Life After Naim

Hi-Fi Corner
485

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

486

because I like to read your posts.

488

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 canā€™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 thatā€™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 wouldnā€™t be in any hurry to try them with a more capable power amp.

489

Well you made the classic mistake of buying an expensive high resolution speaker, didnā€™t spend much on your sources and tried a number of naim Amplifiers and now have started a life after naim thread

It doesnā€™t get any more classic than this.

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490

If you included me in that, Iā€™m not sure what I am supposed to have concluded, as I am simply as puzzled as my last post indicatedā€¦

491

Youā€™re funny

492

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 couldnā€™t resist a personal demo, I can remember being really disappointed!

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

493

Not funny - I was just committed to make my Naim and Dynaudio work well together. So were you, after all the trials with Naim amps.

I didnā€™t go through a series of amp upgrades, just paid a lot of attention to set up- mains, signal earth grounding in particular when using non-naim sources, and upgraded my sourcesā€¦ result it that I happy to grow older with my current Chord DAC/Naim amp/Dynaudio speaker set up just enjoying the music every day.

interconnects are vertere and speaker cable NACA5.

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494

Cā€™mon! Iā€™m only half taking the piss. I mean, 16 amps, does make someone wonder. Iā€™ve got no beef at all with looking for sound elsewhere.

I have a second main system without a Naim in sight. Iā€™m not married to it. But by the same token, when I had a source to speakers Linn system in the 90s, I eventually moved away from it - but I didnā€™t buy 16 new Linn amps to get there. I made the change after 1.

Without seeing it as criticism, I think more than one person on a dedicated Life After Naim thread would be interested in how the story of 16 amps unfolded and why one experience wasnā€™t enough. Was it a hifi journey? Was it a psychological journey with Naim fandom at the wheel? Was it just lack of exposure to other things? Was it Naim amps favour monkfishes over mullets ( :smiley: )? Honestly, weā€™re intrigued.

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495

Even worse was my buying of a quad 33 303 just dull as dishwater!

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496

Try Morgana interconnects and Phantom speaker cable from Witch Hat if you wish to get the best from Naim Dynaudio. If you donā€™t like them you can send them back on thirty day trial.
Made a huge difference to my system.

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497

I tried a 44/405 and came to the same conclusion!

498

My experience with an early 44 and a 405 wasnā€™t much better, even when I put a pair of early Rogers LS3/5as on the end, which should have been ideal for the 405. I found the earlier 303 to be preferable.

Still, I guess to bring this Quad meander back to home turf, theyā€™re certainly all very different in sound performance to Naim kit.

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499

My only experience was the Quad 6 series (orange) and then 7 series (purple). And to be honest, a full quad 6 or 7 series into ESL63s was fantastic to my ears. I never heard the earlier Quads being mentioned.

First full system I ever sold was a full 7 system and ESLs. Sounded so good that a 15 minute dem on the shop floor and the deal was done and the credit card was out.

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500

I used to have a 33/303 set up into spendor BC1 speakers.
Fabulous set up.

501
  1. 32.5/HC/90 >> Q Acoustic Concept 20

2.32.5/HC/140 >> " "

3.122x/150 >> " "

  1. 122x/150x " "

  2. 122x/FCxs/150x " "

  3. 202/Napsc/FCxs/150x>> Guru QM10

  4. 202/Napsc/TC/150xs>> " "

  5. 202/Napsc/HC/200 >> Epos 14

  6. 282/ Napc/Dual TC/200 Guru QM10

  7. 282/Napsc/Dual TC/200 >> Dynaudio X32

  8. 282/Napsc/ Dual TC/250-2 >> " "

  9. 282/Napsc/SC/250-2 >> " "

13 282/Napsc/SC/250 DR >> " "

  1. 282/Napsc/SC/300 >> " "

  2. 282?Napsc/SC/300 >> Dynaudio Contour S 3.4

  3. 102/Napsc/HC/180 >> " "

  4. 72/HC/180 >> " " "

  5. 82/Napsc/SC/180 >> " "

  6. 82/Napsc /SC/BD250 >> " "

  7. 82/Napsc/SC/CB250>> " "

  8. 82/Napsc/SC/Olive 250>> " "

In amongst those systems I also tried a Nait XS, Nait5, Unitiqute, Unitiqute 2 and a Uniti 1

I also tried various other speakers including SBLā€™s.

My main hobby is listening to music and because of that hifi I love to buy, try and sell items of hifi itā€™s my vice and I make no apologies for that.

11 Likes
502

I will list when I have time my sources that I " didnā€™t spend much on" and also the cables and racks that I used with them.

503

And why should you?

I enjoy your comments and your current systems sounds as if a great deal of thought went into it . Certainly one of the more unusual systems and then the Technics deck with e SME arm ā€¦

2 Likes
504

Thanks @Ian2001
There are those amongst us on this forum that have a very one track mind when it comes to hifi and for some reason feel they have to defend their position come what may,
I shouldnā€™t bite really but sometimes itā€™s hard not to.

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505

Hey, thats a lifetimes workā€¦great postšŸ‘

1 Like