Conference hips::uk_audioo

298.0. "Naim CD Player" by SKIWI::EATON (Marketing - the rubber meets the sky) Fri Jul 26 1991 01:39

    Heard the Naim CD player for the first time last week. A friend of
    mine who wholesales HiFi invited me down to a store late Friday
    afternoon. What I was listening to was a full blown Naim system

    Linn LP12/Armageddon/Aro/Troika
    Naim 52 Pre-amp
    Naim 135 Monoblocks
    Naim SBL Active with Naim cable.

    Also a Arcam 170/Deltec PDMII

    Description

    The Naim CD player is a 2-box unit but, in keeping with Naims
    thoughts on separate power supplies, the power supplies are in a
    separate box with the transport and D/A housed in the main unit. The
    player is a top-loading design with an acrylic plate covering the CD
    which is held down by a small but strong magnet. The transport is
    well damped, the plate holding the disk and laser assembly being
    well sprung. The player comes with a separte remote, much the same as
    Naim issues with the NAC52 pre-amp (why can't they do a Quad (or
    Linn?!?) and make one unit to caontrol everything ?

    Also begs the question of upgrading the player in future. It would be
    difficult to use it as a separate transport me-thinks...


    Sound

    Naims CD player sounds good. It has a level of clarity and detail
    that one would expect from Naim (and CD). Nice detail in the
    lower/mid base area. Overall though I wasn't as excited by the sound
    as I should have been (for $10,000 NZ). Demoed it against an Arcam
    170/Deltec PDMII, and it clearly won the comparision, being more
    alive and involved, and with greater "faithfullness" where the Arcam
    would seem to lose it's way.

    The dealer dem'ed the CD against the LP12 and sat back with a smug
    expression on his face. The "LP is better than CD" look. Now, don't
    get me wrong, I believe that LP is generally better sounding than CD,
    and I've yet to hear a CD player that sounds better than my LP
    system, but it clearly wasn't the case here on this system - and I
    said so. Well, all hell broke loose - dealer going on about timing
    etc. etc... but the simple fact of the matter was that the Naim CD
    player was giving a hell of a lot more detail in the mid to bass area
    while the LP12/Armageddon was sounding smudged and woollen. Overall I
    still preferred the "sound" and involvement that the LP12 was giving,
    but told the dealer that I thought his LP12 was sick.

    Next day (Saturday) was invited down again and I offered to bring
    down my LP12/Ekos/Lingo/AT-OC9 front-end.

    Setup this time was the Naim CD player, the shops
    LP12/Armageddon/ARO/Troika, my LP12/Lingo/Ekos/OC9 and my friends
    LP12/Valhalla/Ittok/Karma as well as the Arcam 170/Deltec PDMII.

    Things were getting interesting....

    Well the outcome was that in the opinion of most of the people
    present the LP12/Ittok sounded better than the LP12/Armageddon and
    the dealer may be convinced that his LP12 needs a good tune-up. The
    Arcam vs Naim comparison was the same as the night before. The
    LP12/Lingo vs Naim comparision was interesting. The lack of clarity
    and detail which I had noted with the dealers LP12/Armageddon was
    replaced by the detail and dynamics that the Lingo gives with an
    extra "wallop" and "emotion" that the CD player missed. Overall
    characterisation of the Naim CD player was that it was subjectively
    dry in it's presentation, but beautifully detailed. It was also not
    as "involving" in it's presentation.

    Sorry but more detailed comparisions would need a longer listening
    session. A few hours is not enough to give this full justice.

    Interesting about the dealer though. He turned out to be just another
    HiFi bigot who passionately believed in a Name (pun intended) and who
    had forgotten how to listen. For exapmle, we got out some Exposure
    gear (XI,XII,Super VIII). His idea of listening to these through the
    Arcam player was to turn the volume up close to full, put on a
    complicated CD track and listen for 5 seconds (no kidding !). After 5
    seconds a look of horror would cross his face. This look was changed
    only when he was listening to his beloved LP12 which in my opinion
    was sick. Funny really (except that if got me really mad at the
    time).

    Nice note, Dave. I only heard the Naim CD player very briefly, and was
    decidedly underwhelmed.  Nice, better than many, but �3000? Give me a
    break. I have been told that it sounds better using the Naim direct
    input cards, not the CD input cards which are optimised for the general
    run of players; in other words, unless you have a Naim preamp, forget
    it.
    
    To be honest, I preferred my Micromega at one sixth the price, and not
    just because it was mine!
    
    %RATHOLE-PENDING...
    Your comments about the LP12/Armageddon/ARO/Troika vs
    LP12/Valhalla/Ittok/<which?> reflect something I heard when I compared
    the ARO to the Ekos, Ittok and Akito on a Valhalla LP12. The Akito
    wiped the floor with the ARO, at one third the price; the ARO seemed
    very detailed and smooth, and made you want to try different tracks to
    find out what you could hear you hadn't heard before; the Akito (with
    just a K5) made you just want to listen to the end of side, every time.
    A predictable and perhaps boring result, but inescapable.
    
    Dave

    I tend to agree with what Dave Sallitt said
    
    	NAIM = You have just *GOT TO HEAR* this.
    	LINN = Listen to the music.
    
    It's a difference of approach in the two companies I personaly like the
    Linn but I know people (We'll my brother) who like the Naim sound.
    
    	Rik
    
    PS I still haven't heard the Naim CD player.
    
    PPS Ittok = It's OK
    	Sara  = Name of IT's daughter.
    
    P4S How much is an old LK-1 worth ?

    If I was IT's daughter (which I'm glad I'm not) I think i'd change my
    name !!!! The thought of sharing the same name as THAT "speaker"
    
    "ESL63" Ives :-)

    What wrong with being named after a Scottish speaker ?
    
    	P. M. S. Isobarik

RE: 298.3 by   "ESL63" Ives

Is that what your Dad called you when he had quads ?

Yes, interesting about the CD cards in the NAC52. I hadn't realised that there
were special Naim-issue cards and so the comparision between the Naim CD player
and the Arcam/PDM II involved the Arcam going through the AUX input. The Naim
CD player sounded smoother than the Arcam which betrayed the "CD-ragged-edge"
in comparison.

Dealer siad that the Naim CD card had the tops rolled off a few dB. Putting the
Arcam through the Naim board certainly made it sound better.

Anyone know more about what the board is doing ?