Ordered some Superlumina speaker cable today and have been quoted 13 - 16 weeks delivery. Had to check I hadn’t ordered Witchhat Spectre by mistake !
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Seems that Naim have a supply problem with SL speaker cable. I had a similar estimate.
Spent some of this morning listening to my system with the Musicworks G4 mains block. Had to power everything down to change to a demo unit-of the new Musicworks G5 mains block.
Sat with my wife and she said this sounds much better. Gives a lovely natural flow to the music, everything in the mix more easy to follow. The new block is about double the height of the G4, otherwise looks much the same. A definite keeper.
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Thrax ares with built in streamer/dac. To say I am stunned would be an understatement!
£15k including an r2r dac based on the £24k maximus and a mm/mc phono stage.
Anyone looking at spending £17k plus on a 222/300/250 really needs to listen to one!
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I had a 9" tonearm and a 12" tonearm on my turntable. I recently sold the 9" and bought another 12" to match. Now my two Lyra Atlas Lambda cartridges (SL + Mono) are mounted on equivalent tonearms.
I am also auditioning a new clamp, the Clearaudio Statement Ebony.
Here it is playing the stereo arm:
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Interesting, did you listen to the Enyo?
I did. I felt the ares had more control and drive, but still an almost valve like warmth/bloom. I guess that is the class A aspect. I have yet to try my other dacs (Brinkmann nyquist and T&A dac 200) into it so not sure how much of that signature is down to the internal dac. One thing that is completely absent though is any sense of digital glare!
The other thing that put me of the enyo slightly is the tubes from Russian fighter jets, I worry they may become hard to obtain😯
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At least they will still be working, after a nuclear EMP blast 
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Now the Super Nait 3 has been in a few days I’m finding it much louder and in your face than the XS2 so much so that I checked the input sensitivity against the XS2 and apparently they are the same.
Is this upfront sound likely to mellow out? I currently only have a tiny volume range before it becomes too much.
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As good as the CD5i is i would think that maybe your SN3 is being less forgiving of it. Yes the SN3 has a more eager, upfront & punchy presentation than a XS 2 so maybe the SN3 is exposing the CD5i’s shortcomings? I’d be looking to upgrade your source component to a CDX 2 or NDX 2 status.
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More money 
at least I saved a lot on the amp and there’s a rather nice CD5 XS up for sale…
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REL T/7x stays in the house after all:
I followed the setup instructions from REL as close as possible, which meant:
- Running in the subwoofer at high volume for a couple hours before attempting any setup
- Revisiting the placement of the speakers! That was a painstaking process (thank God for the ears and patience of my OH
)… I tried to implement the Sumiko Master Speaker Setup process within the limitations of my room. The speakers ended up closer to the side walls and more toed in than before. Acoustically, the bass got tighter and with bigger impact. I have to admit that the top end might have got a bit harsher though, it’s all about fine tuning I suppose. REW measurements don’t show up huge differences, in fact the previous placement seems to have a flatter response. Anyway… - Setting up subwoofer in the following order: phase, placement, toe-in, gain, crossover. Still fine-tuning the gain, and probably keeping it one click higher than the “correct” setting just for the fun of it!
As a final result, I would say that it has integrated quite well, providing extra authority and depth on the sound. I definitely prefer the sound with the REL on than off, so it stays…
Now I need to split the speakon cable and connect the left speaker as well, but I need to get past the barrier of slicing a brand new cable first! 
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A new listening chair and a larger rug.
A second hand model in nice condition. Same as this, but with legs. It is a Visoe 620. Designed by Dieter Rams in 1962
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A preloved Supernait2 replacing my naitxs2. The NDX now has a better partner to dance with 
A first listeningsession shows what the Supernait brings to the party - bigger sound, more control and I find it more easy to follow bas and backing vocals. Early days yet but I like it already. Cheers!
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After a big bunch of listening, I’ve pulled the trigger and bought a pair of FinkTeam Kims They work perfectly in my room (both sonically and (just as importantly) in the views of the aesthetics committee.
I’ve decided to go for the olive finish, which will mean that they need to be special ordered from Germany, but I liked the way that the wood grain was a bit more vibrant. My dealer is letting me hang on to the walnut pair that I’ve been demoing in the meantime.
I was keen on both the PMC Fact.12 and Kudos Titan 606 (or 707), but being unable to demo them at home was a bit of a dealbreaker for me. I had heard so many speakers that sounded fantastic in the demo room but were compromised when I got them home.
I’m stoked - it’s been a long adventure getting to this point.
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Nice one Jono, my dealer raves about them as well. How is the ND555 sounding?
Great service from Real Music too, letting you hold onto to the test pair whilst the special order is made.
Thanks! The ND555 is sounding pretty fantastic. I had a bit of the burn-in up-and-down - one weekend it was sounding a bit dead, and I wasn’t sure about the speakers, but on the following Monday is was sounding amazing again. All in all I’m really happy with the upgrades that I’ve just done.
And yeah, Steve and Chris at RMC have been fantastic as always. Steve has got some Quadraspire floor protectors (I think they are QX7) for me to compare with the Fraim chips that I’ve got at the moment, so I’ll see if I can hear any difference. I’m also interested in trying out some Isoacoustics Gaia feet, as I’ve seen a few comments rating them.
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