Just.patiently.wait.for.the.272.successor
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That is a very beautiful turntable. The aesthetics are part of the enjoyment and you have much to enjoy with the Clearaudio Innovation et al.
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Or… you can buy the new Linn Exakt phono stage.
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I imagine it does sound rather good, and I think you expressed concern about a 272 replacement (?)
The bit that caught my eye was the Bel Canto CD transport
I have an elderly CDX2 (20 years old next year) into a Nova . I saw that Naim America cannot service it , and given what is going on with chips/CV19 etc , I wonder if Naim can service it as well (ideally to give a digital output) .
Made the point several times that there is a steady market for CD transports , even with Streamer/Amp products like the Atom/Star/Nova , or even specially with products like the Nova which digitise the signal a second time , it’s a real shame the current entry level CD player cannot offer a digital out option (my 99th time of saying this)
best wishes
Ian
PS Hope you can get out to what limited airshows there are, love your aerial pictures
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This is the system I left behind when I moved to France in October. Now back in the UK to finalise the move so it’s getting some use. I’ll be donating it to my sister in law in due course with either the allaes or some Thiel CS1.6s, whichever works best in her room, which will be quite challenging. I’ll probably keep the DVD5 as she’s too modern for either DVDs or CDs to figure much in her listening and the drawer is a bit temperamental anyway.
As to the sound, it’s really rather good, soloists are to the fore and in the room with emotion intact. Even something like this
can give of its music through the poor recording (it was originally recorded in Alex Campbell’s living room), many a system will focus attention on the recording quality and lose the performance, this doesn’t.
Moving to something where the recording isn’t so basic and there’s not much by way of scale, an orchestra doesn’t quite fit in the same space as the soloist and complex music get rather summarised but for <5% of the cost of my main system it’s not at all bad.
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And you’ve got a tuner
Rarer than unicorns or rocking horse poo
And purchased new in 1981.
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A quick check and they are still making them
Sharing my humble setup, far from all the amazing setup lots of you folks have.
Uniti Star paired with the B&W 705 S2. Speakers are placed on isoacoustics puck mini.
Upgrades coming soon:
- Witch Hat Phantom cables and jumper links
- Powerline
Might I add that I’m considering placing my speakers on stands and getting a sub (maybe Rel T/9 or PV1D from B&W). However, a part of me is inclined to swap my speakers with a 702 S2 or Signature, given the cost to add the sub and stands. Thoughts? I do like the versatility of being able place in different setup as I may move homes in future.
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I had a look and yes you can still buy a new NAD AM/FM tuner, though now with presets. I wonder if it sounds as good as the 4020A.
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Looks great!
fwiw, in that nice room with the elegant unit, I think a pair of floorstanders would look great. Adding stands and a sub less so. I suspect easier to set up and optimise a set of floorstanders too. Plus easier to move! Then you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the music/tv 
64,000 dollar question, I still have a NAT03 , even though I have a Nova and most of the time I am very happy with R3’s streaming service.
Then the internet goes walkabout (I live in deepest rural Berkshire) and am glad of back-up , so I keep my eye in what tuners are available , NAD, Rotel and strangely ProJect all have offerings from new , though ebay has multiple tuners at attractive prices and Quad service at a good price makes one of their offerings affordable
You’ve got a really nice set up, please, please accept that most of us are on our third/fourth/fifth Naim system and we all started somewhere .
The most notable thing for me is the constraints of the room, I might think of a dedicated hifi rack and put the speakers on stands .
That would (I hope) give you scope to bring in floor standers
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You’d be better off getting speaker stands than a powerline or other cables it will be far more of an improvement than either of those
To put the alternative view…
I am still on my first Naim system from the late 1980’s, and I am still very content…
The system lasted through the “having growing up children” who did not threaten the system (till recently when one of the children has his eyes on the system, and records, for himself when I am no longer here to defend my ownership).
(as shown before, still barrel distortion making the system bent!)
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Lovely setup!
And to add, I’ve only owned 4 pieces of Naim kit. I still have 3 of them!
Nait 3
CD5
XS3 replaced the Nait 3
Unitiqute1
Long live the “reasonably priced” Naim systems.
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Lovely system, I still have my NAT03 in the rack (as an insurance)
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Thank you.
Indeed, the key is to realise the value of contentment in our lives.
…and to avoid being taken in by advertising and marketing, which seems more about aspiration and “feeling” rather than a presentation of factual information about the product.
I am not necessarily thinking about Naim here, for example, look at automobile advertising.
Long live the “reasonably priced” Naim systems?
Well, I confess that although some my Naim boxes were second hand, the 1980’s was before Naim pricing went a little mad, and increased considerably (see another topic that was looking at Naim Price lists, and I think there was a spreadsheet somewhere) I had “the guilts” for years having spent so much on the hifi, at a time when we were not best placed to spend, although in the early 1980’s I seemed to save enough, but in the 1990’s I wish I had the savings as things were not so good for us, and, in fact, never recovered. This may have influenced my opinions regarding money, and, although I must not mention it, politics!
ps, thank you Ian for your appreciation.
pps, no I will not stray into the moderators world, and I will say no more about the p word. I have “been had” before.
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Nothing changed for a loooong time!
OH!
I just got a recapped Xovers for Briks and improvements were staggering!
All Bennic 'lytic caps have been replaced by Alcap. I agonised over which brand of caps but thought these would be a good starting point. Wish I did it sooner.
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Am I the only one who sees a face in this picture? Speaker drive units are the eyes, Naim box the nose, mouth directly underneath. 
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