Apologies this got a little long, but I had an interesting day.
I’ve posted a couple speaker questions here as I’ve investigated speaker options for my Nait2 CB to replace my B&W DM7mkIIs, which are almost 40 years old and only 86dB sensitivity, left over from a previous 100wpc amp. Last year I bought a pair of current, good-quality floorstanders but once I got them home I wasn’t overly impressed so I sold them and went back to my B&Ws.
A couple days ago a pair of Acoustic Zen Adagios appeared for sale near me (at a favourable price). I was intrigued by the many overwhelmingly positive reviews, the ribbon tweeter (a personal thing) and the 89dB sensitivity (not exceptional but a step up on my current 86dB).
I asked Acoustic Zen, who told me that the Nait’s power sounded a bit wimpy but not out of the question so maybe give it a try. I also asked the seller what he thought; he told me he seriously doubted it would fly but I was welcome to bring my Nait over and try, or take the speakers home and return them if they don’t work out. He said he’s very into music and stereo, isn’t worried about selling his speakers and wants the buyer to be happy.
So I took my Nait over and was almost immediately embarrassed. He is building a new listening room so his main system was not set up, but I estimate it cost about half what I paid for my first house 20 years ago (he confirmed that was about right). Although the room was under construction, the racks holding thousands of records and CDs were finished; it looked like a music store (back when there were big record/CD stores).
So we used his downstairs backup system, consisting of a Meitner CD player, Conrad Johnson pre-amp and beautiful pair of large tube monoblocks (from a long-defunct microbrand), of course all connected by thick, exotic cables. And lying throughout his house were various components each worth roughly the same as my car.
He looked at my little Naim shoebox on the table and reiterated his dismay. I felt if we’d been at the beach, he would have kicked sand on me.
After a bit of listening to his system, he inserted the Nait between the Meitner CD and the Adagios. I apologized in advance for the little static noises that Naits make when you turn them on and off.
But once it got going, the Nait made the Adagios sing, and a volume of only around 8-9 o’clock was enough to fill the space. He sat behind the listening seat and by the end of the second song, he said he was shocked how good the little shoebox sounded with the Adagios.
By the end of the fourth song he had searched online for Nait prices and said he couldn’t believe the ~$800 integrated was doing virtually as good a job on the CDs as his (backup) system, which he pointed out is optimized for vinyl but still sports over $10k of amplification (between the CJ pre and the monoblocks). He promised several times he wasn’t just trying to butter me up and he seemed genuinely surprised and intrigued, and asked me about various Nait models, why 2s sell for more than 3s and 5s etc.
Once I was done testing, he asked if he could listen to a couple of his own discs through the Nait and explained that he was looking for a compact, SS system for his bedroom and assumed he would spend a few thousand, but was now determined to buy a Nait. He offered a couple times to buy my Nait on the spot or take it as partial payment for the speakers, and told me that if I don’t buy the Adagios he would keep them for his bedroom system with a Nait.
I went home with a new pair of speakers (which sound magical) and a stack of speaker cables (he handed me several cables to try and told me I could buy any of them or bring them back when I’m done testing). And he said he learned something he absolutely did not expect.
All in all a good afternoon.
