Hey Mech, how are the special 40s with 252/supercap/250DR combo. Thinking of taking the jump. Possibly… Would be good to know your thoughts. Have an NDX2/SN3/XPSDR/HiCapDR at present. Thanks
I am very new when it comes to Naim as this my first Hi-Fi. But overall thought is there must be something wrong with my noob setup. I also never do any room treatment. I got a big 65" TV in the middle of my S40 so maybe that affect the sound. Overall some file like SACD play very very smoothly, but Tidal file I kind of feel underwhelmed. I will not say it is always a pleasure for every music (I guess must be the source issues). I also notice that I can’t play low volume to a level I like. I also kind of feel like the sound is very directional, meaning like you need to be in the precise location to listen to it. Is there a speaker that can do background music well as well as more intense listening. Thinking I am asking too much haha…
Special 40s speaker placement is vital. Also found adding an XPSDR added a real depth to the NDX2. I always use qobuz rather than tidal to be honest through Roon. Maybe ill go and demo first then! An ex demo opportunity came up so peaked my interest. The Supernait 3 is pretty damn good and the soundstage is quite vast. So I guess if its not a vast improvement ill stick with that. It could be things in your room though I guess or shape of room/postioning of speakers, but hi fi there is generally gonna be a sweet spot where the sound waves are best, triangled from the speakers, but should still sound pretty damn good everywhere in the room! I was debating whether the 300 would be better… or how much better for the price…
There is dynaudio speaker positioning video on youtube somewhere thats quite useful…
Oh ya I saw that video, direct from Dynaudio channel if I am not wrong. 300R is very interesting and may probably be my next upgrade. Or the 555DR…
555DR before the 300, the 250 is more than enough to drive the 40’s, I owned both.
Yeah, I agree. The 250DR has a lot of weight for Dyns. It wasn’t until I got to the Confidence and my passion for driving them to concert levels on big orchestral pieces that I felt the 300 was needed.
Great system and listening room. Looks like you have a lot of vinyl too. I assume given your forum name “JosquinDesPrez” that you like early music, among other things, as do I.
Yes, thank you. We love our room. Very relaxing.
Now it’s a 252/SCDR/300DR.
I was once in a Ph.D. Musicology program with a special interest in Medieval/Renaissance studies (and a secondary interest in string quartets). I still have a large collection of early music on vinyl, going back to the David Munrow stuff.
Hadn’t heard of David Munro, my interest dates back to the early 90s really, but I noticed looking him up on Wikipedia he played with Alfred Deller sometimes and I have lots of Deller albums. I’ll check out some of his stuff now I have a high res subscription on Qoboz… Am having a lot of fun with Roon and Qoboz, which I only installed like yesterday so still getting used to it. But, after using Roon there is no way back for me and unfortunately my wallet is likely to take another hit for the lifetime subscription.
Also, string quartets - One of the reasons (to get back on topic :)) I upgraded my old speakers (old Linn Katans) to Dynaudio Evoke 10s was because the Katans were very bright sounding on high violin passages, not a lot of fun listening to Bartok SQs (!?) on them… but, the new Evoke 10s have a much better balance without losing detail in the treble and are just generally more easy going speakers - not that I can tell right now as I have a touch of flu which tends to block my sinuses. I did also attach a 200 power amp to the Qute + some naim speaker cabling.
David Munrow is pretty important for promoting early music. Ho co-founded the Early Music consort with Christopher Hogwood. The later went on to found the Academy of Ancient Music. Two powerhouses for authentic performance practices of early music.
I met David Munrow once when he came to our school with a whole battery of wierd and wonderful mediaeval instruments. Fascinating talk and demonstration. I helped carry out the instruments afterwards; he was happy to chat. Of course he had the long running Pied Piper series on radio. Amazing how much he crammed into a short life.
Mech, I used to own S40 and like you my only concern was low level sound, otherwise I loved the sound. I tried REL sub at my dealers but the sound quality to me was not as good.
If you have the space the Evoke 50 are well worth an audition and as the S40 have retained their value the cost difference with the sub (especially Dynaudio subs) would be small.
The Evoke 50 are stunning speakers and deliver an entirely different level of scale and sound compared to the S40.
Very interested in Evoke also. Modern and slim design from Dynaudio. Does not take up much spaces also. I will get my 555PS for my NDX 2 before deciding whether to let go of this S40 with regards to low volume listening. Perhaps the PSU may help or not
First post in the “ new” forum.
Just thought I’d throw my experience into the ring to mention that having got rid of several Meridian boxes in favour of a Uniti Star recently, the only part of the old system that transferred over was my old Contour 1.1’s … They work really nicely and can be had for reasonable money these days.
Fund usually like the volume turned up s big to get going. Low level listening is not their forte.
I would like to find more of this type of music. I’m enjoying the following on my system now (Innuos Zen Mini, Naim SN3, Dyn S40).
I enjoy the instruments that were used in the King Arthur soundtrack as well. Very cool to read how Daniel Pemberton put that together.
There is a lot of great stuff out there. Look through the L’Oiseau-Lyre (Decca) catalog, especially for recordings by The Consort of Musicke and Anthony Rooley, as well as by Christopher Hogwood. There are others but this is a good place to start.
Thank you very much for that recommendation - I certainly will do that.
May be off topic and out of bounds - I’ve been trying to find a certain Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 20, Op. 49 No. 2 - I’d love to find a high res download (vs buying the 12 disc set on Amazon). Any ideas?
I have Brendel’s complete set of Beethoven sonatas on Philips (vinyl and CD). It’s quite good. One of my favorites along with Kempff. You can stream it CD quality on either Qobuz or TIDAL.
Can you folks in the UK or elsewhere not download from HD Tracks, or Acoustic Sounds?