I had a deep love affair with Naim, as many British hifi-enthusiasts do.
Naim have a very cleverly marketed upgrade path where power supplies and separate components can be upgraded to the next up the chain. It is an addictive process. However I lost that love for Naim and realised the hype that was the ’upgrade path’ when I discovered that a 2 box Class A Vitus set-up cost much less than a top-of-the-range 6 box Naim System and sounded significantly better.
I disagree with the dismissal of B&W in some of these posts. The lower end of their range may be bright sounding, but the 800 series, when integrated into powerful quality amplification, sound absolutely sublime with absolutely no 'edginess'. The top of that range, the 800 D3, is one of the best-priced high-end speakers in the market, competing with Wilsons and their ilk at far higher prices.
Naim have a very cleverly marketed upgrade path where power supplies and separate components can be upgraded to the next up the chain. It is an addictive process. However I lost that love for Naim and realised the hype that was the ’upgrade path’ when I discovered that a 2 box Class A Vitus set-up cost much less than a top-of-the-range 6 box Naim System and sounded significantly better.
I disagree with the dismissal of B&W in some of these posts. The lower end of their range may be bright sounding, but the 800 series, when integrated into powerful quality amplification, sound absolutely sublime with absolutely no 'edginess'. The top of that range, the 800 D3, is one of the best-priced high-end speakers in the market, competing with Wilsons and their ilk at far higher prices.