A couple of days ago a NAP250DR found its way onto the base of the Fraim…
…mint 3 year old example with full fat Powerline
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Dipping toe in vinyl again . Sounds great . Dug out stuff I have listened to for 20 years
Congratulations!
Just seen your system . Looks awesome . Naughty pete tried and failed . Good one you . One life …one life
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I don’t know if you’ve seen it yet. There is already a thread about this switch (Click here).. Happy new year everybody!
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Wow, congratulations - it’s a great time to get one here and will last a lifetime as you say. It will be a very big step up, but it also takes a very long time to fully burn in.
What’s happened about the V2’s then……
I’ve got them on demo still. I really like the way they sound - and my wife even said that she thought the Janis Joplin album of hers we were listening to was a different recording as it sounded a lot better.
Unfortunately she’s still not keen on the black monolith aspect to them, so in looking for something in a wood veneer, ideally front ported. There are a couple of options still on the table, so I’ll be doing something on that front soon
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Uhm yes it did 
I was fascinated by the possibility one could add a source to an amplifier. That’s a new one on me. But I have way too many sources for that to be an option. I even got one balanced XLR socket on the preamp and I’ve had to decide between my Berkeley DAC or my Ayre SACD player. Actually, it was a no-brainer to choose the DAC because I’m really into streaming via Roon.
I’m like you, I’m not into tube rolling. I plan to stick with the stock tubes. I’m eager to see how long they last. Luxman claims they will last a longer time and I sure hope so as it becomes expensive to be replacing tubes on a too regular basis. My system is playing pretty much every day.
They really do sound that wonderful. And even better, they do suit my speakers to perfection. I have Quad ESL-63 electrostatic speakers and I’ve tried them with solid state gear and I always return to tubes.
You have more resistant fortitude than I because once I heard them I just couldn’t resist them. Even when faced with their way over budget cost.
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Luxman claim the EL-84 output tubes on the SQ-N150 should go for 10 years as they push them so lightly. One of mine did suddenly go with a flash after about 3.5 years.
While you can just go online and order a new matched set. Luxman strongly recommend getting the amp back to the mothership for a full set of not just matched but Luxman spec tubes. Apparently, they reject between 40% and 60% of all the tubes they get as not being within their spec.
Cost-wise, getting them changed at the factory was about 3x the cost of buying something off Amazon (which I know from experience, dead tubes and problem tubes are utterly rife), which seemed reasonable. They swapped them all out in 10 days and charged me $400. I just consider it the cost of running tubes.
Your information that Luxman fails so many tubes is bad news - even shocking! Nevertheless, I dont plan to send mine back to the factory. I am acquainted with a fellow who has a tube business and I feel I can trust him to make sure I have good tubes.
But good news that they are used lightly and therefore last a long time. I play mine almost every day of the year!
I think Naim reject the same sort of percentage of components like caps and DAC chips. There is working to spec, and working to Luxman/Naim spec.
I posted earlier in this thread that I bought a Luxman CL-38uC tube preamplifier and a Luxman MQ-88uC tube amplifier. I also had my Bang & Olufsen turntable restored to an “almost new” condition which was very costly so I regard it as new.
But that is not all I bought in 2023! I completely forgot that I had my Nakamichi DR-1 tape cassette player restored and I also bought an Ayre DX-5 DSD SACD Player. I got really lucky with the Ayre. It is an older product normally only available used. When I talked to Ayre about buying one they told me there was a DX-5 at the factory that was brand new except for one brief demo. Ayre then upgraded it to the DSD version and I eagerly took delivery for what was essentially a brand new product. I am thrilled with it.
Here is the Ayre:
And here is the Nakamichi
In summary, 2023 was a very expensive audio year for me but a very rewarding one.
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I recently bought AQ Diamond USB and AQ Diamond Ethernet for my Auralic Aries G2.2 streamer. I found it took about 200 hours to get right. Sounds great now!
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Max,
Following your little conversation above, I just changed from Powerline to Wi-Fi Extender.
It is an improvement, many thanks.
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I’m glad you’re happy! But it wasn’t actually my idea…
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Puritan PSM156, just warming up now. Initial impressions are of a lift to the quality of vocals. Caroline Polachek’s voice on “Sunset” from her latest album “Desire, I want to turn into you” is projected into my room and it sounds as if I’ve gone from standing in the doorway of the venue to closer to the performance.
(pic borrowed from the internet)
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A good purchase 
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