Yup, I’m not surprised you thought it was the Melco - that had been Signals’ original intention, hence why it was there on display.
I think Darkbear captured the difference quite well, to me it was more easy for me to identify positioning of vocals, instruments within the soundstage and their clarity, tones and timbre. Perhaps thats more of a case of what i like and listen for. One mans significantly bigger soundstage might not be so significant for another. Perhaps @Darkbear can comment on his scale comment.
Yes - the S1 does do that more. More low-level details and room acoustic info recovered from the recording and rendered clearly make that happen.
When I had my original home-demo of S1 Pre vs 552 that was one of the factors that presented - although nice to have it was not the determining factor but I do like that everything is portrayed into space in 3D, if the music has that in it and most does.
The S1 presents a stable soundstage where every musical thread exists and weaves with the rest of the music without any sense of being modulated by anything else happening is what I like. Your brain has to work less hard at extracting the musical messages as they pass and as a result there is less fatigue and more immersion into the music - for me anyway.
DB.
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At the simplest level, for me, the impact of 552 to NAC S1 was more involving than the 500 to NAPS1. I could almost see the NAC S1 as a no-brainer choice, given the availability of funds; sadly that is not my position, being a poor old OAP.
Part of me just itched to hear a high quality TT, instead of the ND555.
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[quote=“Darkebear, post:8, topic:2702”]
What then surprised me is that somewhere in Naim the ban on mentioning Active seems to have been lifted or failed under its own obvious innate truth - as there ensued an unprompted presentation of the merits of doing things Active in terms of removing the large modulating LF signal from the Power Amp for the Mid/HF Amp(s) and hence running them more in their linear range and getting better performance from the Amp than when it is trying to do everything Passive.
A little surprised as although all this was Naim lore of old I’d not heard it mentioned in many years so nice that an old truth is now discussed again.
[/quote] That surprised me too! I concurred of course, Active’s always been the way for me.
The Dynavectors, considering they were fresh from the box, sounded remarkably benign. But I couldn’t help but notice on Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”, one of my favourite demo tracks, the drums lacked that crisp wallop and speed you get with Active. Nevertheless, a most enjoyable and revealing evening, many thanks to Signals for inviting me and to Steve and Jason for a very professional presentation. Nice to see fellow hi-fi pals again too.
I agree with all that has been said and thanks go to Signals and Naim for putting on this event. It always good to meet up with other customers and discuss experiences.
For me and Pam swapping out the 552 for the S1 was the most significant upgrade and clearly showed what the 555 with twin supplies was capable of. I wonder if the 552 is holding it back a little being a so much older design.
It is certainly something to aspire to as DB discovered a while back in his system.
Hearing how well the vocal sounded on ‘Just A Little Lovin’’ by Shelby Lynne yesterday and then listening to my own system I thought it could sound better, so this prompted me to do a complete system rebuild from the ground upwards paying attention to cable dressing and Fraim and equipment placement… all with very good effect so I am very pleased with my sound now compared to what I heard yesterday from the 552/500 part of the demo.
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Given the capabilities of the 552 and the fact that they can be had for<£10 s/h the thought of spending c£62000 on a NACS1 is a step too far even if I had the disposable income.
It’s not as if 552 owners report there is anything missing from the performance, certainly engaging enough for me.
However, I was never completely convinced by the NDS, so in that sense the ND555 is a worthwhile upgrade.
Well the demo room is being refreshed or having a major overhaul. It was looking rather outdated, lets see if it can be improved.
I bet the new sofas won’t be green!!
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Signals demo or HH room ?
Does anybody know what the track was used near the of the beginning of the demo with a female vocal… not the Shelby Lynne?
Yes, it was indeed Mike.
Thanks Tony. Yes I know the Shelby Lynne Just A Little Lovin’ but there was another female artist played either before or after that one which is the one I am trying to find out.
Michael you might be better off asking Alistair or Andy to ask Justin or Mike from Naim.
Good point thanks.
you should use the shazam app from applestore ( or other stores).
When i hear a music that is interesting, i open shazam on my ipad and it tells me what it is ( music from a film on tv, in a coffee place…).
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I do of course use Shazam but thought it polite to switch off my mobile during a Naim demonstration event.
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i would not have your reservation Michael. Perhaps in a church only…
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