Indeed!..that said I completely get the servicing argument and wonder what if?!..Was curious before…now got so many possible routes. Great forum and thank you so much for taking time to reply…appreciated.
Indeed you must keep in mind that the person who gets your equipment might want to upgrade to DR and then would pay for a servicing that was just carried out.
But before you sell, make sure you really want to go this way as the gap with your new equipment may disappoint you more than you think in time. 552 is an end point (I’d dream to get one).
Thank you for taking time to reply. Great observations and indeed make me reflect on just how lucky I am to have enjoyed my music and the privilege of having equipment to which many aspire. Feel quite humble…thank you.
Hey rheggie. I’m 68, moved into a house where the outside is bigger than the inside and have to make do with a 3.2 x 3.5 metre listening space but I was damned if I was going to knock back the sound quality if I could help it. Why do it if you don’t have to?
My entirely fabulous-sounding system in a very small space:
Schuko mains plugs (I’m in Spain)/Grahams hydras/Isoblue racks/ND5XS/nDAC/NAC282/XP5XS/ “HICAP”/NAPSC/NAP250DR/Burndy/ Chord Shawline inters/Chord Epic cables/Atacama stands/ATC SCM19’s.
Tidal “Hifi” account.
This is what it looks like:
HAHAHAHAH. Niceeee…
Well yeah, I know… everything is but I meant - the pool and patio…
I done that last year. Sold sn2, dacv1, hicap, streamer,
And bought a little use nova. I also sold cable.
It let me enough money to buy a MacBook Pro.
Quite a few mentions of speakers. One thing to bear in mind is that of all components speakers most affect the character if the sound, so recommendations are meaningless till you hear. I would focus o. The speakers first: what will work in the room size? The points made about the SL2s, including effectively taking up less room than many other speakers because of wall placement are well made - and unless particularly tin, standmounts take up no less effective volume.
Active speakers such as thise from ATC could be a great approach to system downsizing rather than downgrading (a much better thing in my view), but you have to like them!
Funny how, with time, i started to think the same: speakers first. Even in terms of statistics, is likely To be the piece That people changes less, a long the life.
Get an integrated amp. SN2/3 or XS line. Look at Auralic streamers. They have just added the ability to add a cd drive to their streamers to play CD and hopefully rip to internal HD coming. 2 boxes of audio bliss.
Well I am loving my Superuniti BT so maybe one of those with a CDX2 for your legacy discs. Streamed (Tidal / Spotify) plus top CD Replay…two boxes. Go for standmount speakers (less imposing in cosier spaces) and I think doable for sub £3.5-4k second hand.
Sell off your existing kit you might be seeing some profit too
Cheers. Gaz
Can they not do this on firmware 7.0?
Certainly I can rip to NAS with it.
.sjb
Easy:
-
NDX1,
-
Nait XS-2 (if you must have a remote, Nait 2 otherwise),
-
Allae and
-
older (stiffer) Nac-A5, at least 5m long.
-
If using CD, the CD5x is the last affordable and serviceable Naim CD player with traditional Naim values.
-
If you’re using an NDX you can consider the later CD5xs with a DC-1 interconnect.
-
You’ll need a nice rack. Can’t run away from the Fraim for SQ.
-
stock mains will suffice. A titan audio Styx strip and powerline (suspended) will also help.
I don’t know if the ripping part is there yet. Maybe it is but I thought that was still to come.
As I have said many times before on this forum, not in my experience.
I have just bought DYNAUDIO FOCUS XD30 active speakers. They sound great and look beautiful. No other boxes needed. Subscription to Qobuz sublime completes what you will need. Add DYNAUDIO connect and you can stream radio and add your CD player (I have bought an old Linn player -it sounds great with the DYNAUDIO - Mr Tibbs’ excellent recommendation)
Thanks for this…so many interesting and thoughtful replies. So many things to consider now…it all seemed so simple!
Strange, based on my experience. Perhaps you have just happened to hear speakers of a similar character. What component have you found to most affect the character of the sound (as opposed to sound quality aspects such as detail)?
I know the name of the thread is downgrading but isn’t it more about downsizing , and if you get the right synergy between components this is achievable
I now have a Rega Aethos and the very inefficient Harbeth P3ESR , they work very well together and I have lost a number of boxes in the process.
Still have Naim sources but would go Nova + Neat / Supernait + Neat if I ever had to rebuild simply because from what I have learned since joining this forum is about the synergy between Naim and a number of brands
Two thoughts:
(i) can you put your current system somewhere out of the way (loft, cupboard) and control it remotely and just cable it to the loudspeakers? Not convenient for CD’s, I grant you, but if you rip those then the NAS can be there too
(ii) SMC AT19a active speakers plus dcs Bartok streamer - compact, neat, sounds great (and vinyl-like at times)