What was the last bit of gear you bought in 2023?

The dealer made me do it, honest……

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Dipping my toe into the streaming world with a Cambridge Audio CXN V2.

Must get the duster out at some point :grin:

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Don’t they always?? :joy:

If the supernait has troubles then I guess a 110 would struggle. I think my wife would shriek if she saw them in our living room system, even though they go right up against the wall. A real selling point but where to find a decent pair of sought after Naim speakers

Hi,

it’s not that the SN has troubles driving them, but an approximate calculation showed me that the amp has a damping factor of about 70, which is not very high but it’s probably higher than other older Naim amps’, which are less ‘damped’.

So since the IBLs have a 5-inches ‘woofer’ in acoustic suspension - which is ‘damped’ in its own I’d say - the SN simply tries to control a driver that has no real need to be controlled…

This is my amateur interpretation of how it’s working. I suspect that some older Naim amp with a higher output impedance, hence a lower DF, would extract a more immediate, ‘rich’ presentation out of them.

Please true experts correct me.
M.

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So you are saying that transients are overdamped resulting in a sluggish response with a supernait? So possibly the older amps work much better with them because of lower damping factors, is that what you mean? In that they have better impedance matching? Or am I thinking wrong here?

I don’t know how your figure of 70 which is an impedance ratio compares to the traditional definition of a damping factor (0:oscillator, 1:critical damping) with 0.7071 having a transient response with a slight overshoot in a second order system response with a certain natural frequency and bandwidth


A pair of Rel T/5x subwoofers bought at a great price . Just getting them dialled in and the difference in SQ over the whole spectrum is great.

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So, can I ask how the SN3 as pre-amp working out?
Am I right in assuming that there is no power cord required for the SN3 as the HiCap runs the pre-amp
and the signal to the 250 is provided from Socket 1 on the HiCap?

If I’m not mistaken, to the left is a John Austin CD chest? If so, a blast from the past.

As you have a pair of them, once you get it dialed in you should notice a big improvement to soundstage. That’s one of the best reasons to get a stereo pair of subs. I’ve been using them for years and upgraded to REL S/510s in January.

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I’ve used a formula I found on Wikipedia, assuming a load impedance of 8 Ohms, using the SN’s output impedance which is 0.12Ohm and calculating the QED speaker wire’s resistance/mt., which I also know.

This led me to roughly 70 as damping factor.
I have no idea of the parameters you quoted, sorry…
M.

I think you’ll need the power chord as the hicap feeds the 24v supply to the audio circuit but you’ll still need to power the volume and other bits …

A HiCap only powers the preamp (and connected functions such as the AV2 socket for a phono stage), but the internal PSU still powers the power amp and the logic board, display etc.

Signal to the 250 must be taken from one of the HC’s 4-pin DIN socket, usually the closest to the 5-pin DIN one.

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I wish my ex had had anny interest in listening to music. Might not be my ex. Of course maybe I should have had interest in shopping for shoes. :high_heel:

A pair of these

To go under a pair of these

Which I note have a nice round s/no!

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What? How did that XPS DR get in there? It’s a mystery I tell you… :sunglasses: (And the isoacoustic oreas)

(Temporary stacking arrangements I promise… that’s going to take a little time to sort out!)

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Does on my 1995 52 as well - new narcom is a nice Remote!

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Totally agree. I’m running REL S/510s and when I put them in I was stunned how much the sound quality improved, not just in the bass, as well as the wider soundstage. Driving them with 250.2 until I upgraded to 350.

I bought one of these 3 weeks ago. So I am also running it in. Impressed with what it has done so far. Tempted to ground it either to a Groundmaster City or Groundmaster with external ground rod. Have you done this?

Great! No I have not done such yet but have plans doing so :+1: Let me know if you do it :blush: