Naim Solstice in Italy

[rsch]

Last Monday Max B. invited me at his local Naim Dealer for a demo with Solstice TT with a full 500 system. Speakers were Focal Maestro Utopia Evo with S.Lumina loom.
He carried along an pretty battered copy of A. Parsons The Turn of a friendly card, (i didn’t check the specific edition) at first he was reluctant to leave it on playing for the consistent noise. Then we turned on side B playing “The Gold Bug” and boy the scale, the tuneful bass line and overall involmente was nothing short of utterly impressive.
Then we played a copy (still sealed) of D. Sylvian B.Trees (Virgin 2019) i carried along, very good but not so emotional like the other one. Later we though to play the same A. Parson track via ND555 from a local server (a Melco) and it was so disappointgly lame, flat and uninspiring. I don’t know whether it was ripped from a cd or other but it was like switching back to a mp3 file in comparison.
After this i leaved Max alone since i was diverted by the shop’s guy into Sports cars conversation.
Regards
Roberto
I will go back for a further demo in a few weeks since i have tocollect a new Panasonic led tv i bought there in the meantime

[Suedkiez]

Let the comments about the “rack” commence

[marksnaim]

Brilliant Trees is a great album but not really one that plumbs the depths of emotion. Sounds like a interesting day out though. Thanks for sharing.

[Naim_The_Dragon]

@Suedkiez

Let the comments about the “rack” commence

Had exactly the same initial thought — work-bench-turned-hifi-rack… Not really Fraimed this 500 system…

[rsch]

I can understand your sentiment, having myself three Naim systems fully Framed. However i can’t partly justify the dealer choice like a way to show a system like this in an original way where the absolute tuning is reserved at home’s final user.

[rsch]

I bet an original copy would be way more involving than this

[Suedkiez]

At least he used Naim cabling unlike in the thread about the demo in France

[rsch]

Btw this TT is really worth every penny soundwise and for build quality/level of engineering either

[frenchrooster]

It reminds me something

[frenchrooster]

Nice pictures.
In your comparison, you choosed an album from 1980, which is originally an analog album.
So even on a Rega P6, it will probably sound better vs the Nd555, lol.
I recently compared both like you, but I listened to 3 digital albums which were produced very well on lp : A french pop 2010 album, Eric Truffaz/ Bending new corners ( 2000/ blue note) and Hugh Masekela / Stimela.
I liked the Solstice, but found it more laid back and less dynamic vs the Nd555 for these 3 albums.

[rsch]

i already pointed out, i’ve no idea what kind of file was into the Melco library, they also have a Core in the shop. Next time i will carry along my cd to for another comparison.