Rega P8 set up or 282 + 2nd HICAP?

It just seems a bit of an expensive way of finding out if you like vinyl. I’ve considered it quite a few times as i did enjoy my LP12 in my youth and I do still like the look of a TT. In the end though, it just didn’t seem worth the hassle, especially having to start a vinyl collection again, given the price and quality and then having duplicate formats. If I still had an existing vinyl collection then the story would have been different.
Good luck though, the P8 looks a lovely bit of kit and I’ll be interested to hear how you get on if you go the vinyl route :slightly_smiling_face:

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Where are you though if you don’t have a dream?! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Yes , I had the 112, 202, 282, and 252.

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Rich and not argufying on an internet forum?

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Happy with digital and better off financially Chris :grinning:

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A P8 will sound very nice on a Nait 5i too. But will not reveal his wonderful potential, as with a 202. But a good phono, at minimum Rega Aria, is mandatory too.

There is a difference, I’d suggest, between mandatory and nice to have. My P8 sounds very good directly into the Supernait 3. Maybe an Aria would be better, maybe a Superline would be even better still, as would a 282/250, as would a 500 series, and on it goes. We all have to stop somewhere. I guess what this goes to show is that the P8 is a jolly good record player, able to perform in more modest setups and in much more highfalutin ones too.

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Hi Richard, out of interest would you say Naim have ever made a crap preamp?

I would never say that Naim have made a “crap” pre-amp.

All Naim’s pre-amps have been excellent, its just that some have been rather better than others. Taking all relevant factors into consideration, undoubtedly the weakest to my mind was the NAC112. While it actually performed reasonably well, I’m not sure it represented much of an upgrade (if any) on the NAC92 that came before and was of course saddled with a volume control encoder where the supplier moved their production soon after launch and the quality was subsequently found to have dropped considerably. This precipitated a quick re-design program which resulted in the much improved NAC112x and then the even better NAC122x. I would say that the NAC112x and more-so the NAC122x were the entry level Naim pre-amps that the NAC112 should have been all along.

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Is this about the music, or is it about the gear?
If it’s about the gear, I would get the P8 and maybe buy someone’s vinyl collection. There’s quite a few available usually.
If it’s about the music, I would walk away from the TT urge and aquire the best digital source I could afford.
Cheers.

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There are 3 schools : source first, speakers first, and balanced first.
I am more for the third.

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I think it’s about the music. Hence why I wouldn’t go down the vinyl route without a thorough listening test at a dealer.

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Without actually owning some Vinyl, this doesn’t make sense…
To me anyway… :frowning_face:

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I agree and I know it has been debated so many times but I still believe that a good digital source is ‘better’ than its equivalent vinyl source.

Vinyl is lovely and can be as clear and transparent as how much you want to spend making it so, but for me it is the whole experience of vinyl that makes me want it alongside the digital source.

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I’d not be buying a record player without records. Nor a cd player without cds.
If you were starting out today, most would/should stream.
Saying that, I have cds but no longer a cd player.

Yeah but you can rip CDs, then stream them locally…so they live on. Worth keeping

What I’ve done. Need to box up and stick cds in the loft. Then convert of of the cd space to take more vinyl!

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Source first…P8.

Yes. If I didn’t have about 200 original LP’s, bought years ago, my Linn LP12 wouldn’t make much sense. But - I have found in recent months, that I have now started to use it more, having swapped out my Naim phono boards and adding a Linn Lingo…

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Another source first vote.

I have a 102 here (for 25 years! - the even older, smellier and decrepit uncle) and (so long as used with an NAPSC) have always found it to be very even handed and revealing of the source. Certainly it can easily show any improvement in source quality and if its successor the 202 was up against say a 552 pre with an inferior source I’d say most people would prefer the better source through the 202.

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