This may be worth pursuing. Dual purpose – it could house one’s Sopra No. 3s as well.
I have so far avoided giving my views on the OP’s awful situation to see where this thread went and where the OP’s head is.
There are a few sensible and relatively easy steps the OP could take to get to the bottom of this e.g. borrow a pair of reasonable speakers and speaker leads to test if a fault has developed in his own speakers. Or borrow a CD player to test for a possible fault in the OP’s rather old CDP.
It seems to me that the OP has now ‘distanced himself’ from his system and has no inclination to tinker any further. And that is entirely understandable.
But the OP is still passionate about having decent sounding music in his life, indeed he seems rather frustrated by having to do with only TV. Us music lovers can all understand that.
I would suggest that he considers making a huge leap now by trading in his gear for a Nova, a Server or NAS and a decent pair of speakers, and that is it. He will need the support of a good dealer who will oversee the set up of the new system in his home and help the OP transition to streaming, and that includes helping him rip all his CDs to the Server/NAS.
I had the help of a dealer and Naim Support (and this wonderful Forum) when setting up my NAS (my UnitiServe, even I could set up). As soon as I was set up with streaming I needed no further help and now absolutely love the convenience and immediacy of streaming, together with access to online subscription streaming with Tidal. This allows me to sample music on Tidal and buy CDs that impress rather cheaply on the river and rip to my Server/NAS. The quality now available from Tidal is rather good for the rest on my music interests, with the prospect of hires streaming (24 bit) from Qobuz to look forward to when it is integrated into Naim streamers like Nova in the next few months. A Nova and a NAS would allow the OP the same experience.
This is truly a plug and play system with all the wonders of music at a touch of a button - assuming there is a great dealer to make sure the installation and transition to streaming happens seamlessly.
Moving from CD/Vinyl to streaming has reawakened my interest in music and with the ability to sample new music (with Tidal), my music collection (mostly CDs ripped to my NAS) has exploded. I had lost interest in my meagre collection of CDs (having sold my TT and my vinyl) and had almost stopped listening to music. So I draw some parallels with the OPs situation. Streaming changed everything for me and it might just do the same for the OP.
This horrible situation, so difficult to diagnose, could frustrate any one of us, so the OP has my sympathies. I do have a feeling though that a great one box streaming system, like a Nova, with all its convenience and great SQ could reawaken the OP’s passion for in-home music.
Just a thought, and possibly time for some lateral thinking.
Maybe you have some form of Psychosomatic Hearing Loss.
The fact that the OP has enjoyed his system with his current components suggests that there is nothing wrong with the selection of kit. He implies that something has changed and this is the problem.
Systematically swapping out components to isolate the dysfunctional kit would be the logical way to identify the issue.
A dealer with appropriate expertise should be able to help. The solution isn’t necessarily going to involve major kit changes, simply getting the existing kit singing as it has done before.
All on another thread.
No-one who doesn’t drive is carrying anything to a dealer 50 miles away!
Oh the irony. Read the thread.
When it was new it was fine and had Epos ES11s on the end. When I moved to the Zu it was also initially fine but my concerns grew and those eventually revealed that it had been mid-wired by another party. That blew the 200 to the extent it needed a major repair. Since then it has also been fine.
Has anybody suggested doing a factory reset on the 202?
And finally, for reasons others have explained it’s very unlikely to be the speakers. An impedance mis-match was suggested as creating issues but no-one has come back on the specifics of that and, for the avoidance doubt… the TV sounds goes into the 202 from a Sky Plus box. The cable is some generic and fairly lengthy analogue thing provided by the AV installer who hung and installed the Kuro on the wall about a decade ago.
Thus the TV sound was never going to be stunning; isn’t an absolute priority but is obviously vastly superior to a sound bar. Right now the sound is balanced; has bass and so on. Dynamics are average. I’ve heard them way better on this system but there’s nothing like the awfulness of the CD.
Thus, unlikely to be speaker drivers; position; height; cable or phase. Could be the Burndy; Hi-Line (again) or who knows what.
Where I am at at present is that I’m simply going to stop buying or listening to music. Plenty of TV to watch long reads to consume; long walks to be completed and time with family and friends to be had.
Mentally I remain in a place where, having vented, I am currently past caring. It simply shouldn’t be this hard. I certainly won’t be buying anything as there’s no money in the pot at present for the reasons I explained earlier re: why I don’t yet have an NDX2.
It’s been genuinely interesting seeing people offer advice; go off at tangents; mid-read posts and especially gratifying to see kind words from several people who perhaps wouldn’t give me the time of day for my views on other threads. The forum is on the whole a great place and wonderfully administrated (something I suspect genuinely under-rated). The products have some issues.
Nope, but how?
Oh I did read the entire thread. And I’m fully aware the 200 was new and had a range of faults that the dealer and Naim eventually sorted out. Your post gave the impression that you weren’t entirely enthralled with that historical episode.
My apologies for not making that clear before.
Would have to be in the manual or google it. I’ve never owned a 202 but I do recall a friend telling me about a factory reset option. Something to do with remote control, centralises the balance.
Maybe you have something vaguely constructive to offer the OP?
Having re-read everything and in context of other demands on your energy and funds, I think stepping back and enjoying some reading, walks and family time is a good idea.
When you’re ready to face it again, I’d suggest looking at replacing or servicing the CDP, otherwise swap to a streamer when funds allow.
Do take care and put yourself first.
Long walks, do take care and put yourself first. My God this a Hifi system not the end of a marriage or the death of a loved one.
I’ve read a thousand threads on here about hanging burndies, stacking order, plugging into a power strip order, speaker placements with 2cm toe in which all sounds a bit like faffing about to me.
Been talking to Mrs. H. and we’re in agreement that as the DIN to phono left here by my dealer some time ago didn’t work at all when inserted the other night (total silence on the current input - the precise moment I snapped) then, when I feel able I may purchase a lavender DIN to DIN (mine was mysteriously disappeared by a previous dealer when I acquire a HL); take out the Hi-Line (which has already been problematic and had a repair) and see if bass/mids return. It’s the cheapest, least intrusive action.
If nothing changes then I doubt I’ll go much further. Been there and done that. My dealer deserves someone who buys things off him and I deserve something which simply works.
In this context a streamer would never be top of the list until everything else worked.
Says more about the person than the kit as i said. You could just as easy be talking about Quad, Rega, Technics or Chord cables. Those who want to fiddle, don’t need Naim to do it.
Hey Mike, just saying you know about programming the input socket?
He’s how to set the 202 to factory.
It’s all in the manual.
Think you hold down the program remote button for 5 secs to enter into program mode.
To restore all programmable settings to the factory defaults press and hold the remote handset disp key while the preamplifier is in program mode. The preamplifier will exit from program mode following this operation.
I would personally give this ago before anything else.
It’s worth a crack.
Yes thank you. Scrolling through the three input settings is straightforward.
As regards a factory reset my understanding was that this would largely only be relevant to balance; AV etc.
Anyway, for your amusement I thought I’d do it. I’m probably hallucinating at this stage but the treble is lovely and clean. Next to no bass. Certainly no mids.
So, both of those can be put to bed, as can I.
I’m certainly no electronic engineer but I have had things get themselves all muddled up, restoring factory defaults can help some situations in my experience.