I love the Olive range, items of which I have had for some 35 years, but my lovely CDS2 “died” (transport mech failure), and I have replaced it with an NC CDX-2 and XPS DR - thanks to TomTom Audio for their usual immaculate service.
This is the first DR unit that I have owned.
Am I correct in thinking that Naim will no longer carry out DR conversion of older units? That would be a shame, as all my equipment is well overdue a return to Salisbury for service and recap, and it would have been great to have the DR upgrade as well.
DR upgrades were discontinued a while back, so no longer an option I’m afraid.
The Hicap upgrade was so expensive that it was cheaper to buy a brand new HicapDR and sell the old one. With the drop in price of Classic boxes now that they are discontinued the same would likely apply to other boxes too.
Almost all my equipment is over 30 years old, and long overdue a return to Salisbury for servicing, so I’ll have to speak to Audio T here in Brighton about a sensible way of doing this.
Personally I think the golden age is the stuff you aspired to when you were in your youth but often couldn’t afford!
I think that period of our lives between 17 and say 22 is probably the golden age of our lives in many ways. So many first life experiences occur in that period - first car, first love, first time you see a band you truly adore who blow you away, first time you get your own place away from Mum and Dad and very often first proper hifi system too! It’s also a time of the best parties, the best sex and likely when you’ll date the most beautiful people you will ever encounter simply because that’s when everyone is at their physical peak!
As Roger Waters says the memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime!
Thus I think any perception of the golden age of Naim has less to do with the firm or their products and a whole lot more to do with us!
It’s also worth noting that 17-22 is when most of us have the most free time to listen to music! No job, no kids, no lawns to mow or flat pack to build! Life was simple back then, it gets a whole lot more complex as you get older - all of which interferes with your enjoyment of music…
JonathanG
PS as the Father of an 18 year old girl having the time of her life it has led me to look at my own social life and think how ruddy boring it is nowadays!! Still, at least I can still spin the GyroDec through my olive/ATC system pour a smoky malt and play some songs like Deacon Blue, Del Amitri, the Blue Nile and Enya - all music which evokes memories of love’s Lost, parties enjoyed, partings on moonlit railway stations in the rain and some wonderful memories…
I had completely forgotten about Deacon Blue (as I was born in Glasgow). I must have a look at the Big River site, see what LPs are available. If only my fr*gging VISA card would work properly!
Me too, to a large extent, and same with B&W speakers, though mainly from an aesthetic point of view. As soon as they discontinued the yellow Kevlar and went to those grey midrange units, and also stopped doing cherry finish, I couldn’t get myself interested in upgrading to uglier speakers, even though I’m sure they sound great. The fact that the prices started to rocket at that point probably didn’t help either.
For me, the sweet spot in B&W’s history is yellow Kevlar, cherry finish and diamond tweeters:
B&W speakers always used to have the reputation of being inefficient and terribly difficult to drive, giving even an NAP250 pause for thought and causing the fan to switch in.
I never actually heard them, so I have no personal experience, but that was the story in years gone by.
It refers back to my early days in hifi. The first Naim I ever heard - either a NAC22 or 12 with a NAP 160. At the time it would have been with an LP12, Hadcock, Decca London and JR 149s.
Since repetition is often tedious I now have - a Rega Planar 3 (S-shaped arm), NAC 22 and NAP 120 - along with some non-retro n-SATs.
Would I prefer Kans? No - I find the SATs have much of the Kan’s charm but pleasantly more refined.
It’s a deliberately (I held out for one with the original Rega bent tin headshell - not the inevitable ADC magnesium upgrade) fuzzy system that avoids the tensions of bleeding edge resolution for the often mocked but restful ‘Nice Tone’.
Ah yes, thanks.
It took me eighteen years and seven pairs to choose n-Sats for good, the pleasure of buying them again (and again) was always greater than the silliness of having sold them.
I’m sorry but I profoundly disagree to your post nothing stops you to lure your partner in your car and have a special night. I’m sure that with your experience you can make it more special than and 18 yr one can do.
Haha Ardbeg, I can see where you are coming from and it’s perfectly healthy to disagree of course and interesting to read your perspective. You’re absolutely right to challenge my view as it’s exactly that - just my view and nothing more.
Taking a more ‘hi-fi’ view of things I guess the equipment I lust after the most still seems to be the stuff that I have always lusted after since I was around 17: Naim NAT02, Nakamichi cassete decks, Naim NAC52, big ATC’s, SME arms and turntables and olive Naim. Interesting that Adam Meredith is assembling a Naim system he dreamt of back in the day (congrats by the way!)
As for relationships I fully accept you have to work on it as time goes on! I’m doing my best at that - I’m still (unlike pretty much all of my contemporaries) on wife no 1, having been together 27 years this June. We’re off to London this weekend - hotel, nice meal, some museum exploration and maybe a concert. I’d love to do the Abba thing but having checked the tickets are £180 each, which is a bit of a deterrent after a financially lean year but we’ll figure something out. I’m about to read the London jazz club thread for inspiration!