Lifestyle downsize of Hi-Fi system

Only people rolling joints show that much concentration at that age :smiley:

Or…so I am told… :star_struck:

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Hi Andrew

Do it.

You can get 90-95% of the hifi and 100% of the enjoyment at half the cost. You’ve got the runs under your belt, you know what you like, it will be easier to settle on something that pleases.

Enjoy the journey.
J

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That is an important point. How good is say a Nova with decent speakers and cables etc to say a 282/250 then plus streamer and PSU boxes….
What are we talking? 50%…70%….80%
The law of diminishing returns.
I’ve said it before, and HH has recently reiterated this. A Nova with decent speakers is probably in the region of at least £7-8k. In most households that is an enormous sum to spend on ‘a stereo’.
I frequent this forum and read many post where the advice is …. Add this box or that psu etc. Naim boxes are not exactly cheap and yet people will happily advise spending someone else’s thousands of pounds.
Yes I know this is a niche forum…yes I like the best sound for pound…but excellent musical enjoyment can be had with a one box system. Of course I realise that huge multi box systems will yield ultimate sound quality, and I fully respect that. Sometimes I think a little perspective is lost…

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That’s your story is it? :star_struck:

I was hunting for the Tao Neutrino.

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I’m in the same boat, so I hope you don’t mind a quick question please. I’ve had a hearing check and it confirms a mild to moderate hearing loss of around 30dB, and more towards the higher frequencies. Hearing aides are recommended, partially to improve brain function by stimulating auditory processing, which without aides will deteriorate further and be permanent.

Anyway, my question is, do you use the hearing aides whilst listening to music? If so, do the aides have a speech and a music mode you can switch between. I understand that you can have a music setting that will compensate for gaps in your hearing frequency range so that the music is perceived in its natural state (not alternated like and equaliser type thing). Whereas, the speech mode is specifically toned towards reception and processing of speech.

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The key point in all this seems to have got buried under a mountain of, ultimately pointless debate.

It all comes down to personal choice. Really nothing more than that.

Someone thinking of swapping out a multi-box system for a one box, or indeed building a system and considering the various options, will presumably listen first and make their choice based on that and on any other pertinent factors.

Their choice. Not mine, or yours, or anyone else’s.

Listen for yourself and make your own mind up.

If you prefer to have a Nova over a full Statement system, even if you can easily afford one, then that’s the right choice for you.

All the rest I’m afraid is nothing but hot air.

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Sure, but views were invited, that was the point of the thread.

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It sounds dramatic but it allowed me to upgrade the LP12 (by trade-in of components) from Lingo to Radikal 2 which was a dramatic improvement in itself. Maybe I should get my mk1 Kans set up and go flat earth!

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Not if you want to go more than 180 miles.

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LP12 / Nait 50 and Kans. Heaven! :sunglasses:

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I have hearing aids to compensate for hf loss. I wear them when listening, in “music mode”. Hugely beneficial, even with headphones

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I’ve got this relation, nice chap, who thinks SUVs should be banned, doesn’t know how I justify my hifi and leaving it switched on, but flies up to 6 times a year 2x golfing holidays in Portugal, couple of skiing trips, the Mediterranean in summer, couple of weekends in Prague or Berlin.

Equally someone in all innocence gets on here and says he’s thinking of pairing a Nova with a £10k pair of speakers and they get a right kicking despite such a configuration having been proven to work very well.

We all make choices but let’s not be too evangelical.

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This discussion is going nowhere. For some, a one box or reduced box solution meets their needs. For others, a multi box solution provides the SQ that floats their boat. This is turning into dogmatic rationalization. Can we move on?

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Thanks for that.

I have heard of, and personally heard, several systems in my time that on paper shouldn’t work, but which actaully sounded sublime. One such, many years ago now, was a 42/110 and Kans fronted by a Rega 3. It sounded really excellent - yet conventional wisdom at the time was that a Rega 3 just wasn’t up to the job.

I’ll bet many forum members have similar stories. Might make an interesting thread - Systems that shouldn’t work - but do!

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TV Speakers for 2.0 or 2.1 setup.
I chose concentric driver speakers. Good at low volume with a better off axis response.

The Nova is a great hub if you are sticking with Naim.

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Yes reminds me of the Signals East show quite a few years back when the possible highlight was a Rega P3, Transfiguration cartridge at £1K, Audio Analogue amp £2k and Magneplanner speakers at £3k, made the sweetest music.

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Of course I don’t mind the question, Mike. My hearing loss was up to 50dB, though was defined as mild. The aids I was prescribed (Phonak Nathos Nova) have settings of automatic, music, restaurant and TV, though I usually just leave on automatic and forget them - including forgetting to change when listening to music!

After getting them I also trialled some more expensive, fancier ones from a private audiologist, but not really any benefit over the Health Service ones. More detail here (the rest of the thread is interesting, too): Hearing Aids - #31 by Innocent_Bystander

If you haven’t looked already there are several other useful threads here on the subject of hearing aids worth a scan. The first is one in which I asked questions in the lead-up to my getting mine: Hearing loss and the audiophile
and this is a longer one one that includes more technical info: Hearing loss but not enough to be proper hearing loss

Further discussion on hearing aids might be better in one of the dedicated threads rather than divert this one further.

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