Hiya guys.
A bit late to the party re joining this forum.
I’ve been a Naim owner for 35 years, starting off with olive, then upgrades. Moving on to black Naim then finalising with freshly serviced cdi/72/Tpr4 hicap/250/SBL’s and Briks.
Loved most of the naim kit i owned and had great service from both the dealers i used and also Naim themselves if issues arose on new kit.
The one fly in the ointment was the wife. She loves music but never grasped why so many boxes and largish speakers were needed….dust collectors as she says
Anyway last year after faffing about with many dacs and i mean many i bought a little cheapo Wiim pro plus.
Boom, after a week of playing with settings it was streaming and playing audio at a quality i’d not have thought possible. All this coupled with a silky interface. Brilliant.
It got me thinking i was stuck in the past, and although my olive was a keeper i thought i’d look at a one box solution to maybe give me 80% of what the olive gave and pleasing mrs too.
Sadly my go to dealer for new kit was no longer a stockist.
Anyway i sold my whole kit plus other bits for 3.5k and budgeted 3k for an all in one unit and a pair of bookshelf speakers.
A Uniti atom paired with the much vaunted ae300 mk2 speakers seemed a no brainer. So i went to demo that package.
Beautiful sound and clarity as always from naim but sadly not my cuppa. Reminded me very much of my Nait 5i amp i bought and had to p/x back a few months later for something with more punch. Shame as it seemed ideal.
Came home for a rethink and decided to visit another dealer.
Looked at the wiim amp streamer and the more expensive arcam. Neither a match for the old kit….to my ears.
Then he pointed me towards the ci 102. First time i’d heard of one let alone seen one. Knew nothing about the product, zilch.
He fired it up in store, not in a demo room. It was linked to some big floorstanders. It belted out just like my old kit did, it had the Naim olive sound and blew me away. Truly thought he was going to say £7500 when i asked price. I was floored when he said 1300 quid.
Where’s the catch was my thoughts. It did not seem possible…..compared to the 10’s of thousands i’d spent over the years.
We decided on a demo with some speakers, starting with my choice of ae300 mk2.
I felt the amp just overfaced them so moved up a notch to the next set.
We then played the ae anniversary model.
A thousand pounds more but i was saving that buying the ci102 over the atom. This pairing was everything i needed.
His '“Mystery speaker” he said he’d save until last was the new M series from Scansonic at same money as the anniversary’s. We played it through these and deal was done. So remeniscent of my Isobarik and SBL days yet a fraction of the price i paid years ago…unbelievable.
It is here now and singing. Fellow Naim owners have visited and thought exactly what i did….How?
I mentioned “where’s the catch” above so just wanted to run through some of those “catches” and maybe get advice from fellow owners or even Naim personell.
First off as you know it is class D. People will shudder at that. I would have and would not have touched it with a barge pole.
Thankfully i heard it before i sussed it was class D.
Another maybe downside is its simplicity. No screen no nothing. Just a black box with a lit up Naim logo. Not for everyone one but i thought it looked sleek and hewn out of billet.
No remote at all will be a no go for many too.
Biggest catch is info on how it works. I know it is built as an install product but also know it is being sold and delivered to guys like me who are downsizing to more wife friendly and more modest systems.
I knew this when i bought it so no axe to grind at all. However there is nothing at all that i can find that just gives you the basic grasp of its DSP in the manager app.
Forunately it sounds fine on its “out of the box” flat settings.
I have it set on a Focal speaker preset and have managed a few tweeks and it basically now matches my old system. Still Naimy and not in any way harsh. Incredible roomy soundstage too.
Sad thing is there is more to come. I know this. I just need a simple explanation of what its 4 filters relate to and how best to use them.
As i say it is being sold widely by dealers as a none install amp and should really have a guide for those of us who are not sound engineers
It is certainly not as user friendly as the wiim in this department but jeez it’s a keeper…even though i have a week left to swap it Cheers.
