I only looked at their Media player a bit back out of being what i wanted in that type of thing. The price was high, a brand i learned my lesson years ago with hence never went any further.

I know very little about hifi and was swept along by the hi-fi mags in the 80's and 90s. Every month the same old manufacturers would get the same 5*s and being young, foolish and gullible believed what was written and fell in with the main stream. In hindsight it seems so ridiculous that they were trashing everything from the 70's as archaic and old fashioned, and this new lightweight, soul-less sound was the new way to listen to music. I bought a new ( but cheap) Kenwood amp, prb 40wpc and thought it was the bees-knees, looking back it was horrid, but was sold by the mags and slippery sales staff in my local shop. 

I always lusted after a Naim or LP12, so glad i didn't 

Indeed with 60's derived amplification technology coupled with an appalling 36Khz+/- 3dB bandwidth (not the DR stuff) surprised they sounded as basic as they did.

A while ago I was given a 552/555 and matching psu's to play with, quite shocking average inside given the price.

well i just enjoy the music not bothered about other people`s opinions as they don`t have my ear`s,i used to listen to the electronics many a year ago.changing from mus fid to krell to audio research and mark levinson etc,i just fed the hifi shops money,i should of had a revolving door with the hifi bits and bobs.i pent more time listening to electronics than to the music .i would not say it was better but different,i don`t knock anybody`s system or opinion,because its their ears,a lot of people ive met say can you here this or can you hear that.i myself just enjoy the music,or my lugs may be better than theirs as they are quite large.i used to spend fortunes on system components just to change later on,for a different sort of sound.now I'm not bothered about a drummer sitting six foot in the garden or how big the sound stage is or how much depth there is.as the doobie brothers said listen to the music.

I have re-read my post and it comes across really badly, sorry.

I used to love my Naim stuff (still got a heavily modded CD3.5) when I was much younger and full of testosterone. My tastes seem to change though as I got older and so did my tastes in music. The Naim leading edge sound was just not doing it for me anymore so I started modding them and introduced some Avondale mods and products. That suited me better at the time. Recently discovered another brand of equipment (NVA) and that is replacing most of the Avondale stuff as it more suits where my life , tastes and ears are now.

Naim are successful for good reason but I think we can all do with out the fan boys who shove it done your throat (no one here I might add).

Stu

My post wasn't directed at you, Stu, other than in terms of the "round earth" reference. It was more a response to what I see as a collective "re-writing of history" where Linn and Naim gear was always shite and we were all somehow conned into passing over much better stuff to buy it at the time. Instead, I've come to think of hifi as more of a "fashion":

I've seen old valve amps thrown into skips and selling at boot sales for a fiver when everyone bought tranny amps.

A few years later, I saw their rebirth via The Audio Innovations/Snell pairings. Now tatty Pye Mozarts are going for over a grand and some utter crap is fetching high numbers simply because it's valve. 

I've witnessd good but unfashionable Jap battleship amps sold for peanuts and looked down upon, because everything from Japan was seen as "Jap Crap.

Now we have an equally daft situation where anything retro-looking with big knobs and VU meters is going for daft money. Lots of this stuff was way down the ranges of the makers in its day and is possibly way off spec now anyway. 


I've seen a swing from vinyl beng pronounced as infinitely superior to CD, to people claiming the reverse. I've also seen it pronounced dead several times and yet now some people claim it will see off CD, and it is the latter which is "dead" despite billions of cheap CD's out there.

This whole "flat earth" bashing is another fad. The irony is that the Far East is following a different fashion trend and snapping up our out-of-favour kit like there's no tomorrow. When our fashion tastes come full circle and this stuff becomes cool again, there will be a very expensive "tomorrow" for anyone wanting to buy. If I had the space, I would buy as much flat earth kit as I could and sit on it. I reckon it will outstrip many investments. 

Flat earth kit was never crap and it was also never the *only* way to make good music. It was simply a way that did some things exceptionally well and others badly or perhaps not at all. Nobody should have to find excuses for buying it in the past, nor should they ever have to find other people to blame. Nor do we need smug comments from those who now claim they didn't like flat earth stuff at the time and now see themselves as somehow smarter than others. They weren't smarter and they weren't any more "right" than those who did buy it. They just had different tastes. I like your acknowledgement that your tastes have simply moved on. For anyone lookng for a balance of virtues, your current choice appears to be a sound one. 


I like your "leading edge" description of the Naim sound. It sums up a lot of what you get with old-school Naim. I don't really see the current company or its products as being connected to the products of yesteryear. When JV died, there was a clear movement away from the more "committed" sound and quirkier products. The takeover by Focal has seen them move even further away. I think the name they built during the JV era has stood them in good stead though. I only wish I could feel as excited by their products. 

I have personally gone off Naim. Not knocking anyone who has one of their systems or components.

I’ve never liked their speakers, which to me sound thin and scratchy at best.

Their amps are meh, Exposure have a similar sound, but in my opinion are so much better.

I liked the CD Players, the Naim CDI which was a very competent CD Player, I liked the CDX2 and CDS3, although it wasn’t ever worth 10k which is just taking the proverbial.

The NDX streamer I have recently sold should have been a lot better than it was. My understanding is that Naim have cut costs by putting inferior power supplies in their lesser products. I don’t know how true that is but it would make sense re the NDX. At nearly £4k it should have sounded a lot better and interestingly was bettered by my Cambridge/Beresford combo by quite a large margin which is around 3x less expensive, You are honestly paying for the Naim!

I also think that Naim and Focal are polls apart in terms of sound and really don’t work together well. Focal need a smoother sound

In terms of people, the Naimies and Linnies are the worst, you can’t possibly say that a Naim or Linn component isn’t to your taste, or you believe you’ve heard better.

this is what i like people talking about linn/naim ,they must have a cob on, if they dont like them dont buy them,but thats what made linn/nam famous other people talking about them,who may of tried them once or twice and the start condeming all naim bits and bobs,what i like about it is they can always generate a talking point,which is happening hear.think of the old dear`s who own linn/naim system,you dont hear them slagging off other makes of hifi,maybe thats all they can afford,when hifi shops used to sell naim years ago their proffets margine`s were sky high thats why the shops used to push them,but letts face it linn/naim are still around so they must be doing something right,play music.if people stopped slagging off who or what hifi manafactures and buy some music cd,lp or any sort of music the may enjoy life a little more,the whole point of hifi is listening to music it does matter what format,forum members classics

this is classic mine`s about 40 year old, i have not changed the needle yet still mint ,plays better with jam or chocolate on the records, lowers the wow and flutter,no clicks and i dont need a power supply or even Ankaka battery`s or  special power leads,filter or special hifi stands or cones and you dont need a Koetsu or suppex cartridge s or even a stan dac.it just plays music the way it was recorded