I feel your pain. I have two stacks of three and keeping them off the floor and each other is impossible. A highly regarded Naim dealer did tell me not to worry about it, he said burdies touching eachother/floor had only a very small effect in the overall scheme of things.
With 6 boxes I guess a single column would make burndy dressing much simpler. But would it sound better with the transformers directly under the preamp and source? Everything is a trade off I guess.
Being able to move the two separate columns apart would give the best of both worlds but my rack won’t allow that.
I’m always puzzled by these things because I also have two stacks and don’t have this problem (though I do have one empty shelf at the bottom of the brawn stack, which is neat to store excess Powerline), so I think if I managed it, it can’t be that difficult
If I had an empty shelf at the bottom of either of my stacks, the cable on the floor issue wouldn’t be an issue, but I have to use all shelves for boxes! One burndy is always barely touching the floor.
I’m always puzzled by these things because I also have two stacks and don’t have this problem (though I do have one empty shelf at the bottom of the brawn stack, which is neat to store excess Powerline), so I think if I managed it, it can’t be that difficult
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But do people investing all that money in the best audio replay really want to be faffing with “set up” - it should be about relaxing and enjoying the music!
I have Linn’s latest offering on demo and you simply plug it in and it sounds very impressive, digs out detail like nothing else I have heard…. One box, streaming pre amp into active speakers and done.
I love the Naim sound but this “set up” lark is a little bit odd - spending nearly 6 figures only to be told you didn’t have it set up properly seems to have missed the point that hifi is about music.
I do hope Naim have a good think about their philosophy in a changing market - it’s pretty clear that the current range will have a refresh so let’s hope they bring something special to the table and it has a good balance of simplicity and brilliant sound.
I? Yeah, I was able to have a gap of maybe 15 cm between stacks but the brawn stack is narrower than most racks, on special order. So if I had the regular width, there wouldn’t be much gap but the left and right units would nevertheless have similar distance. I have:
Left:
252
NDX2
Superline
300
Right:
Supercap
300PS
Rega P10 PS
555PS for NDX2
empty for cables
When setting up, paying attention to these things is negligibly more work than not paying attention, and it’s a thing one can choose to do once. It’s really not so much faffing, IMHO
Thanks. About the gap, I edited my post because: “Yeah, I was able to have a gap of maybe 15 cm between stacks but the brawn stack is narrower than most racks, on special order. So if I had the regular width, there wouldn’t be much gap but the left and right units would nevertheless have similar distance”
I don’t get what the issue is here. You can pile all of your kit on the floor and it’ll sound good. Take a bit of care with the installation and it’s got the potential to sound better.
There’s no harm in making the most of what you’ve got and allowing the kit to work to its full potential.
Simple solution: buy more Fraim shelves and leave them empty. I mean, they’re only £650 each!!
[BTW I don’t do this. It’s ridiculously costly for marginal gains. I do, however, allow the amplifier burndies to cross (shock horror), having the 552 top left and it’s power supply bottom right and the 500 bottom left with its PS top right.]
I get the point, just saying that IF one prefers the Naim sound, then IMHO the effort for the little bit extra (even in case it is not real but just for my peace of mind) is not big enough to put me off it
That’s a very general statement and tough to answer without being specific. Cable design being one specific element. In these days of living in the RF soup one can say (and many do) that Naim cables are not up to the current modern day thinking as far as screening is concerned. I no longer use long runs if NACA5 and don’t suffer the old arguments that it just ain’t as musical as NACA5 argument which i don’t believe anymore. Same with interconnects. Other brands have improved and are leaving the old stock behind. The same can be said for the electronics as well with huge heavy separate power supplies. And so the story goes on and on…
I have been on the Naim upgrade ladder since the mid 90’s and never felt the need to explore other options as it sounded so damn fine.
My 552 had a number of issues that meant a couple of “return to base” moments and I lost a little confidence. During this time I moved house and the sound collapsed and getting to the root cause was a mare with so many boxes and cables - this experience has driven my desire for simplicity.
Now when I reflect multiple boxes, retightening fraim, cable management, £450 for a shelf to have a gap, £650 for a plug etc to get the most out of your system is fine for those that enjoy that but not my direction of travel
Are the cables SOOO sensitive? The set up is understandable, ensure you have your equipment connected correctly, cable tension being important. After that though?
My kit is installed all wrong according to forum law. No Fraim!
LH stack is bottom to top is 552ps, Aries, 552, P8 not on a wall shelf
RH stack is 300ps, Vega, 300, GNps10 and ph10.
Cables are free but crossing at all the wrong points or cable tied to avoid seeing them.
It works.
As an experiment when I installed the kit I played with positions of kit and position of cables. As long as the Burndys were relaxed by bending, shaking and letting the connection points be not under bending load I couldn’t hear a difference. I have after reading this thread this morning retested by moving the cables, no difference, moving them back, no difference.
I can now go back to just listening to a fine system, completely ignorant of how good it could have been if only I had done it properly.
