End of my tether

Hi-Fi Corner
41

:small_blue_diamond:@pev999,…You’re right,.I’m from the fantastic country of Sweden :wink:.

When I say a year,.it doesn’t mean that you work intensively every night for a year with your system.
One must have the right feeling in the body to be able to evaluate,.some days,weeks it does not work at all.
And,.at every change,time must be given to experience,.letting the new optimisation “sink in”.
So that you know what to continue with,.and which way to take.

It also takes time with all the other things I wrote in my previous post.
I can put up a passive Linn Isobarik system in one day,.so it plays incredibly well.
It may take 5-8 hours of intensive work from scratch.
But then maybe the system has only reached 65-75% of its capacity.

It is the last 20-30% that makes it magically good,.and which you have to work with for a long time.
Have you once experienced how amazingly good it can be,.yes it is addictive,but at the same time incredibly frustrating.
Because you know how long it takes,.to reach that goal.

When I install systems for others,.I usually have with me some written information,with advice and tips how they themselves can proceed with their system.
For it is not possible to “settle down” with friends and interested,.who want help :grin:.
But I have almost stopped it,.time is not enough any longer.

But the interesting thing is,.that most have not used my written information.
They have not touched the system after I been there.
They have thought it played incredibly well,.and they don’t know how much better it can be.

So in some way,.everyone is happy.
Even though,.their system can play 20-30% better,if they used my written information.

I can tell you more about this,.but now I have to quit…This is getting too far :sunglasses:.

Regards to you too Pev…
/Peder :slightly_smiling_face:

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43

@raym55

Same situation here. I sold the separates and purchased a Muso 2 and only on rare occasions when I get the bug to tinker do I miss it. For the most part I just sit back and enjoy the music.

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44

Yes, Pev, I seem to remember you have one or two fine motorcycles to blow away the cobwebs.

I am envious.

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45

Thanks @Richard.Dane. I suspect the things he’ll most likely recall are my sofa being at the end of its life and my complete failure to organise any meaningful food for him and Rob despite them taking a whole day out and ultimately solving everything (or so we thought).

Don’t think I’m ungrateful folks. I’m just not sure I’m mentally able to cope with the many kind suggestions right now. Having vented I’m just not listening to music and not going near the thing bar for TV. Last night even the remote decided to play up and a small press to increase TV volume resulted in a massive sudden leap in volume.

It’s certainly not things like power or room or speaker position. Been here 17 years and those things have either never been an issue (power or room) or been specifically addressed by my dealer (speaker position).

Going to do something else now.

46

Let me come round with my anti static spray and Hoover.
I will take it all apart. Give your cables a good clean. Shelves a good clean. Whole area a good clean.
Even the boxes - make that green logo more clearer.
Then put it all back together following the diagrams and with love. I will let you watch everything so you can do the same.

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47

:slight_smile:

You do kinda make that sound like a threat.

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48

Mike, I did run it past Mark but he wasn’t sure hope much he could recall, which I suppose is quite understandable. He did comment though that he felt there were some good ideas in the thread well worth pursuing.

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49

It might just be gremlins :sunglasses:

50

Not long into my Naim ownership I was going through a similar turmoil. It just sounded absolute sh1t, in the end I was about to sell it all when we decided to strip everything down to hoover behind the rack and discovered that one of the speaker wires had become disconnected.

Not saying that the OP’s troubles are that simple - could never explain fading logos.

51

Can I ask a question? Is the TV wired into this system and if so how?

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52

Time to maybe get another system, but first get another dealer. You should have not been left to struggle. It should have been home auditioned at length, properly installed and returned to by the installer if you were less than happy with it.

If it’s so susceptible to becoming unbalanced there is either something wrong with it, or it has never properly matched your room. Whatever the cause, it really doesn’t sound like it’s much use to you. I understand where you are coming from.

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53

It was purchased incrementally; most definitely auditioned at length and each installation/upgrade was fine. It was mostly not done by my current dealer. My current dealer has repeatedly been brilliant but is 50 miles away.

Sony CDP was on a Pioneer A400 and Epos ES11s.

CDX2 replaced the Sony and the intent was always 202/200 plus power supplies and floorstanders.

XPS2 came first then 202/200/NAPSC and HC2 in one weekend.

That finally exposed the limits of the Epos (which were pretty great) i.e. a rolled off top end. Embarked on a 3 year search for speakers (so pretty throrough!) and it was only ever going to be the Zu.

On arrival in 2011 something didn’t sound quite right and as the change was the speakers I spent much fruitless time assuming it was them. Dealer suggested different power units; bridged resistors; multiple cable “upgrades” and so on i.e. a bought solution which assumed an upgrade was the only option. All sounded uniformly horrid. Issue was that system had been wired wrongly and thus the many costly repairs; recaps; cable swaps and repairs etc. 200 was basically fried as I understand it.

All well and then, from what I assumed was a kicked speaker cable (whole other thread on that at the time), one thing after another and I’ve not had consistent sound since. It’s now gone from consistent to horrible and, as I say, I’ve just not got the energy.

54

Mike sorry to Labour the point but is your TV wired in to the system and if so how?

Regards,

Lindsay

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55

Sky Plus box into the 202.

56

And which input is it on?

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57

Zu speakers work best with low powered Valve amps. Unless you plan on moving to Valves ( Tubes here is the US) I’d move the Zu’s on. I’ve head Zu’s at shows a few times…Always with Tubes… never Solid State.

So here’s my take from across the pond. Start listening to new speakers. The Zu are really inappropriate for what you want. I’d get a listen to Harbeth’s, ProAc’s, Dynaudio, Kudos. Specific models… Harbeth SHL5 + Anniversary, ProAc D30RS, Dynaudio Contour 30, Kudos Titan 606.

I’m also looking at you system are you still using your CDX2 as a source?? It’s 17 years old… Any desire to start streaming? I don’t believe Naim still makes a CD Player… I could be wrong.

Also sounds like you just want to simplify I’d start by replacing all those boxes with an SN3… And a Source like an NDX2

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58

I think Lindsay may be into something here… good thinking

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59

I know you feel it’s not, but I can’t help but feel it’s your mains power supply. Have a play around with your wall fuse and see if that makes any real difference. You never know until you try.

60

Mains power is very often overlooked. I can’t imagine a good HiEnd audio system without proper mains conditioning. A power strip/ block isn’t a Shunyata or IsoTek. Ones entire audio system runs on Electricity! It needs good clean stable Electricity to build on and sound it’s best.

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61

But naim do not recommend power conditioners and the like. So your subject to your mains “spur” or ring circuit. I have found mains fluctuation does give you different results at different times of the day, when you get to separate box component level mains fluctuation does give you different results.
Night time is always better and the weekend where I live.

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