End of my tether

Yes everyone has a different experience I think staying put with the same system for 12 years is quite different to following a pre destined upgrade path.
Perhaps If I could have afforded to go straight to 282/300 I too would have stayed put but I wasn’t prepared to invest that much or to borrow money to do so.

How much of the faffing about is to do with Naim, how much prompted by being a member of a forum like this, and how much is in the blood of the faffer?

I know a Naim owner who set a system up more than 15 years ago, plays music happily, and I gather never faffs.

I know a non-Naim owner who is forever faffing about tweaking things.

Some people on the forum seem to spend their time forever faffing, some it seems almost never, while others have gone up and down systems like a yo-yo, pulling back and simplifying apparently intent on leaving alone, then the bug bites again and the upgrades start then the tweaking…

To me, it seems the ones who are forever faffing must be less than perfectly satisfied, and it does make me wonder if they would be better off re-evaluating their systems and what they want - though of course for some the tweaking is simply a hobby: and nothing wrong with that if it gives enjoyment.

Those considerations don’t apply to plain upgrades, typically spaced out by funding constraints or equipment availability, nor to things like placement experimentation after changing speakers. And nor do they apply to trying to fix things when something goes wrong.

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IB, I think you are right.

I’m sure if I plonked my system on the floor, plugged into the normal ring main, piled up on top of each other, burndies strewn about touching mains and speaker cables it would still sound pretty darn good.

Not as good as sat on the Fraim with proper cable dressing etc but still very good. Faffing tunes the system into something special but even without this it should be OK. Look at all the systems we see in the system pics thread sat on TV cabinets, sideboards etc with no regard to cable dressing. The owners are delighted and proud of their systems and I bet they sound pretty good.

I’m sure there is something more fundamental then tweaks required here, it sounds like something is faulty.

Mike, I know you must be frustrated and feeling drained but I would just call your dealer or another one and just get them round, it’s worth a days fees to do this. maybe get them to bring some items with them, another 202.200, source or Supernait?

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Did the cable kicking coincide with the loss of sound quality or did that come later?

I can’t help thinking that this is the essence. There is a ‘boys and their toys’ element to hi-fi that reflects something about maleness. Yes, some ladies do take an interest in their kit but the preponderance of hifi geeks are male. The ladies - being intrinsically more practical - just enjoy listening to music.

I enjoy the ‘hunt’ for a better replay standard and although I pretend that this is all about the music it clearly is also about the kit.

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@mikehughescq Mike I think that since you are obviously not interested in trouble shooting your system again that your best course of action is to get a One Box solution. Disconnect all your stuff get a Super Nait 3 keep you CD player till it goes belly up, and just listen to music. In time you can look at streaming but I have a feeling that you’re really not a hobbyist that wants to fart around with his system but rather a music lover that just wants good tunes! FYI SN3 will drive the snot out of the Zu’s … Good luck!

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… unless there is a fauwlty contact in the Zu’s.

I agree. And it will resolve if there is a speaker or cable issue.

Fir that you could read sensible.

I would expect the opposite, that women who fret so much over linen and matching their handbags to their shoes, to be the perfect audiophiles, not morons like us who should be changing the oil in our cars and fix anything broken around our houses.

To suggest that a Naim system requires constant tinkering and faffing around to stay in tune is quite frankly, daft. Faffing and tinkering is more to do with the person than the gear.

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Sounds like a plan except for the fact that it ignores the possibility of an issue with the CDX2, the interconnect, the speaker cables, the mains…

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Have to start somewhere.

Yea…I agree
I upgraded to my recent configuration, and set and forget.

I can’t be the only one here who desperately wants the OP to swap out the Zu’s and at least try something for a simple comparison. It can’t be that hard to borrow a pair.

It’d be at least an important data point to cross off. I’d hate to see them buy a new power amp, only to be disappointed once again.

And Source…while they’re at it

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I think that NAIM is holding the world record in percentage of failing disc drives, in producing the loudest mechanical noises and having the largest group of followers who direly need a reality check.

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We come here to escape reality, have you seen it out there.

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I would just borrow different speakers and cable speakers from the dealer to test. Not a big deal. Or carry the Zu and speakers cables to the dealer.

I think you said you had an XPS powering your cdx2? Imo disconnect it then plug in the burndy plug and see how that goes. Then try another CD player. Hey it’s an easier start.

The first Naim amp I saw in my life was a uniti. The dealer swinged the tray open and closed it. He knocked on the amp. Since that moment I was hooked. No plastic! Rock solid! Idiosyncratically outswinging cd drive! Then I heared for the first time in my life that a symphony can sound impressive and dynamic using hifi. I bought a SuperNait and cd5i.

I always had and still have great expectations of Naim and it is one of these thing in life for me which has always delivered.

Maybe it is that we expect so much of Naim and are therefore extra disappointed if it does not work out as we hoped for.

Having said this, I recommend the OP an integrated amp. The sn3 is just released and I think it is a great opportunity to move in that direction. My integrated is also easier to use and I don’t have the journey there to optimize the system. It just works - but I love the fiddling with the SBLs and the Ovators!

Why the focus on the speakers in particular if they were OK?
As I had suggested, at this stage swapping everything makes sense until the problem disappears.