What was the last bit of gear you bought in 2022?

Hi-Fi Corner
1227

Strictly-speaking, the newest purchase has been a pair of Neat Xplorers. That may look odd, as I already own a pair of B&W 804D3s, but all my recent purchases are driven by Good News…

  1. I have just retired.
  2. I have new (or nearly new) additions to my main hi-fi in Wimbledon.
  3. I have a holiday home in Tasmania - I have seen December to March in London many times…
  4. I needed to buy a new hi-fi for the house down there.

For the house in Tasmania, I had imagined buying a Nova and pair of the excellent Neat Xplorer speakers. While the excellent Bob Surgeoner at Neat deserves much support, this choice is entirely driven by how much music and how much fun the Naim/ Neat combination offers. However, that combination means £10K of outlay for good (but not audibly as good as it can be) kit, with Qobuz & Tidal streaming services as the only sources.

I can imagine that my internet service there should be good, but that any failures may take rather longer to fix than here. I am a bit nervous of finding that we have no music for days because the internet is glitchy and everything goes through the Nova and the Naim app. In addition, I already have a Naim 82 pre-amp not being used, as I bought an old Naim 52 pre-amp (looks the same but sounded even better, i.e. less) a few years ago, and am aware that eBay here is a good way to cut costs for most of this stuff. Time for Plan B.

eBay has now provided a Naim Core with 2TB of SSD storage. Either the Naim Core NAS (once filled with all my CDs) or the Naim CDS2 CD player (plus attendant power supply box and the piles of CDs) will stay in Wimbledon, with the other being shipped to Tas. I’d rather ship the NAS and keep the CD player in situ (not least because of the sheer volume of CDs involved), but can reverse that if the news on internet robustness and speed at my Tasmanian house is not ideal.

eBay has also provided a Naim 250 power amp and a Hicap power supply for the pre-amp, just like the ones I have in Wimbledon, plus a nearly new Naim ND5 XS2. Finally, Grahams in Islington have offered nearly-new Xplorers at a compelling discount. All of the older boxes (whether new to me or not) have been serviced in the last couple of years - from previous experience, this makes a big difference even if nothing was about to fail.

Whether I ship the Core or the CDS2, I will have multiple boxes instead of one in Tasmania. On the other hand, I will have audibly better kit for less money than the single box would have cost new. It’s a bit hobby-ist, but there are worse ones.

Of course all that mean for now that the visible change at home is the appearance of the Core on my existing HNE table.

I have just joined this community - this is my first post, so please tell me if I am not doing any of this correctly.

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1228

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1229

I struggle to understand your real question. Sorry, I am french and you give a lot of informations .
If I understand, you have a lot of boxes in Winbledon, and you don’t know what to keep or transfer to Tasmania, or eventually keep all and buy a Nova/ speakers for your Tas cottage .

Do you need both the Ndx2 and Cds2 ?
Maybe keep the Ndx2 in one house and put the Cds2 in another, adding a Supernait 2 for example ?

1230

Good choice of music!

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1231

The n-SUB was primarily intended to be used with n-SATS so integration has been so much more easier than it otherwise would of been, i’m guessing here. In my situation it has luckily turned out to be a literally plonk ‘n’ play scenario, within reason of course. I’m very lucky to have an easy room to deal with, acoustically speaking. Oh and the results, without even beginning to tweak anything thus far? Fantastic!

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1232

To Crispy Duck, thanks. I think it’s FZ’s finest hour (high praise indeed).

I don’t expect pure SQ to be as good from digital sources as from my LP12, but the gap need not be large (or even large enough to make up for the annoying clicks and wear on my old LPs). For whatever reason, Hot Rats is not like that - the original LP sounds fantastic, but no digital version I have heard come s close to doing it justice.

Of all my LPs, this is the one with the biggest gap between LP and digital SQ. Mind you, it was preceded on the LP12 by Mayall’s Beano album, and that probably comes second.

Nick

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1233

It’s probably my error. I didn’t think I needed a question!

The issue of sources in Tasmania will be driven by how good the internet (and hence Qobuz and Tidal) actually is at my house. If it’s great, the Core and ND5 XS2 will go - if it’s less than great, then the CDS2 (and PS) and ND5 XS2 will go.

In Wimbledon, I use 52/ Supercap/ 250. As mentioned, I now have serviced 82, plus Hicap and 250 on the way from eBay for the Tasmanian house. I would nor expect a Supernait 2 to out-perform that: would you?

Apart from the internet issue, everything looks to be decided. To me, the NDX2 is a great source with Qobuz, but it’s the external PS that really makes it shine. Without it, the NDX2 is better than the ND5 XS2, but I am hoping that the gap between the two no-extra-box options in sound quality doesn’t annoy me.

As it was, the fact i could get an ex-dem ND5 XS2 for less than £2K made my decision for me. If I do find the ND5 XS2 annoyingly inadequate, I will probably be able t sell it and buy and NDX2 instead for the Tasmanian house, but I hope that won’t be necessary.

I don’t know whether any of this will interest anyone, or whether I should have posted it on a ‘new one-box versus old separates’ thread, but I expect that other users will let me know if I am doing this all wrong.

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1234

Glad it’s all worked out Stephen. The n-SUB is an excellent piece of kit.

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1235

Great news, Stephen.

Enjoy.

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1236

The best thing in the picture is not the Naim Hi-Fi, but Hot Rats by Frank Zappa. :blush::heart::+1::+1::+1:
Much respect to you.
I have a friend who lives in Tasmania during the Australian summer months, but goes to Port Douglas, far North Queensland in the Australian winter months.
Anyway, keep up the FZ listening.

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1237

I absolutely love Hot Rats as well but was referring to ‘Black and White’ on the NDX2 !!!

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1238

NoNaim - good decision. I wouldn’t spend their winter in Tasmania either!

Crispy Duck - well spotted. The stream includes their cover of Walk On By, which is wonderful and missing from the LP. That alone (plus laziness) means that it’s a great example of something I’d rather stream than spin.

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1239

The full 6 minute version of Walk on By is magnificent. Brilliant keyboard solo in the middle. What a great band.

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1240

Great band indeed!

Also, am I the only Stranglers fan who thought Hugh Cornwell even cooler after I discovered his first band (at school in 1964) featured Richard Thompson on guitar?

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1241

Walk on By by Isaac Hayes ?

1242

Hello FR. I was referring to the version by the Stranglers, a UK punk band from the late 70’s. The song was originally written back in 1963 and I know has been covered by lots of artists since. I’m not familiar with the version you mention, but will give it a listen.

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1243

That’s a nice, very mellow version of the song. Guaranteed to lower anyones heart rate! :+1::+1:

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1244

I’m still using NACA5 jumpers with WH Phantom cables into my Pro-Ac D2Rs.

Haven’t upgraded the former because… well, surely it can’t make any perceptible difference to SQ. Right? Or at least not much. Or perhaps it could…

Any revelations to report, HH?

1245

Envious of your plan! I’d keep the CD player and CDs here. The CD player is the thing which would potentially suffer in transit. You will probably find the Internet reliability and speed ok but you could always swap it around at a later date if it doesn’t work as planned. Hope it goes well, sounds idyllic! Enjoy! :+1:

1246

I know the Stranglers, had some albums when teenager. But didn’t knew that they made it too. ( sing it).

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