Cohen1623, If contemplating a return to Naim, I’d suggest that before working to a budget, consider how many boxes you are willing to put up with and manage. Quite a few folks on here seem to have hit the pause button and considered how to achieve an acceptable balance between sound quality and space take.
Assuming boxes aren’t a problem I would consider the following and have no problem at all mixing in ex-dem units which would come with a full Naim warranty.
Pre - 552dr
Power - 300dr or 500dr - I’d be happy with either, depending on room and speaker size/ loading.
LPs - I’m lazy and looking at where you were with an LP12, similar to mine, I’d make a bee line for Leicester. There are of course other sources but this will require some leg work for auditioning in different environments. As I say, I’m too lazy! Beware the Tangerine options! I have been Tango’d!!
LP’s II - Phono stage and power supply may need a bit of thinking - radikal and urika would provide a good starting point. I have enjoyed Tom Evans phonos over the years.
CD’s - Naim no longer make cd players but you could pick up a used CD555 or CDS3 - more boxes. Alternatively, as you don’t have them, consider an Innuos server such as Zenith or Statement. These have an integral cd slot and you can burn all of your cd’s directly to the dedicated drive. You can think about whether you really want or need a cd player later; rather than buy one from the outset and find it is unused.
Here’s where I would look to others more technically gifted than me to contribute. I have connected my Innuos to my ND555 and this works fine. My only reservation is that I suspect the Innuos and ND555 have an overlap of streaming components and I can’t help feel that money may have been put to better use - I’m not sure how!! Also consider a back up solution so that you are not reliant on a single hard drive for all your digital music content.
Speakers - Good luck!! There are so many products out there as to be bewildering and as often said, you really ought to hear them in your room before being able to properly decide. I currently have B+W’s but were I starting from scratch I’d certainly want to have a look at the Kudos Titan range. I’ve only heard the 808’s which were mighty impressive.
Other bits - I’m sure you will be aware that you can sink a chunk into power/ interconnect/ speaker cables and the likes of Fraim. They are worth factoring in as, in my opinion, they make a considerable contribution to the overall system performance.
Get your MS Excel worksheet and man logic fired up for some debate! Good luck with your return to the fold.
Peter
