System Pics 2019

It’s just a humble CD5i(italic) matched with a Nait 5i(italic).

Both sound excellent to my ears, but I haven’t heard much in the way of meridian kit to compare…

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Looks bloody fantastic Graham! Enjoy the ride…I’m sure it will be a good one:sunglasses:
ATB,
Mark

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Hello, yes. With Naim P3 power supply

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Graham Wonderful turntable the Dohmann

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@ Devraj - very nice. Pretty rare too :sunglasses:

@ Graham - Saw that on Richards instagram feed. Lovely looking deck. You should post on the 10 years ago thread :smile:

Here is a pic of my system, which was updated today. Its 272 + 250 DR + NACA5 + Dynaudio Special 40s and Stand 20s.

I got the special 40s and the stands today. I have to confess I bought them without listening to them. Its difficult for me to home demo stuff because I live on an island and getting stuff here is costly unless its posted. Also, I find dealer demos don’t tell me much because I am either listening too hard or the room is not familiar, so a lot of my purchases are gambling! Anyway I read a lot about Dynaudio and how well it matches Naim, plus the characteristics of the speakers – fast, decent bass, good detail, smooth airy top end etc all sounded attractive. I couldn’t find a bad review of the special 40, plus the recent adventures of Kevster helped me a lot.

The short version is that I am delighted with the improvement made by the speakers. It is quite shocking how much detail there is on the few records I have played so far that I never heard before. Plus the bass – there is much more and it is well controlled. This is the speakers out of the box brand new without running in, and as can be seen in the pic, I haven’t screwed the spikes down yet in case I need to move the stands. So there should be more improvements on the way. The improvements over my previous speakers (Kef LS50) are large – which is right considering the Dynaudios are three times the price.

The speakers are also very nice to look at – as is obvious from the pic I got the red ones, and they remind me of a red apple in colour. They are very nicely finished. The stands are good as well - I noticed a sound improvement over my previous stands with the Kef speakers before I tried the Dynaudios on them. I like the screw down spikes – means you can easily experiment to get the right position and then just screw down the spikes.

BTW the Telecaster and Blackstar amp are nothing to do with it. I wish I could play the tele better.

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I’ll see if I have a photo from 10 years ago. Lots has changed since then and the box count has reduced :laughing:

I’ll be keeping an eye on how you get on as I’m looking at these too…

I will bet that if you remove these two items from your listening room, your sound will improve.
Bailyhill

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This is my entertainment room. Originally it was set up for home theatre with 2 in wall and 2 rear ceiling Paradigm speakers. A new Cambridge Audio CXR120 gives a great sound through these.
A few years ago I moved the Naim stereo into the same room, which is about 7x6 m and it sounds great. It is a 272,555DR and 250DR with a superlumina din/xlr cable and in wall Naim A5 cable to Ovator 400s which are about 4m apart and sitting area is 4m from speakers. Attention to detail with a well leveled Fraim, separate power spur and Chord Signiture Ethernet cable all help the system to be at its best. The unitiserve is in another room.
Currently thinking about either a 2nd hand NDS powered by the 555 or else just getting a 300DR and being done with it, as NDS option eventually could mean 252/supercap so $$$ more.

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Close up of the 3 Naim boxes and Marshall headphones. As you can see I keep the wall speakers covered in colour matched grills so they are more discrete. The wall speakers, even though close to the Ovators, have no perceptible sonic effect on them.

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Spring cleaning done :grin: Now it’s time to enjoy the music. And I love the new forum (community) BTW. Not to mention how much easier it is to upload pictures. Well done!

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I like how you have gone for a white cabinet to offset the Naim black, very clean and elegant. Nice job.

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Nice to see the beautiful Isoblue kit still in the mix.

I never really liked the FRAIM kit. Couldn’t get on with the white uprights, visually.

This, however, is a different kettle of poisson.

Gorgeous.

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Bedroom system: n-DAC, qute (used as a streamer), nait 2, Neat Petite SX

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Mike, the uprights are either silver or black on the Fraim.

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OK, well SILVER then… sheeesh. They look white in the photos, to me.

My point is, I like that particular mix of black and veneer.

Still too expensive for my bank balance, though.

No wonder the damned stuff is so expensive, I thought it was just aluminium :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Yes i compared the special 40’s to the Sopra 1’s head to head for about a month at my home.My gear at the time was Core/N272/XPSDR/250DR,and i much preferred the Focal’s.I live in an apartment,so need a speaker that works well at lower volumes.The S40’s need more volume to come alive than the Sopra’s,i found the Focal’s to have a fuller,meatier sound at my normal listening level.

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