Notes taken by me of the reaction of the listener at the immediate end of the first experiments:-
“I LIKE the FIRST One”.
We have a break, coffee, go upstairs to the study where I have the Focal Naim Manger control setup panel and I show him some of the control actions I had undertaken (including some of the EQ work that was turned off for his session). He saw the ‘inputs’ control page (see image below)…
“It’s got ALL the INPUTS I need!”
and
“This is BUILT for ME!”
and
“This is something I might consider BUYING!”
After a good chat, including a bit about the IT issues I was having between the Magico Titan Application Control Software and the presence of this new Focal Naim software and device on the network (FYI he works an IT ‘technical architect’) we went back to the media room for the second and final run through. Which he did enjoy very much.
Personally, I can hear a clear difference in the sounds, the Naim CI-102 has that classic NAIM edge and immediacy - the Linn is what I am more used to and given some of my recent cable testing I might consider one for the media room to sit along-side the Linn!
I still have more work to do (items 3, 4 and 5 on the evaluation list), but overall
WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE!