For the last 10-15 years my equipment has consisted of a NAIM 5i integrated amp and Neat Motive 2 speakers, with which I have been reasonably satisfied. Recently a friend, who has moved to higher strata of audiophilia, gave me some hifi equipment which had been sitting in his garage for over 20 years. This consisted of: Naim NA 92B preamp, FLATCAP power supply, NAP90 power amp and Dynaudio Audience 72 speakers. As you can imagine I was interested to try this out and compare it with what I had.
First, I had the NAIM equipment serviced by Class A Audio in Sheffield. Then I tried all the possible permutations and combinations. While my background is in experimental science, my interest in music is aesthetic and I am not a ātweakerā, rather I want to enjoy my music, predominantly classical but also some jazz, within the constraints of my equipment and the setting in which I listen. I listened at an average of 60-65 dB with peaks at or just over 70. The ānewā equipment appeared to improve the clarity of the music and instruments, especially in the mid-range, which I appreciated. However, the higher tonal range, e.g. soprano or the right-hand of the piano keyboard, sounded somewhat ābrittleā and harsh, which was not very pleasant. Classical music has a much greater dynamic range that jazz or rock; I found that the very quiet passages that I could just hear with the Neat 5i I could not, or barely, detect with the ānewā setup. So, some improvements but also irritating frustrations.
My questions are: 1, is the harshness in the upper register part of the old NAIM sound? 2, Does the NAIT 5i provide some sort of compression that enables the quietest passages to be audible? I would welcome opinions and thoughts.
Iāve not heard either your 5i or the slimline olive separates but I know that effect on Piano tones from when I introduced a CDX2 in place of my CD5x. Eventually I traced it down to cable dressing and a steel framed rack, I had a couple of cables touching the shelf on leaving the equipment, dressing them to run clear went a long way towards solving it and a move to a non ferrous rack, in my case Fraim Lite but isoblue might be a better match for slimline kit (an old Signals blog thought so anyway). I could also tell when the vacuum cleaner had nudged the speaker cable into contact with the wall near where it entered my right NBL from an increased ringing and hardening of high piano notes. No idea as to why. As a plus the move away from the Target rack cured a radio pickup problem Iād been having since Iād bought a superline that no amount of grounding if metalwork would cure.
No experience of 5i, but plenty with 92/flatcap/90, and it can over emphasise treble with a bad recording or speaker/room. When I ran mine for over 15 years, I ran it with Heybrook HB2r speakers. This was a great match. I would probably try your other speakers and room placement / system set up as well.
Thanks for the prompt replies. As I mentioned I have listened to all perms and combs, including speakers. I notice these differences with both sets of speakers with the 92/flatcap/90 combination; so, not a speaker-related issueā¦ By the way this is not the olive and is full width.
The 92/90 is a Nait 3 split into two boxes. The Nait 5i may very well be a better amplifier.
Neither the 92/90 nor the Nait 5i is a good match for the large Dynaudio speakers. A Nait 5i and Neat Motives is a very successful and well proven combination.
If you want better, maybe you should think about selling the lot and getting a Nait XS2 or XS3, otherwise I suspect you are best sticking with what you have.
I donāt have experience with the 92B, Flatcap and Nap 90 amplifiers but Iāve heard the Nait 5i for an extended period.
Making a judgement Iām surprised the Nait 5i had any information that old separates cannot recreate. From my experience the 5i was the most compressed sounding Naim component Iāve heard, I wouldāve expected the separates to walk over it.
Having said that, your components have been recently serviced so they will need a long time of being continuously powered on and music playback for at least a few hundred hours.
I agree that the speakers are playing a huge role here. Consider positioning and coupling methods. The mechanical aspect of hifi should not be overlooked.
The neats are known to bring out subtle detail whereas the Dynaudios are smoother sounding speakers. Again generalising her so forgive me.
Unfortunately to get the best of of your system in its current state you will need patience and tweakingā¦ if youāre willing to put in the effort
Just for info as you start your Naim journey the 92/90 etc are āOliveā series, they are slim line āOliveā.
My 102/180 that followed the 92/90 began to show how the Naim sound grows in stature as you go higher up the ladder. As HH says you are probably experiencing the additional detail retrieval of the separates. I never got on with Neats (petite) a dealer once demonstratedā¦ā¦it was too much of a good thingā with the 92/90!
Experimentation is a good thing at this stage, as you find out what works for you.
How long ago did you have the 92/90 serviced? They will take a bit of running in afterwards before they sound at their best.
Do you have them set up properly on a rack with a separate shelf for each box? This becomes more important as you move from an integrated amp to separates.
Iāve owned a NAIT3, XS3 and 42.5/HiCap/110. All run with Neat SX3 speakers. I also ran a NAIT5i for a month or so whilst awaiting a service on my NAIT3.
I never really noticed harshness, maybe occasionally with the NAIT3 if my memory serves, but in terms of SQ the 5i beat the 3, the XS3 beat the 5i and the CB combo beats the XS3. To my ears at least. Given the current setup, and stable used values for CB and olive kit, maybe look at buying a 42.5/62/72 and seeing if that improves things? Even if the NAP90 is struggling Iām not sure it would present as harshness, and starting with the pre might be the best place.
Also, no mention of source/s anywhere, what are you feeding it all with?
Not sure about your Neats but those Dynaudioās do need a bit more power than the Nap 90. Iām a Dynaudio fan and have had several pairs I currently have some Dynaudio Audience 52ās being run by a Linx Nebula integrated which rates at about 90 watts into 4ohm but it can still run a bit hot if pushed to hard by the Dyns.
I had the Nebula serviced after I bought it by Gordon Taylor trading as The Amp Doctor , Gordon used to work for Linx and was responsible for originally building my Nebula which was nice he replaced the Alps volume pot and gave it a full service so it should be performing pretty well.
I am puzzled by āneeds mores powerā as I find that if I swap from the Dyns to the Neats I need to turn the volume control up to get the same volume. Perhaps I am not understanding something?
āOliveā refers to the slightly greenish colour of the plastic front panel of amps of this generation. The NAC92 was only ever made in this casing. If the 90 and Flatcap match it, they too are olive, although other versions were made.
Dynaudio speakers generally like a bit of power a Nap 90 will of course power the speakers ok but due to the sensitivity setting which like my Audience 52 is 86db the power the Nap 90 does have will not get the best out of them you need speakers of 89 or possibly 88 that require less power perhaps that is your Neats.
]