That beast will take months to really bed in…you are really only getting a sniff of what will be on tap…its frustrating…my NAP500 when serviced and Dr’d took an absolute age to really come on song…and that psu is about 1/2 what you have…
To answer this part of your post, the answer is that high current from solid state Class A and/or B requires mass, and on Earth mass directly correlates to “big.”
Of course small amps can sound great too. But it’s not one or the other. And obviously also a direct correlation to the speakers one wants to drive.
Maybe not a super integrated, but I’ve long hoped that Naim will do a ‘smaller Statement’ 2-box solution. Maybe?!?!?
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That really is what i was hoping for, but can’t wait for ever, plus will it ever happen.
The dealer that is very use to the humbolt said, it’s sounding very much like it should do now, this was before i got it, and the reason i waited the weeks before he dropped it round.
I agree it probably would still change a bit over time, as everything does. But i am confident in what i heard is about it.
But like i said you really can’t go wrong with either, as both are fantastic, and really show what is achievable these day’s, plus you will really need to spend to actually get a worthwhile inpovement in sound quality from separate boxes over them
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I know the feeling. We will move house sometime in the future and downsizing the system will be required, but no time pressure here so I can wait.
The vivaldi clock has also gone back.
Time to see how much i miss it now i guess.
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Guys,
Diverting the thread slightly I’m going to be house downsizing over the next few months and the hifi may well do similar and taking 2 racks down to 1. Notwithstanding that nothing is ever replicated one option might be the 282/SC/250 for a RI 101. Has anyone any experience? Early thinking at the moment.
Regards,
Lindsay
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Hi @LindsayM , the RI101 mk2 is a really nice amp. I had one on loan for a week when I was considering one for similar reasons to yourself. At the end of the week it was a difficult very finely balanced decision that could of gone either way. From a performance perspective it I found the Vitus to be slightly better on finely etched detail/nuance, but the 52/300 had slightly better grip on heavy material, to the extent it didn’t quite provide the as good a level of engagement on couple of my old favourite albums. This was not what I was expecting given the specs of both setups. I don’t think my dealer was either! I’m sure with different speakers that results could be quite different. In the end it was these albums I used to make my decision in the absence any other compelling reason to go one way or the other. The model I was looking at had the built-in streamer/dac module, which was very impressive and at a similar level to my NDS/555.
The other factor inevitably at play was having been invested in a brand like naim for most of my life, with its continued customer/product support (Class A being just around the corner), against a move to a new brand (to me). If that hadn’t been a factor then I might be listening to the Vitus now.
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Interesting thank you.
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Yeah I’m committed to keeping the 505s so that could be a factor.
Thanks again.
With the dCS clock long gone now, i can certainly say i am missing it.
It’s not like my dCS set up has collapsed or suddenly gone off, but the clock certainly does bring things.
I have found that i feel that placement has slightly gone, with the clock you can 100% pin point each singer, instrument over the complete sound stage much easier, it just adds space, and ties it all up nicer.
I was hoping i wouldn’t miss it, but i am.
The 3 piece vivaldi stack is certainly one off the best digital front ends you can get, i can’t wait to finally make mine a 3 piece stack. Its certainly end game gear.
If you ever get the chance to hear a vivaldi stack then treat yourself.
Cheers dunc
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How long to you can afford it…….then the next inevitable wonder stuff.
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I could get one now, but i dont feel the new price is worth it, could get a new one for about £17k.
But i want a secondhand one really, they don’t normally come up for sale very often, but right now there is 2 vivaldi 3 piece stacks for sale, one will not sell separately, the other one i am in talks with, so watch this space as they say.
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Dunc, could you provide feedback on the results of bypassing the preamp and using the dCS volume control? Thanks.
I take it you mean setting one input as a pass through on the sia030 ?
If so i never got it to work correctly, even asked on the vitus page and got the same info i already had. But even doing this it still passes through the pre amp stage in the vitus, it’s just that the volume does nothing.
The volume in the sia030 is from the masterpiece range apparently and is very good at what it does, so i took it that it probably wasn’t worth going back too, as i did think it completely bypassed the pre amp, but it doesn’t.
Also doing this you have to be very careful as you can easily damage the speakers if i got it wrong along the way or just simply forgot it moment.
I also decided i like it how it is very much, the 6 volt output and 0.0 db out the vivaldi is certainly the ultimate way to run it if you can. So probably just messing about for the fact i simply can.
I have also been tied up doing deals on stuff and happy to say i will in the next couple off days be the very happy owner off a 3 piece vivaldi set up. As melco N10 has gone
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I possess the Rossini Apex and have conducted A/B comparisons with the Vivaldi, so I’m aware of the quality of the dCS flagship DAC. I’m curious about how the Vitus preamp stacks up against the Vivaldi pre-out, which was purportedly designed to drive a power amp directly, potentially rendering the preamp superfluous.
I would have preferred not to have a pre amp and use the vivaldi only. But for me that really ment either ditching my vinyl, turning my vinyl into digital, and feeding into the upsampler then to the dac, or having a separate pre amp that i have to connect in when i want to play vinyl. None off them appealed to me so here we are.
Maybe in the future things might change but my vivaldi stack is certainly not going anywhere as it is my end game 1st source. But my vinyl is also high up there, and i dont want to lose that either.
My tape deck i can do without as it simply cannot record to the same level, even at elcaset standard which is higher than any normal cassette can do.
So a bit stuck really but if you can run without a pre amp it’s certainly the way to go, and the best way to really hear what your dcs dac can do, as any pre amp will change the way it sounds, some much more than others, but you may prefer it or not, you just need to try for yourself
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Looks very impressive, have fun!
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