carl

I remember Audio Note Ongakus. 12W valve amp, IIRC. I think they did an energizer for headphones as well for about 8k.

If MDF is such a wonderful material for loudspeakers, why aren't wooden musical instruments (e.g. guitars) made out of MDF?

PS: what's the difference between MDF and chipboard?

[Edited by carl - 10/9/2002 11:02:17 AM]

Adam M

Just bought a supercap for £1100 so chuffed had to tell people who might understand what the hell I am talking about.

Trout?

TelBoy

I understand m8, though i don't have Naim now. Started out with a little Nait3 amp many years ago.

Only downside with Naim is that it only tends to sound it's best with other Naim equipment, and the cable connections are usually different from everyone else's.

But still a top choice - i know a guy with £'000s of Naim hardware, i haven't heard it but would assume it's not too shabby...

ProperCharlie

I auditioned naim against meridian about a year ago. for me the meridian gear was slightly better, but there wasn't much in it. I preferred the simplicity of use of the naim gear (the meridian is a bit of a pig with sub menus etc, have to keep refering to the manual!)

anyway - happy listening.

and the best thing is that they don't need new sets of tyres every 8000 miles

Charlie.

pacenote

Have used Naim equipment for many years - excellent kit. Currently have Aro on LP12/72Pre/Hicap/250Amp/SBL's, only problem there is always an upgrade waiting for your cash, bit like mods to the car Currently looking at replacing 72Pre with 82 and maybe supercap

Rob FTM

Just the one Supercap? Cheapskate!

Didn't fancy saving for a nice 552/500 then?!

Rob

Currently lining up some SL2s

Adam M

am running planar 3/cdx/82/supercap (now)/snaxo/hicap/180/180/credos and love it.

Just sold a nat 02 which I paid 600 for 3 years ago for £880 which funded the supercap.

Havent heard supercap yet as it is sitting in a box next to me, but excited to get home!

am thinking speakers, power supply for cd player and possibly 52 eventually, but my power amps are not really up to the job, thing is my room is too small to warrant the speaker upgrade which would require the amp upgrade.

As it stands I am happy. thankfully naim holds its value incredibly so there is never any need to buy new. there is a massively thriving second hand market too!

carl

Wot colour's your Planar 3? They used to do a really nice lilac one

Of course you really need an LP12 variant, or a PT Anniversary. Do they still make Roksan Touraj Moghaddams?

Adam M

am a minimalist. mine is black. never use it though so am going to sell it and put cdx on top shelf, making room for a power supply for it.

carl

Wot's a CDX? Bear in mind I haven't bought any audio in 10 years -- they used to do a CDS (two box) and a CDI (one box, half the price).

Still, we're moving house soon and redecorating the new one. I'm trying to persuade the missus that my black Tannoys won't go with the decor. Do they still make MA Studio 20s? Failing that, a pair of Ruarks in walnut I reckon.

Adam M

cdx was unitl new shape came out the equivalnet of cdi. now replaced by cdx2.

ruarks are lovely speakers.

always been a big fan.

but am a diehard naim o phile and the sound is exactly to my taste hence naim speakers too.

TelBoy

Carl, big thumbs-up for Ruark, being an Equinox owner myself!

Local company too (Southend). Bleddy nice blokes too.


Damn, damn, damn. Have i just agreed on something with you??!!

carl

Maybe not -- I looked at their website and not only do they not do the burr walnut finish, some of their stuff is full of bloody drive units! Templars with the gently sloping front panels and a pair of drive units looked a lot better

Back to the MAs I think

TelBoy

Don't be daft. Get a pair of Solstices and don't look back....

joni

I bought a Nait 1 at a boot sale about ten years ago for £80. It became surplus to requirements (or so I thought) five years later and gave it to my brother. Having spent 20 times that since on amplification alone , I can honestly say the Naim was the most involving, bullet proof piece of kit I ever had.

beemerboy

hi there guys, quality audio gear!!! what a thread!!

i have a naim integrated amp with a rega turntable and mission 700 speakers,
however, i dont think it compares with my Acoustic Research amp and AR18LS speakers.

couple with moster cable, this takes some beating.

i think the naim stuff comes into its own with the nait amp/pre-amp combination and a linn sondek LP12!!!

ahh bliss.

BB

Adam M

linn sondek?


hmmmm.

I went to univerisyt with the most beautiful girl by the name of sara tiefenbrun, daughter of ivor, the man who created the LP12.

Have to sasy, I prefer the simplicity of the rega myself, but then have never been a big vinyl fan as I am too young really to appreciate it.

Have heard a linn cd12 which in my opinion comes close.

it is upsettign that a £200 turntable can blow a £2500 cd player out of the water, but wait until I get my power supply for the cd player. Should make some difference.

have to agree on ruark solstices. lovely unit and dyn drivers! mmmmmm.

still a die hard naim man me, so I would rather have a set of 6 grand NBLs or possibly some piano wood finish DBLs although I dont have a town large enough to fit them in!

hades

Not a Naim owner - ATC amps and NVA CD70 (not many of them about). However, I have to join in the pro Ruark theme, as another very happy Equinoxe owner (the later ones with silver wire too ). I would have loved the Solstices, or better still the Excaliburs, but need to upgrade to a larger house first!

zoog

michelle orbe SE/origin live silver taper/ortofon rohman

michelle delphini mark2 phonostage + audio note M1 remote pre + audio note conquest monoblocs

audiophysic spark 3's.

auidio note silver inters and cables

i auditioned the linn and basically it hasn't kept upo with more modern desgns, great in its day, a legend.

Naim amps are very clean, amongdt the top solid states imho

carl

Had a look round the Monitor Audio and Ruark websites. Is it me, or does anyone else object to paying £x,000 for a pair of speakers made from MDF? That's the same stuff that MFI furniture is made from. Do any speaker manufacturers sell speakers with pukka wooden cabinets (I thought MA owned a cabinet-makers -- most speaker manufacturers outsource this bit)? What did they make loudspeakers from before they invented MDF?

ProperCharlie

MDF is thought to be a better material that solid wood for speaker cabinets, as it has better damping/less resonant properties. Most decent speakers are made from MDF and then veneered with real wood to look better. I only remember one obscure italian manufacturer using solid wood. Others have tried concrete and high tech polymer compounds as well. Personnaly, a decent gauge of MDF is fine by me. Cheap speakers are made from chipboard covered in vinyl.

Charlie.

Adam M

have heard some concrete speakers.

very odd, and for want of a better word, less "woody" sounding.

Didnt like them at all.

MDF is the leading material.

I used to object to Naim dbls (12,000) containing low tolerance mordaunt short speakers which cost bugger all to buy separately, but you are always payign for the r and d, and the design, which once finished doesnt seem all that, but is the fruit of thousands of hours.


Audio note monoblocks? bloody 'ell, we have some die hard enthusiasts on here!

didnt they make a power amp once called an ongaku? £72,000 last time I looked.

If you are talking hifi, the man to speak to is Branko from audio freaks. Hate to admit it but he knows his hifi and his music. Much respect for a concert pianist.

He made me laugh once when I mentioned my naim audio penchant. I believe his reply was (cant emphasize accent) "that would be great if the world were flat!" - really made me smile!

ProperCharlie

a fecking guitar is *supposed* to resonate, innit? That's how it makes the noise! Resonation in a speaker cabinet adds 'colouration' which detracts from the purity of the sound generated by the speaker cone.

MDF = mdeium density fibreboard. it is uniform fibrous material compressed into a board. Chipboard is mushed up offcuts of wood losely glued together. Go to a hardware shop and you will find that one is a lot dearer than the other. That's not to say I would prefer my kitchen table to be made out of MDF. a nice bit of oak or elm will do for that.

pacenote

Audio Note Ongaku - although only £50,000 when I remember it, obviously gone up a bit.

I have'nt heard the term Naim audio = Flat earth for a while, takes me back to when I started buying this kit and always used to crop up in discussions about which is better equipment to have - bit like the my car is better than yours etc. Still as most of my kit is Naim guess that makes me a fully signed up member of flat earth society.

I have strayed from Naim amplification once to Krell, now that was impressive, the only problem was the amp needed to be left switched on otherwise if you turned it off it would cool down and would need several hours to warm up again (the amp only used to sound good when it was hot enough to use as a toaster).

ProperCharlie

pace - don't you leave your naim gear switched on all the time? I leave the meridian power amp on (the rest of the kit has a standby mode), it doesn't get all that warm although sometimes it starts humming a bit. I had this with the last large capacitor power amp I had - is it dirty mains or something? anyway - off switches are purely for when you go away on holiday IMO.

carl

Yeah, right. That's why some audiophiles (particularly those who wrote for 'Hi Fi News and Record Review') used to recommend removing the acoustic wadding from loudspeakers. Speakers are supposed to resonate, otherwise you'd just bolt the drive units to a solid plate. That's how stuff like bass reflex works, and quarter-wave folded pipes.

ProperCharlie

carl - i don't particularly want to get into an argument about this but as far as i am aware the 'ideal' speaker cabinet is one that's acoustically inert. If you knock on a cabinet with your knuckles and it echos or vibrates, this would mean that it's poorly engineered. there are various ways of improving the bass response of speakers, like transimssion line designs, tuned ports etc. I don't know enough about it to give a proper answer but i am sure that this is different from the actual structure of the cabinet resonating. if you would like to believe otherwise, fair enough.

Charlie.

pacenote

Charlie

I usually leave Hicap on and switch 250 on abit before listening to it, however I have left Amps on all the time but wifey usually turns them off !
Don't like leaving them on (or even connected to mains)when possiblity of thunderstorms - had lightning strike once which wrecked power amp and speaker drive units.

ProperCharlie

I never heard of lightning blowing up hi-fi before. I will bear this in mind for future bad weather! Did it strike the house or a nearby electricity pilon or something?

Cheers,

Charlie.

pacenote

charlie - it struck very close to house and basically fried a number of electronic things plugged into mains (obviously speakers were'nt - just got to them thro power amp) anyway provided good excuse to upgrade