A Week with the new kit

True Blue

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Oct 18, 2008
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Well, almost a week ago, the Naim Nait XS went and in it's place arrived the NAC202/NAP 200 pre/power combo.

Remembering how pleased I was with the XS and my beloved Saturn, the demo really needed to knock my socks off and it did!! wiped the floor with the Supernait as well.

After the initial grinning from ear to ear like a cheshire cat and "approaching" the wife to grovel, thought the novelty might wear off after a fews days.

Not so, I have never listened to as many CD's / Lp's / Napster / Sonos / Radio. Its done the job nicely.

Power, precision and poise, fantastic seperation and detail. Occasionally very unforgiving to certain recordings so a few CD's willl be seeing the part ex shop.

The nicest thing is the fact that I have heard how dramatically the sound changes with the addition of a Hi Cap 2, more depth, even more detail. Something to look forwards to around XMAS. In the meantime "may" be tempted by a NAPSC but so so so happy with the system, its like someone has cleared the dirt from the Cd's and removed the cotton wool from the microphones.

All of the above was summarised by the wife saying "it's louder than the last one".......................................some you win....................

No point to the post apart from I cannot believe the difference going to pre/power has made for me
 

John Duncan

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chebby

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Jun 2, 2008
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True Blue:Occasionally very unforgiving to certain recordings so a few CD's willl be seeing the part ex shop.

Hopefully no favourites (of yours or the wife's).

I would be unhappy to have the system reduce the choice of what music I could comfortably play by making some recordings that are not 'up to snuff' unlistenable.

What you describe would decimate my Reggae collection, slice out half of my cheesey old 60s & 70s pop favourites and sink a whole raft of lovely old jazz CDs.

Maybe you should hang on to those CDs, rip them to iTunes (with error correction on) and see if they are more palatable via your DAC than on the CD player. (Or try them again when you have made other upgrades like a Naim DAC or CD player.)

In my experiance upgrading has usually made older/rougher recordings more playable, especially lots of 1930s and 1940s jazz that can sound thin and 'weedy' but snapped into life when I got the Naim kit. (It didn't suddenly eliminate the hiss, or sound cleaner, or grow new bass, but simply became more involving because the Naim seemed to dig into the music more.)

I am suprised that upgrading to a higher level of Naim gear makes anything less listenable. I would expect the opposite. (Actually I would expect any significant upgrade from any brand - not just Naim - to get more out of 'marginal' recordings.)
 

True Blue

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Oct 18, 2008
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Certain recordings can seem a bit too forward / harsh. Not bad, but by comparison to the better recordings.........

Apparently reading up on the NAPSC (bargain at £285) it calms down this well known tendancy of the 202.

When I demo'd with the addition of the hi cap it took the whole package to a new level.

Sat listening to absolutely loads of music at the moment, detail and separation is amazing, as good as the XS was is sounds very muddy and mushy in comparison.

The system has not lost its musicality, its just the good recordings are now really really exceptional.
 

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