I have just bought a Meridian 210 and am blown away by its SQ using my Audio Note DAC. It is superb and excellent VFM. It has got me thinking about their audio handling & AV stuff. They haven’t kept up with the modern codecs etc, but have build intermediary boxes to allow their processors to take input from other manufacterers hardware, which is quiet clever, if complex.
You certainly have had a great ROI. It would be great to compare it to something more modern.
In terms of video I am certainly NOT enthused by 4k, although HDR may be of interest. I do find that HD Master soundtracks give a definite lift, but it would be good to compare that against the Meridian processing of standard DD & DTS.
I am certainly NOT going to add any more speakers than my 5.3.
I hadn’t realised the Bob Stuart had left Meridian, moving to MQA.
Haha! I did exactly that. She said how nice it looks, but not gonna happen. I don’t think she gets the hifi requirements of a room and how it affects SQ. I have won many battles in how the house is used and looks, and I know when to back off. At least I got my radials put in .
hats off to your memory! I had a Bow Wazoo XL when I first posted on the forum. It’s hard to make a sensible comparison with 15 years between one system and another, but the Pass is similar to the Bow in that it’s different from Naim, but less ‘I want to be a tube amp but am sold state instead’ than the Bow.
I don’t know what reviews truly mean, after all: on Stereophile John Atkinson does an accurate reading of the technical features of any piece of gear under review. I don’t remember having read the Pass’s test because I feared I might be biased in what I’d hear afterwards, which would be the silliest thing in the world. The Bow was limpid, suave, with a beautiful deep scene and it lacked of course what makes Naim’s house sound: the lack of 3D, the mild sharpness of sound edges and a certain hardening of the voice beyond a certain volume – all designed in the gear to emulate live sound, which in fact is what I have always appreciated in Naim, although a tad tiring in the long listen.
The Pass has lots of micro and macro dynamics and detail, a never fatiguing voice and can sound unnoticeably loud, so that you are thinking ‘it’s not so loud’ and then you realize you are having to rise your voice to speak comfortably with the other person. I think Nelson Pass knows very well what he does; the problem is the profound difference in attitude towards sound reproduction in the home between the two sides of the ocean.
Anyway, an example of American attitude: I had a small issue with the Bricasti’s connection with the Ethernet line, which turned out to be the need to re-initialize the Apple AirPort Extreme I use as dedicated router for audio gear only out of the main modem. I wrote to Bricasti to ask for advice (the machine didn’t go out of ‘LAN OFF’) and after a few hours I received a call from Burbank, California; a Mr Damon from Bricasti, very kindly, had called me to investigate on the phenomenon and kept me on the phone for some 45 minutes asking me to describe everything until he had the router idea. He said ‘Max, I am not from the technical dept. but from the Sales, but I am a Mac man like you so I thought it could be the Apple Router’. He solved the issue completely.
To cut a long story short, the Pass is a splendid amp, able to sound loud and with a mannered authority difficult to find in other solid state designs, which are usually either artificially smooth and warm, or a tad too assertive.
having had three SN1s and having listened with a minimum of care to a SN3 just once, and to the SN2 a few times, always in the same room at my dealer’s and with well known sources and speakers, I have got to like what the SN1 did when I was totally into Naim, because of its power and stability. The relative monochromaticity of its voice was not an issue, if the recording and the speakers did a better job at differentiating colors.
Let’s put another datum in the equation, if you like: I am a regular customer (and often loiterer…) in my friend’s store, and I have noticed that the number of people who come to buy an amp without a clear idea (good dealers are there for that, after all, or should be) go out with a Naim much less often than those who come there to buy a Naim. It’s not so obvious as it may sound: people who buy Naim have, a moment or another, chosen to buy Naim, and that might be for a number of reasons. When they come to the store they expect the amp (or the streamer, or the huge PSU) to be of their taste. It is when you suspend judgment, or have none with you coming in, that you may not like a Naim necessarily. I believe that a number of those who love Naim have learned to love Naim, but they don’t always realize that they may like something else as well.
I still have a deep affection for the brand, and am a little sorry not to have single black box in the system, but I must admit that I listen to much more music than before. When I had my last Naim system – ND5 XS2 and a NaitXS2, which had homogenized and brought a richer color palette to the S-400s, replacing my last SN1 – I was amazed at the level of veridicality of music, but after a while I was restless.
Now I am not, and enjoy my 257 AIFF files without staying in front of the shelf, looking for the CD to play, unaware that I am also looking for something that will sound in a given way, allowing me pleasure other than PR&T and feet stomping.
I realize that I skipped your real question. In an nutshell: SN1, old school Naim, super reliable, powerful, stable, a bit ‘gray’ but able to do the job of some pre/power combos. SN2: smoother, mildly anonymous and apparently thought for those who hated the SN1. Uninteresting, in my opinion: better buy an XS, or an XS2. SN3: open, luminous, fast, powerful and finally for all palates. My opinion only.
Massimo as I anticipated to you I perfectly understand what you describe.
I found that the match between devore and naim for me sounds perfect even if it is uncommon. I love it because of the ability of the speacker to reproduce everithing in true colors.
I was aproaching sn2 partnered with hicap some months ago because i definitely loved it and i was only afraid about the initial high gain of the preamp stage. Now I’m really curious about sn3+hi cap which is described as more articulated and open. My only concern is that international reviewers described it as I’ve just done but sn2 owner I personally know described it as almost identical to sn2 vesrion and I’m confused
Ciao
RackKit’s photos may show one as well. Perhaps he’d care to comment.
Ours must be 15 years old at least (I think its a “504”). One of the very first TVs with HDMI, cost five grand from PeterTyson. The analogue tuner is obviously pretty useless nowadays, but I assume the unit is still needed to “control” the screen set-up.
Thanks Dan! Yeah, it’s taken a lot of hard work but was well worth it. The Naim AV bits took a while to source as Naim had stopped it’s AV side of things so it’s all used/ex dem but integrates really well and sounds pretty decent!
Altered IKEA VITTSJO rack. Thicker glass residing on apparatus feet on two upper levels and spikes with cups at the bottom - made the trick (about 150€ total)
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