Life After Naim

?? Naim maker “terrible” power amps? For that matter, Quad make “terrible” preamps? This is all news to me.

I didn’t actually mean that Naim make terrible power amps just that their pre amps are better but I stand by the fact that Quad do make terrible pre amps but of course it’s only my opinion.

Opinion Based on what ?

Nothing.

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Then why post it at all.

There’s already a lot of opinions based on nothing already on news

I don’t know.

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Think he’s allowed to post his opinion, you don’t have to agree with it and you can just flick past.

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I don’t know.

I’ve owned in excess of 12 Naim power amps and 4 Quad pre amps and so have based my statement above on this ownership.

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Fair enough. Now, lie back and tell us in your words, what led you to buy a total of 16 expensive components that you thought inferior.

Was the first not enough?

If I didn’t think you where taking the piss feeling_zen I would take the time to answer.

It’s a fair question. I’m curious too

I’m not saying that only naim and Dynaudio work well but to find that they don’t work well enough for you is quite intriguing

Regardless it’s your personal experience so it is what it is.

I’d still say you are running bit of a mullet to bring the best out of a Naim amplifier

Maybe the amps you’re now running are more forgiving of the sources you have

My curiosity is not to do with finding that a brand’s amps don’t work for someone - Naim or any other - as I can fully understand that if they either don’t give the sound or character the person wants, or do impart a sound or character they don’t want, or don’t provide adequate control over speakers, etc., but rather why does it take 4 , or more incredulously 12, to determine that? Or was it liking some aspect but not another, and each time the craving for the one aspect took over, until annoyance with the other became too much to bear? Change to something else, the it starts again?

Mind you, you’re not the only one who seems to have had what sounds like a bit of a love-hate relationship with Naim, as I can think of at least one other forum member who Seems to have gone round and round, ending up with the same bits many times over.

Why would I bother to explain anything to people who have already made up their mind?

because I like to read your posts.

I have a few sets of different Quad pre/power amps, and I have to admit, I tend to agree here that I reckon the power amps are more capable than the pre-amps; I could quite see myself using say my Quad 606 with a much better pre-amp than the matching 44 that it came with, however, I can’t really see myself doing the same with the 44 pre. However, like Naim pre/powers, the Quads tend to be mostly used together, and here they probably make most sense. In particular the 33 and 303 are rather veiled but have something nice and euphonic about their sound that makes them quite engaging to listen to in a rather fuzzy way. I have one 33 that’s standard (very fuzzy) and one with upgraded cards (much tighter, but still not exactly revealing), and they work nicely with their 303 amps, but again, I wouldn’t be in any hurry to try them with a more capable power amp.

Well you made the classic mistake of buying an expensive high resolution speaker, didn’t spend much on your sources and tried a number of naim Amplifiers and now have started a life after naim thread

It doesn’t get any more classic than this.

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If you included me in that, I’m not sure what I am supposed to have concluded, as I am simply as puzzled as my last post indicated…

You’re funny

I crashed out one night in a student digs room (I was a student at the time), I woke in the morning to see a Quad 33 and 303 system in the room, this was my idea of a perfect system in those days, completely unattainable for me, I couldn’t resist a personal demo, I can remember being really disappointed!

I still want the system but I now know what to expect. :0)