Between my Naim Dynosaurus Streamer and Boulder, not sure I would prefer the later. But would be curious to listen to.
I was looking for a CD player/ transport with a similar form factor as my Lyngdorf TDAI 1120 and found a nice Meridian 208 on ebay.
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That looks lovely. A design classic. I hope it sounds as good as it looks 
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Yes the build quality was really the selling point for me. My old cables had started to fray and look a bit tatty, so I wanted something a little more attractive and durable. These ones are the Avantgarde, which I think is the middle level of three. They are quite thick, about 1.5cm, but as far as flexibility goes they’re pretty easy to work with. My runs don’t go around any tight corners and I suspect they’d not sit so flat then as they don’t really bend, but they flow very easily and tend to do what they’re told easy enough. I think you could pin them back with cable tacks and have no problems at all.
On a side note, I’d love to have had the space for the R3! Room size dictated my speakers, but one day I hope to move up for sure, they look and sound lovely!
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Many thanks for that, it’s really helpful. I’ll be interested to hear how you get on with them - quite a step up from the Phantom one would hope. Did you demo the other two options or just opt for the middle one😀? Apologies for all the questions but there’s not a lot of info about these in the real world.
A Hicap DR and SNAIC4
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ND5 SX2. Worth every penny.
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Well a very kind gentleman from the fishes site dropped this NPX300 round for me this morning. Simply stunned at how the system now sounds… vinyl is my primary source but stream too via Audirvāna.
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I have to admit, really don’t like the look of the new Classic series, compared to the old Classic it just looks cheap and unstylish. (imo)
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Just as well there’s plenty of both to go around and they all sound decent
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Maybe so but now it was the appearance I commented on (and nothing else) and for my part it is significant for the feeling and satisfaction of owning the equipment.
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I also don’t think the NC series is all that compelling stylistically. I haven’t heard it, so can’t comment in that regard, but don’t really plan to either. I’m happy with what I have.
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There probably is an excellent performance/cost reason for it, but that volume knob/pot seems visually uncharacteristically too close to the left edge of the case (IMV). Perhaps a tad smaller in diameter would look better in that location
(little & personal)…
I feel like aesthetic designs do broadly take some sort of cue from the psyche of the country or region they originate in. It’s certainly true of home furnishings where people have a sense of things like Scandinavian design etc. In the case of hifi, I’ve noticed a broad shift over the past twenty years in the designs coming out of the UK that lean towards what I feel is a sort of pessimistic “new brutalism” aesthetic. And I don’t like it.
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Hey FZ, genuinely interesting comment, have you got a few examples of designs that best represent this?
I’ve not thought that deeply about what affects the design but I know that sometimes something just looks inherently right or wrong to me.
Sure. Current Naim, Chord Electronics, Arcam, Cambridge Audio, DCS, the recent Quad stuff, Rega, the PMC Cor.
All very different, but all a bit more brutal than they used to be. As if the national sentiment has steered their design cues somehow.
Oddly enough Cyrus and Audiolab have steered away from this. As have Sugden.
Linn don’t factor in. Their designs evoke nothing at all. They are a blank sheet.
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The only design I don’t like about the NC is the use of the acrylic … it’s magnet to scratches … mine already came with hairline scratches when I peeled off the protection stickers. The scratches are already there when they put on the stickers. Even if one uses the finest brushes to clean the surface, there will be accumulated scratches as time passes. Bad choices of material usage… naim should look into this . If they prefer glossy finishes , aluminium can also achieve that !!
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Cheers, thanks for taking the time, really interesting, got me now thinking about the subconscious effect my two most recent purchases have on me.
Kef R3 Meta and Guru 12, I know you are citing electronics examples but my mind has wandered / wondered now to loudspeakers.
Interestingly, I pondered the question of loudspeakers. I simply can’t make the same associations. Possibly because there is less freedom in the design because everything is audible. I dunno.
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Well I suppose there is less freedom given the restrictions in the form of a loudspeaker being a direct effect on its function.
But in line with your thoughts my Guru’s and Kef’s potentially play out to your thoughts.
One Scandinavian in origin and a sort of calm, understated confident design. The other quite brutal and imposing, visually dominant.