active speakers, though source likely two boxes, music store/player (eā€¦g Innuos, Melco or even Mac Mini running Audirvana) + DAC with its own preamp. And downsizing in that way beds not mean downgrading, though if you want full range speakers theat can mean something big and heavy - but once positioned need never be moved. This is my thinking, though the reality due to cost is that I am more likely to stay with triple amps separate from the speakers, but maybe put them on a wheeled rack for easier access to connections, or simply turn them round so all the connections face out, as they are presently inside a cabinet, doors then hiding the mess at exposed rear).

If I ever had to move into a ā€œhomeā€ with very limited space, then assuming still capable of coping with the play software and enjoying the music, simply replace the active speakers (or current amps and speakers) with good headphones.

I thought those were what you meant, suspect they will give hours of happy joy. I must admit when I started this thread and had a look past Naim (and I am not into streaming) the D-N150 and SQ-N150 met my criteria and would almost certainly drive my Harbeth P3-ESR very nicely

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Whatā€™s that then, is it top secret or cuddly?

Anyway, I agree with your comment about the SN2 using your turntable, HiCAP and CD player is a good option to reduce boxes. Or have a hi-end blu-ray and no CD player as well?

And on the subject of home (as opposed to ā€œa homeā€!), I donā€™t understand downsizing unless someone has a really huge place. With retirement getting close we are sourcing a house intended to be for the rest of our days, and criteria are very similar to now, e.g. in terms of a good size room for a music room, and at leat two, possibly three spare bedrooms - just that our bedroom and bathroom have to be downstairs: spare bedrooms can be upstairs, though if so a stairwell with a door closing it off. If we donā€™t have space we would have to accept that family from anywhere distant visiting would be very limited, while if there is space people will feel more like coming and staying a few days.

Thanks Mike

The dinky little box is a NAPSC , so I have 200/202/HiCap /Stageline and NAPSC, I just think it is horrifically complicated to have five boxes and have a desire to return to a simpler system.

If I was starting afresh, then it would be the new Pioneer Universal Player replacing both Blu Ray and CDX2 , again a drop off in SQ but a simplification of the system

Ian

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Just get a Supernait 3. One box instead of five. Itā€™s really not hard.

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But youā€™d still need to listen to the supernait first so itā€™s not ā€œjust getā€ itā€™s audition.
Compared to the first supernait I found the 202/PSC/200 a considerable relief I wouldnā€™t take the SN3 on trust.