Calm down guys. There’s a lot of over-reaction and over thinking going on here. The theme of the thread was:-
I compiled a NAIM system which I ultimately was not happy with.
I replaced it with a significantly better non-NAIM system. That’s it.
I apologise If anyone was offended by my comments. I still have some NAIM products and I like the brand. Not all of their products are great, the same as any brand, probably. As I’ve said before, we all just need to enjoy our own systems/the music. Life’s too short…
I think calling any Naim product “crap” and “uncompetitive” is going way too far. If Naim made “crap” that was uncompetitive then they would have died a death long ago, instead of becoming so successful. If you prefer something else then that’s fine, but that certainly doesn’t make Naim “crap”*
*Aromatic excepted. They tried very hard not to sell it though…
First you can’t know how your ears are performing- degradation with age is gradual, we don’t perceive their poor performance, fact is u r old and your ears don’t offer same performance as they did. Second your spending a VAST amount of money on equipment hoping to elucidate satisfaction from recorded music underlines that your lugs have deteriorated. There are so many oldies - including myself!- with inevitable hearing loss spending vast amounts of cash on hi fi and believing for example that hi fi racks need burning in etc etc chasing changes in sq they can neither detect or remember …it is one one level actually quite amusing and on another level propagating a high margin market which is hi fi. Your ears aren’t telling you lies, they can’t hear much that you they used to and cause discomfort when they hear the frequencies you can. To deny this is delusion
Poor analogy- wine is a vehicle for alcohol, a toxin that tastes vile, no matter how you dress wine up to hide the taste of alcohol it is a crappy drug that ruins many lives- I would agree that like hi fi there is a lot of snobbery and so called expertise around wines but here the comparison should end. We can’t know how our perception of sound quality changes as we age- we have no control and changes are so gradual we don’t perceive any difference on how we hear. To say that we become in effect more sophisticated in how we hear stuff is I think arguable- fact is hearing performance changes to the worse as we age, if u could enjoy your youthful ears now I’m pretty sure you would be shocked at how poor your current hearing is by comparison- ask anyone with new implanted lens’ how the untainted new windows make them realise how degraded their sight has become. Fact is we are less able to hear as we once could no matter how we refine our taste in music, if the OP when for an audiometer examination he would likely be told how his hearing loss might effect his perception of his music and reduce his tolerance to extreme frequencies or sounds in general - naim equipment hasn’t suddenly become bright or tiresome but the op’s age is definitely a contributing variable to the symptoms he talks about
I think you just supported my point. What is important to you isn’t important to someone else and if it’s not important to you, you wont make the effort to learn more about it and are therefore unlikely to learn to enjoy it in new ways.
I was not suggesting we become more sophisticated in how we hear things by default, I was suggesting we can learn to listen in new ways (so called “critical listening”) which in turn can change our perception of sounds and what is enjoyable and what isn’t. That can happen regardless of where we are on the hearing scale between full range (babies) and reduced capacity (pretty much everyone).
Gosh, Jonny, there are a load of assumptions here!
Different audio systems have a different sound signature is an absolute fact, regardless of one’s hearing. Not everyone’s hearing degenerates in a linear rate, over time. And you don’t even know how old I am.
By the way, I had a hearing test 2 years ago (as part of an extensive medical) and no issues were highlighted. I changed my NAIM system for one that sounded better (to my ears). That’s it. No big deal.
Really…some NAIM stuff is crap and now wine is a crapy drug! Stop being jaded guys! Ok, especially for wine where I realize that we are on an English forum
Don’t accept that…I accept you may prefer alternative gear. Naim products are very well engineered … you have effectively gone from a mid system to a high end system… which equates to 552/500 which is mighty combination. As for the ND555 it is quite a unique product with the use of a ladder dac with the benefits/dissadvantages that brings … the use of a second supply does elevate its performance to equal the best…all be it …at a high price.
Lol! No assumptions, I just read your post! I don’t know how old u are, I do know u retired three years ago and have had naim kit since the 80’s so u ain’t in the flush of youth! Also whilst your medical did not pick up anything (for a person of your age) it certainly didn’t find that you magically had the hearing of a youngster. Of course different kit has a different presentation but you seem to have been happy with naim for a long time until recently, whether you accept it or not your luggs will have deteriorated and I think it is possible or even likely that this is why u all of a sudden find naim kit too bright or fatiguing.
