Hi all
My better half & I had of a couple of days in Oxford for her birthday. We called in on Oxford Audio Consultants to audition a possible replacement for my curent Primare i21. Took Loop Guru's Lupus Ineteruptus & Dutoit's Tchaikovshy/Mendlelssohn's violin concertos to listen to.
CDP was by Naim & speakers were Sonus Faber Liuto floorstanders. The 1st amp was MF's M3i. Nice sound & easy on the ears. Next was a Super Nait. Great imaging & a little faster sound - not bad at all. The real surprise was Primare's newish class D i32. I thought it was stunningly good. Timing was spot-on, bottom end extremely well controlled & astonishing detail. Treble was not grainy or fatiguing.
Having read WHF's review that gave it 3 out of 5, I was expecting a degree of harshness. Another dealer opined that it was better than their well-received i31 that I never heard. I cannot say if the review sample WHF had was faulty, an early sample or if they just got it wrong but to my ears, it sounded really engaging & musical.
My experience reminded me of the importance of listening & having confidence in one's own ears. The i32 jumps past Roksan's Caspian M2 on my shortlist.
One aspect that interested me was how the remote volume worked on each model. The M3i incremented the volume from zero to low levels quite finely then became too coarse at medium levels. The super Nait was the most consistent throught it range whereas the i32's 1st step was quite audiable as was a click when set back to zero. The Primare was the only one that didn't use a stepper motor on an analogue dual potentiometer. The i32 looked like it was a sealed box or unventilated at least & was still quite heavy.
Regards
My better half & I had of a couple of days in Oxford for her birthday. We called in on Oxford Audio Consultants to audition a possible replacement for my curent Primare i21. Took Loop Guru's Lupus Ineteruptus & Dutoit's Tchaikovshy/Mendlelssohn's violin concertos to listen to.
CDP was by Naim & speakers were Sonus Faber Liuto floorstanders. The 1st amp was MF's M3i. Nice sound & easy on the ears. Next was a Super Nait. Great imaging & a little faster sound - not bad at all. The real surprise was Primare's newish class D i32. I thought it was stunningly good. Timing was spot-on, bottom end extremely well controlled & astonishing detail. Treble was not grainy or fatiguing.
Having read WHF's review that gave it 3 out of 5, I was expecting a degree of harshness. Another dealer opined that it was better than their well-received i31 that I never heard. I cannot say if the review sample WHF had was faulty, an early sample or if they just got it wrong but to my ears, it sounded really engaging & musical.
My experience reminded me of the importance of listening & having confidence in one's own ears. The i32 jumps past Roksan's Caspian M2 on my shortlist.
One aspect that interested me was how the remote volume worked on each model. The M3i incremented the volume from zero to low levels quite finely then became too coarse at medium levels. The super Nait was the most consistent throught it range whereas the i32's 1st step was quite audiable as was a click when set back to zero. The Primare was the only one that didn't use a stepper motor on an analogue dual potentiometer. The i32 looked like it was a sealed box or unventilated at least & was still quite heavy.
Regards
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