Hi everybody,
I used to post on the older version of the Naim forum fairly often, but have been away from the forum (and hi-fi!) for almost a decade.
(Feel free to ignore all this self-indulgent rambling)
I began my hi-fi journey in New York in 2005, right after I finished university, where I spent several months exploring all that Manhattan’s audio dealers had to offer, and then ended up (without really knowing what I was getting into) a Naim CD5XS/Nait 5i/B&W 804S system.
I then discovered the Naim forum (and the other, pink colored one), and got a case of upgraditis. By 2008, I had worked my way up to a CDX2/Non-Naim PSU202/Napsc/Hicap2/250.2 system, still with the same B&Ws.
In 2009, I moved back home to India, taking my entire system with me, which meant having the voltage converted. After all that, 2011 unexpectedly saw me move right back to the US – but this was only meant to be for two years, so I didn’t want to bother with having to ship everything back to the US, get the voltage converted again (and then back again), etc.
So I packed up my electronics for what I thought would be a couple of years. I also figured that the days of CDs were behind me, so I used this opportunity to trade my CDX2 and 202 in for a nice 282 from a large UK-based Naim dealer, which would waiting in storage for me with the rest of my system. I got rid of my speakers as well (big mistake, looking at how speaker prices have shot up in recent years!), since I’d been thinking about upgrading them anyway.
As fate would have it, the two years away became four. Then, when I finally moved back to India in 2015, I moved into a nice flat, expect that it had a very awkwardly “L” shaped living room, which made buying a nice new set of speakers and setting up the big system a bit of waste. By then, I had also acquired the expensive trappings of adulthood: a wife, a dog, and most recently, a baby. All of this put setting up the big system on the back burner.
So I settled for a first-gen Naim Muso, which to its credit, really sounds wonderful for what it is. 5 years on, I still enjoy it, despite the slightly flaky volume control knob.
But finally, FINALLY, after all these years, it’s time to get going with the big system. In the next few months, we are moving to newer, blessedly rectangular, flat, and I have carte blanche (ish) from the wife to get a decent pair of speakers. Yay!
So the plan of action is as follows:
- As soon as the Covid lockdown in Bombay ends, get my old electronics (282/hicap/250.2) serviced by the local Naim distributor
- Once it’s a little safer to be out and about, go audition speakers
- Get a decent a streaming source
After years and years of headphones, the Muso, etc, I’m so incredibly excited to get the big system going again!
Now to the point of this whole post:
Question 1: Cable longevity
- Given my system has been in storage for 9 years, one Naim dealer told me that all my cables will need to be replaced, as they will have gone bad – this is many meters of Naca5, a stack of Powerlines, and a Highline interconnect.
- Is this correct?? Do cables actually go bad? Or at worst will only need to be re-terminated? This sounded very odd to me.
Question 2: Streamer
- Given the types of speakers I have my eye on, I may not have a large budget left for a streaming source right now, though my ‘toy’ budget should replenish itself next year – so I would rather splurge on the speakers right now, and work my way up to a better source next year, rather than get stuck with a pair of speakers that I won’t want in a few months from now (very poor second-hand market in India unfortunately)
- So as a stopgap, I was thinking of getting something like a Bluesound Node 2i for now. All of my music is in a lossless ALAC iTunes library, plus Spotify/Qobuz/Tidal; Airplay is important for my wife
- Then early next year, I was thinking of getting nice DAC (perhaps a pre-loved Naim DAC from the UK , especially since I have a non-Naim PSU lying around) to attach to the back of the Bluesound, as a long-term solution – I’m fine with just using high-res Qobuz and giving up on Tidal MQA stuff
- Any thoughts / alternatives on both the immediate and follow-up plans on the streamer / DAC / etc?
Sorry for the very long ramble, just very excited at the prospect of getting my hi-fi back!
Hope everybody is staying safe. Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Kartik.
… I seriously can’t believe that would be true!