As we are about to enter the 5th month of the year, it seems the right time to launch the second WHBANK (Who hasn’t bought any new kit) thread.
As before, the reasons for the thread are the same; basically, a place to celebrate sticking with what you have.
Below is a slightly updated version of the original first post of the 2025 thread.
We always have threads about people buying kit, whether new or new to them, upgrading, moving sideways or to a lower box number.
So far in 2026, I haven’t bought any hi-fi. Of course, I have bought some music as usual; however, most of my disposable income has gone towards the garden, and I am discovering this is nearly as expensive as buying Naim boxes. The system is sounding great. I was tempted by a bargain pair of nearly new ATC SCM 50s, but decided to stick with my current 40s. So at the moment, I am still happy to be a “stick with what I have got " person.
Who else is in this position?
Or are you sticking with your current set-up for another reason?
I’ve bough nothing this year. My Atom HE and active PMCs are excellent, sound wonderful and fit the space discreetly. I e had the speakers for over three years now; they spend their first 18 months passive and were then upgraded to active. Last summer I improved the networking, with Chord Shawline and two English Electric filters. Since then I’ve had no thoughts of changing anything and never think about the system when listening to music. I’ve been discovering lots of new jazz on Qobuz, and have bought quite a few albums on Bandcamp.
No new black boxes here. I have recently acquired a Naim lavender signal cable that was missing from the streamer I bought last summer. It is a financial downgrade from the Chord Anthem cable it replaced, which I should send to fleebay to make it a zero net spend this year. I have my NAP300 in the queue to be serviced as it is 17 years old. I would rather do that than spend big on NC NAP250 or NAP350 at the moment because of the uncertainty in the financial markets.
Totally agree, the idea of a physical connection with what you are listening to -seems somehow (and I struggle to explain it ) important - especially with vinyl.
It’s one of the real pleasures of the Nait 50 (it’s tactile feel) and one of the things I dislike about my ND5XS2 (no knobs, no display) .
Both sound very good, but one gives me the extra pleasure of the sense of touch .
I should be able to say the same, but had to swap out the Core for a ROON Nucleus. Same network problems as my NDX2 & ND5 XS2.
C’est la Vie. Hopefully next year
I haven’t bought anything for about a year. I have a 272 with XPS. It’s doubtful that I will get a capital sanction from my better half for any spend, but I’m not clear what would be next. I’m tempted by the active route as I have PMCs - then I could ditch all my naim (old chrome bumper power amp) and, funds permitting, get new streamer / pre amp. But which ones? Starts getting v expensive. Just getting a new 222 with 300 seems to be new for old, I’d want something better if I go down this route. It’s probably all academic anyway!!
Quite frankly I did not. I had it in the front of my QB8. I much prefer having a PL there as well. More PRaT and as many details and nuances. Wall socket however has long been changed to FT-SDS Gold from Rhodium.
