Naim Audio - Threat or menace?


I spent an hour or so this past weekend at Promusica in Chicago. I had a great time listening to some entry level Naim gear on some Sonus Fabor Cremona's. It was great to listen to some of Ken Christiansen's recordings and talk to him about Naim gear. For those of you who don't know, Ken records for the Naim audio label in addition to selling Naim gear out of Promusica. Ken's recordings are fantastic, using two microphone direct to two track Nagra tape. They really seem to capture the dynamics of the live performance. They sounded fantastic on the Naim gear as well.

I am a newbie to Naim audio but not to hi-fi. I have recently sold off my electronics (BAT, Theta) for financial/logistical resasons and am looking to start a new. I have been reading too much about BAT, Rowland, Musical Fidelity, VAC, Unison and Ayre gear. My preliminary scanning of the online reviews suggests that Naim gear is polarizing (people either love or hate). I haven't however found a good discussion of why.

So anyone out there who has an opinion on Naim gear...house sound, relative value or anything else is welcome to pipe in. If you have had a negative experience with Naim and have an alternative suggestion, feel free to emote.

Statements like component X "blows away" Naim X are generally not useful to me. I know I have to listen to the gear in my house, on my speakers...

The new gear will be powering North Creek Rhythm Revelator Signature speakers. I listen mainly to CD, rock and jazz. My room is acoustically treated but my electricity is not.

Thanks in advance.

-Karl
128x128karl_desch

Showing 1 response by chazzbo

Cult gear if their ever was.One of the "one brand" brands like Audionote,Linnand Rega on cheap side where you can get everything from soup to nuts or at least amps and wires.Many think that beacuse you have this option you can go with gear wheere everything is "voiced togther".I think if you find a daler who has it you are going to laso have other gear to match it up to.I think that like some of those one brtand names i mentioned you can be payinmg na premium but for some it's worth it.I know a guy who liked concept so much even whgen he needed to downsize he went from very expensive Audio Note to very Modest Rega and felt whole systems where everything was thier best and biuilt to be used together he got a great sound.But compare it to others.If into vinyl and like tubes I would have added highly rated Aesthetix gear to that above list.Listen for the Naim and get sense of how you would use it either one piece say amp or as system and then compare it with other brands you like.
I have become very intrigued with TACT and now DEQX and mention them in lmost every post I answer.The NHT Xd system with it's little satelites blew away everybody at CES and won best of show many places because of technology gotten beter from both digital amps and digital speaker and room correction.Digital used to sound very bad but now I think think they finally sound good wioth names like PS Audio and Bel Canto or analgue Nuforce folks have ben raving about which has class D like high speed switching.Supposed to have major bang for buck.The little NHT used digital amps but more important it used tech from a company called DEQX.I know buddy who used DEQX to make crummy 20 year old Dahlquist 20's sound as good as to a pair of Stereopile class A $10K speakers he had on hand.The DEQX is like $3,600 and has speaker corection,room correction (no more tube traps and foam tiles for this guy) and can be ordered with or without pre-amp.I am a tube and LP guy but think just like CD's finally started to sound good (players and software) about 10 years ago these products I mentioned are the beginning of the future and will be ubiquitous in the future.It's another wrinkle to add to the story.But again go listen to Naim.Not my cup of tea for the buck involved but look at devotee's in earlier posts.Like a pod born alien you may be one of them.
Chazzbo