Is my amp supposed to sound like this?

A search for “foot tapping” on the forum Search has very few topics. Only two since 2020!

Engagement is what I look for and this manifests itself as an internal emotional response, sometimes foot tapping, sometimes a smile or laugh or even sometimes tears.

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Again thank you to everybody who have taken time to reply.

I enjoy reading everybody’s opinions it’s all very interesting.

To clarify my experience some more. (Warning I may use some buzz words without fully understanding their meaning and of course this is only my opinion and shouldn’t influence anybody else’s potential purchase) I’m not sure if it’s the defects in the tracks themselves that this amp is picking up but instead the way that it puts them across, in my setup and in my environment. As mentioned before I love so much about this amp, it’s extremely insightful and seems to separate the music beautifully, highlighting so much detail that wasn’t present to me before. I’m really not surprised this amp has such a large fan base.

But, I personally I like to listen to music with a good level of volume especially with this amount of detail on offer to listen to. I find that this amp (in my system and in my environment) is perhaps too forthright, it has almost too much verve and punchiness, to me, at volume, the music becomes almost shouty to the point where I have to turn it down to a lot lower level and as mentioned before the softer tracks are less relaxing and therefore mildly tiring.

Of course the big caveat is that I have been previously used to listening to a lesser amp perhaps and that it may just be that this listening experience is just different.

The bottom line is that I would really like to have much of this “sound” in my life, if only I could calm it down a bit. I am interested to read about the potential for things becoming perhaps more neutral the further up the tree you climb, I’m not averse to going down the pre/power route if this is the way for me to achieve my HiFi nirvana, although I might have to look at the second hand market.

As mentioned before I’m happy to go for a better streamer, or Dac, or both, or new speakers (I read on a different thread that the spendor d7’s might be a good match for what I’m trying to achieve.

I take on board the suggestions of demoing lots of different amps but this will take time. Anything I can learn from you guys would perhaps speed this process up.

Currently though I’m just not sure which way to go, tomorrow morning I’m faced with having to hand this beautiful amp back without a plan and with an amp shaped hole in my life.

The Sonos connect can be obviously bettered, but it is a popular device with a few users on this forum. If anything the Kef Q speakers are outclassed here.
I once had an earlier one woofer Q series floorstander. A great budget belter that just works very well with other budget kit. When I put in a Naim Xs source and amp the kefs didn’t fare well and soon had me looking to upgrade them.
My dealer at the time had some Ruark prelude 2 floorstanders that I got at an x demo price not much more than the kefs.
I would imagine no amount of upgrading the system will change their abilities.
Good luck.

We do not disagree regarding our opinions as to what engagement means, which whilst it may invoke foot tapping certainly doesn’t necessarily, or even often, do so. There may be only two threads in the past two years specifically naming foot tapping, but as I’m sure you’ll be aware the number of posts mentioning foot tapping by whatever form of phrase is likely to number many hundreds.

Oh come on! :slight_smile: Maybe only two threads (why would one open a thread about this?) but hundreds of posts, as everyone knows who is reading

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Ask your dealer if you can listen to a rega aethos in their demo room. Just for a comparison. It’s a similar price, very well made, but will have a different presentation from the supernait which you might prefer, judging from the comments you’ve made.

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Never mind all this chat about buying a new amp, I hope that you are going to get your Sony fixed? Its a very nice amp and the asking price for working examples are not to be sniffed at.

I would be happy to own one!

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The threads aren’t about foot tapping but it’s just mentioned in those those threads.
My point bring is that it isn’t mentioned constantly!

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Thank you. I will look into this as well as the Cyrus i9 xr or their xr pre/power. I have read on another thread that they may give me a “softer” presentation as well as potentially lower base.

That’s a very good point, I just presumed the it had come to the end of its life. The protection error keeps coming up and as I understand the capacitors have a limited life I presumed they’d gone short circuit.

I actually wouldn’t know where to go to get this done.

hi lewy888
i was interested in @jmtennapel 's comment on the poor quality of mastering on the david gray track - so i amcurrently playing white ladder (haven’t played it for years) - and he is absolutely right - listening to it is extremely tiring - the tunes may be softer but the recording certainly isn’t. i only have a lowly muso2 but i can comfortably listen to it for hours - but certainly not with this album! so i guess the problem is the SN3 is showing up the recording for what it is. if you only have the problem with a few albums i would think it is an acceptable downside of the many good factors of the SN3’s playback. only you can decide.

good luck with your decision

Try London sound dot org.
There are undoubtedly other places too.

There is very deep bass on “sail away”.

i feel it is not just the deep bass - i rather like deep bass - there is a general (tech term:) horribleness to the sound - i don’t know how else to describe it

I can’t see how the SN3 can be giving a poor or harsh sound of itself. Is it possible you can talk to the dealer and borrow a Node or similar plus a set of speakers that the dealer recommends in your general price rang? You can then see if the overall sound is something you want to work towards to, or whether the Naim sound signature just isn’t to your taste. After that you can then decide to learn to live with the harsh sound temporarily until you replace other components.

I would disagree and say that references to foot tapping are being used all the time to convey a certain quality of replay. Some of these references are tongue-in-cheek, and often it is difficult to know if used ironically or seriously, but I’d say it’s being mentioned constantly in threads about gear upgrades and similar

Try to tap “prat “ in the search part. I am quite sure you will find thousands of responses.

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It wasn’t PRaT being mentioned though. And according to the forum’s own search there are only a couple of topics in the last few years.

Perhaps we could run some SQL and group by username to see who the perpetrator is! :sweat_smile:

PerPRATOR?

In my spirit, Prat and foot taping is quite the same. Am I wrong?

I don’t think, by the way, that there is anything wrong with the “foot tapping” quality (if we keep in mind that it’s subjective and can be used to deceive). I just disagree with the assertion that it isn’t being mentioned all the time, because it is, as a forum search for the two words easily proves.