Yes, and the other Naits would offer further improvement . Perhaps from Mike’s perspective a SN3 , High Cap would offer most of the performance of his existing set up without the “faff” of so many boxes and cables.
I have totally knackered knees (putting off surgery) getting down to change leads etc is not good , the system is in need of a service and it will be very painful to kneel down and try and reconnect the five boxes to the four sources (TT/CD/AV/Tuner) .
I have been very pleased with Naim for over quarter of a century but it is time to keep all my Naim sources and look for simpler amplification . I have a deep regret over this.
Having survived (thus far) a severe back injury you have my sympathy. My sight and spine can be a poor combination and, yes, I’m sure one day I may well have that thought.
Original was taken by Mark Raggett of Naim as an A/B suggested his sounded better. This one of his cane out the other week when I took the XPS2 out and suddenly got better defined bass out of the Nait 5. I took the opportunity to gently rehearse the tension in it but it’s noticeably rigid at each end so I do wonder if that contributes. Apart from anything else I put it down to the gap between the stacks of braids and brawn forcing the Burndy into a marginally unnatural position.
That is entirely possible. Burndy’s are bu**ers to get right, both the de-stressing and the installation.
During a factory visit we were shown (by Mark I think) how to properly de-stress a Burndy. I tend not to relay this story to family or friends for fear of being sectioned!
I recently acquired a modest chrome bumper system (NAC42/NAP110) in addition to my “main” NDX/282/HCDR/250.2 system.
For reasons of convenience and location, I hardly use the main system at all at the moment and, to be honest, the modest CB system leaves nothing to be desired and gives me great pleasure. So much so that I am no longer pressed to have the main system serviced and the 250.2 upgraded to 250DR.
202 is back but not piped in. XPS2 and Burndy are with my dealer to see if they detect any issues. Moved the 200 up from the bottom of my Hutter to the middle shelf as the speaker cable was a tight fit when the 200 was on the bottom.
Stacking order will eventually be
CDX2 HCDR
202 200
XPS2
Speaker cable still strewn nice and loose on the lounge floor as I’ve not the energy at present to dress it and it may as well wait until the XPS2 is back.
However, that’s by the by for now. My question is this.
I noticed that the cable between the HCDR and the 200 has a collar thingy 2/3 of the way down it’s length. Does this means it’s directional? At present it’s closest to the HCDR? Is that right? Can it even be reversed? I can’t currently see whether it’s the same number of pins at each end (a stressful day).
The collar should go closest to the source. Thats the correct direction, and it does make a sonic difference. So yes the tag/collar should be closer to the hi cap than the 200.
Thats it, spot on. Hiline does have a marker, one plug has grey rubber end and the other has black. The grey goes to source. Also make sure the hiline hangs free without touching anything. I found this makes a noticable difference in openness of the sound.
Interesting. All powered up nicely. No definitive conclusions for a good while as the 200, HCDR, NAPSC and (I would imagine) the 202 have been off for around 6 weeks whilst the CDX2 has been off for the best part of today but 3 things leapt out immediately.
1 - Enjoyable as the Nait 5 was (and it really was) there’s really no comparison with separates. There’s a level of power and control which has immediately returned.
2 - My 202 really did need a recap. The level of detail which has returned even minus an XPS2 is an eye opener as to just how much it had gone off.
3 - We opened with a couple of tracks off the new Stormzy album. Significant amount of fairly uncontrolled bass. Played a bit of Milos just to revel in the detail so no expectation of bass there and then tried a bit of Trombone Shorty. Next to no bass on the latter at all.
Okay, so no definitive conclusions by any stretch but this latter bit is ringing alarm bells. It suggests that either the HCDR or the 200 also needs a recap/service. I will check my dates but neither should need one at this stage.
Anyways, for now it’s just nice to have it back. No doubt there will be ups and downs for a few weeks and it’ll be interesting to see if my dealer finds any issue with the XPS2 or Burndy so… watch this space.
The formatting of my two columns came out very poorly compared to my draft post.
Essentially my new order for the right stack is indeed
HCDR
200
XPS2
The left stack is
CDX2
202
with the CDP at the same height as the HCDR and the CDP a level above everything.
Going to let it bed in for now and see what my dealer says about the XPS2/Burndy but upon their return I’ll certainly give some thought to reversing the order of the left stack thank you.
I was aware the pre should be on top but aside from any other considerations I’ve always struggled with it aesthetically.
Enjoyable hour listening to Monster 25 by REM on very low volume to tonight. Thought it sounded allow pre service so that’s a start.
In the past I’ve found uncontrolled bass to be down to two things. Either it’s a crap recording or it’s the result of the amp not driving the speakers properly. This was certainly the case with my Totem Mani-2 Signatures which are a difficult 4 Ohm load. A NAP250.2 really struggled, a NAP300 was better and my current NAP300DR better still.
There are other reasons for bass problems like speaker placement, room nodes and such-like but I’m discounting these as you’ve obviously had the system set up to your liking previously.
Regards,
Steve O.
Have you formed any initial thoughts about your current system now that you’ve got a significant part of it back ?
I’m assuming that it already provides better insight and enjoyment than the temporary Nait, good though the Nait was and with hopefully more to come as it beds in.