Allegedly.
Today marks the arrival of another 300dr, my third and hopefully final attempt at enjoying a fault-free amp. In an optimistic gesture Iāve painstakingly organised the cables out-back and begin the slow process of letting it settle in. On the upside, having stripped down and rebuilt so many times, Iāve worked out how to do it properly and quickly. Naim and my dealer (Audio T) have been fantastic throughout the last 5 months. Hopefully for all of our sakeās this one will hang around for many years to come.
Have you considered getting naim to hire you as some sort of quality control? Really hope everything goes smoothly this time.
Chord Shawline 2x RCA to DIN5 cable to replace the Flashback cable Iād been using to connect up my NAIT 50.
Flashback would have made some significant sales with the Nait 50
A great shame from all angles
(Iām going for Chord Epic on my CD5si to my Nait 50)
Puritan 156 is up and running. Cannot hear any downside with it yet fully aware of the story about these products and naim limiting dynamics and such. Not saying itās a keeper already since I need to make a switch back in a week or so but for now I can say noise level dropped significantly, details come through, transformer hum more or less vanished compared to my former DC blocker, more air around instruments, easier on the ears for example. I also have the Puritan Ultimate power cord for evaluation but only C19 connector so from wall to 156. Thatās the most soft power cable Iāve used. Super flexible like thereās nothing in it. Will evaluate those more later in comparison to Powerline.
Iāll pay attention to dynamics though. Any proposals on tracks that makes it easier to identify issues with that specifically?
Depends what sort of music you like, but I always have a run through Propellerheads
Decksandrumsandrockandroll to test out dynamics
Interesting to hear your thoughts and in your particular quite good system. I also remember the background noise level felt like virtually plummet with the 156 (actually thought while the 136 was a bit noisier, it felt a bit livelier too?), so I think in this respect most agree the 156 does a remarkable job.
I would say just play your favourite music? (Blackbird in so many versions could be quite good too!:))
I had one of those from the late 80s, lovely deck. Enjoy.
How bright are the white leds?
Quite bright. Mine are behind a cabinet so canāt see them at night
You can always try it on the low power units only like the source and preamp and leave the 500PS naked into the mains.
But even if it sucks the dynamics, depending on how intrusive the hum is, may be the lesser of two evils.
Naimās advice on conditioners is a bit misunderstood in my opinion. Itās less, āthou shall not,ā and more āif it aināt broke donāt fix itā¦ but if it is brokeā¦ā.
If you do root cause the hum though (DC offset is usually not the issue), you may be able to find something that targets just that issue.
My fourth pair of PMC 23s!
I had Twenty.23s which I sold and upgraded to Twenty5.23s in 2017. They were damaged in transit and destroyed and insurance supplied a replacement pair.
Then I was looking to scratch a strong JBL itch for the kitchen/dining system. But funds are really tight right now. Then someone else was getting shot of another dinged pair of Twenty5.23s for barely more than the postage which I thought Iād nab for the spare drive units and crossovers.
The damage is cosmetic so Iāll mullet them into a TEAC power amp for the kitchen and scratch the JBL itch another day. Undoubtedly they are better than the L82 MkII I coveted but the JBLs probably work better with the cheap TEAC power amp. But itās hard to argue with āfreeā when wages arenāt going up.
ah ok - my sockets are visible so thatās a no from me!
Iāve just got myself a Powerline off tābay for a not horrendous price once it was shipped to NZ and I paid the GST. I already had one on the 552 DR, so this one has gone on the 300 DR. I switched out the Naim socket plug for an NZ-spec PDL 940 tapon, which allows for the preferred configuration of star-wired plug stack (with the power amp plugging into the wall socket, the pre-amp plugged into this, and the source plugged in last.
Does it sound better? I believe so - maybe a bit more open and lively, but thatās probably my confirmation bias. I had an IFI DC Blocker plugged into the 300DR, which I removed at the same time, ignoring my āchange one thing at a time and testā philosophy.
Iāll work out over the coming week whether I prefer the sound from the speakers more than the dislike of the hum from the 300 transformer.
Has it scratched my itch to spend money on something? Yep, for the moment. Although my dealer has just got the first shipment of NZ/AUS plug Chord Powerhaus
ah indeed! sometimes the obvious answer alludes me!