NAD vs. Cambridge Audio

[Anonymous]

Thanks batonwielder. I wish I could know you a day ago (i.e. before my purchase today) - but I really like the sound from Rega during the audition. They also try to sell me a Rega 35th Anniversary Apollo but that was too expensive. Anyway, I have to wish for the best ~ I live in Canada and servicing Rega is very inconvenient. I heard that there is only 1 service center in Quebec while I am in Toronto.

batonwielder:

By the way, you should find a better placement for your speakers.

Not only does it benefit from free space, the vibration cause by such a position will make the choice of your CD player quite irrelevant.

They are good speakers. Your choice of amplification seems to be right on the money.

What do you suggest regarding placement? Do you think I should not put them on shelf? They are now 12cm away from the wall.

I could hardly find good speaker stands for these huge & bulky Paradigm speakers. The manufacturer suggests 29" speaker stands but the salesperson suggested me to get a 33" high stand - because my sitting position is 4 feet away and with my chair my ear will be 46" from the ground. Anyway, it gets too complicated and my wife was worried if kids will get injured if they bump into speaker stand thus gave up.

Appreciated if I can get further comments from you.

** Also please kindly advice on how to run-in the Rega Apollo and NAD Amp. The salesperson suggested me to run both for a continuous 100 hours - but my colleague disagreed. My colleague said running a CD player for such long hours will damage the laser lens. He suggested to maintain normal use of CD player (i.e. a few hours per day) and give it 2-3 months to run in. For Amp, I can plugin in my ipod to the MP input and let it run for 2-3 days.

Thanks again!

 

[batonwielder]

Don't let my pessimism dampen your enjoyment. I'm quite familiar with the Paradigm speakers, and they are quite an overachiever. Perfect for the kind of music you listen to.

Can you tell me what your room dimension is?

It seems in the picture that the speakers are on the same shelf as the CD player is and certainly right up against the rear wall.

12 cm just won't cut it. Try 12 inches or more and on dedicated stands.

Ideally speaking, you should try and get the tweeter up to ear level, so either you will have to get a lower chair or find stands that are high enough. If I were you, I would do whatever is cheaper.

Running the CD player continuously will not damage the laser lens. On the other hand, you don't need to run anything in.

Just have the system powered up most of the time so that they are always ready to be played. They will sound better after weeks or even months of normal use, and you will certainly appreciate it more and more, slowly over a longer period of time.

I believe any system you buy should sound great and be to your liking from the moment you open the box. If it sounds better after a certain period of time, it will be a nice surprise. More often than not, the running in process involves one's adjustment to the sound of the new system and justification for having spent a large amount of money.

Hope this helps.

p.s. don't get sucked into buying expensive cables either!

 

[Anonymous]

On a brighter note, my 10 year old Rega Planet is still going strong.

 

[batonwielder]

I've just read the entire thread over.

I can see why you liked the Apollo. It has a bright sound with tight bass. If you found your system to be muddy, it might have helped quite a bit.

However, I'm convinced the muddy sound is largely due to placement.

Get sturdy and fillable stands and have the speakers toe in towards you, so you will get less side reflections.

 

[matthewpiano]

The Apollo is an excellent machine. Just be patient when you load a disc and wait until it has initialised properly. As long as you do that you should be absolutely fine. The longer initialisation period is one of the reasons for the Apollo's superb performance because its taking the time to analyse the inidividual disc.

I fully agree with batonwielder about your speaker placement. His suggestions will make a huge difference.

Congratulations, and I hope your new set-up gives you lots of pleasure.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the comment (especially batonwielder).

My room (in basement) size is 10 x 15 feet. Yes, the speakers are on the shelf against the back wall with 4 inches to breathe. I work in this room most evenings, so this is sort of my home office (and entertainment room ~ where I can stay away from the kids). Since most of the time I am sitting at my computer desk, I measured my ear level at my computer chair (which is slighter higher than any sofa).

Initially I like the Paradigm Studio very much, but now it seems that the bass is a little to strong. What do you say? Is Paradigm better for home theater than music? As you might know, I choose Rega mainly because of its nice vocal.

Would you suggest me to get a speaker stand? Here is the room layout (sorry for my bad artistic skills)

Thanks again!

 

[batonwielder]

Nice drawing, man.

This is a tricky setup. I see what you are trying to do with it.

There are three ways to go about this.

1. Bass control: The Paradigm's are dynamic speakers and need to be treated as such. Put them on dedicated stands along the long wall on the other side of the bookshelves and move your desk accordingly. This will also allow more symmetrical placement in regard to side reflections as well.

2. Rid of the LCD screen: Get a laptop and a comfy armchair facing the CD shelf. Place the speakers accordingly.

3. New speakers: You might consider getting speakers that actually benefit from boundary reinforcement. You can get a killer price on the Harbeth HL P3es2's at the moment because of 1. state of economy 2. favorable CDN-GBP rate 3. this model's getting replaced. Can't beat them on vocals. You just need some strong negotiation skills.

I vote for No.3 if you can return the Apollo and put the money on the Harbeth's.

Best would be Nos.1, 2, and 3 combined! Get the Harbeth's and place them on the long wall and listen all day long in your new armchair with the laptop within reach.

There's no easy way around this, but it seems that you have a dedicated room, and it can sound awesome!

Hope this helps...

 

[Anonymous]

Having had both the Cambridge 640 C VC and the Nad 565BEE all i can say is the Canbridge offers more for your money!

 

[manicm]

I have a feeling the new CA 650/550 series amps are gonna wipe the floor with the NADS. If they are anywhere near good I'm flogging my Arcam Solo Mini now!

 

[matthewpiano]

I don't think the CA stuff will 'wipe the floor' with the NAD gear. I love the neutral, accurate sound of my CA kit but I would say that CA is different to, rather than intrinsically better than, NAD.

What NAD really lack is an integrated to compete with the 740 or 840 amps by CA. At the sub £500 end they compete very well on their own terms.

 

[nads]

It all depends on what you are looking for.

When my old NAD was due for replacemnt i auditioned lots of Amps. and i came away with a similar feel as i did 20 odd years ago.

I bought NAD over CA again.

have fun.

 

[batonwielder]

batonwielder:
I just couldn't justify the price I would have to pay for such a headache when my Made in China CD player has been playing without a sneeze for some time.

Spoke too soon. My Made in China CD player's laser just died. I'm taking CD player recommendations.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like a nice system wow! Congrats

What about changing the layout and moving the bookcase on the 15ft wall over, then moving the desk and chair over to that wall facing into the room and putting your hifi on the opposite long wall with the framed certificates?

I have some Soundstyle Z2s filled with atabites and think they are very good vfm and sound great to me. My speakers are larger than the ones on your shelf so these stands should be fine and are even more stable once filled. You could use small bits of blue tac on the bottoms of the speakers.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again everyone.

batonwielder - the return policy is no exchange/refund

Now I can only wish my Apollo is bug-free, and keep fingers crossed. I do admit that I like the sound so far. I plan to upgrade speakers but probably next year (will move this Paradigm Studio to Home Theater).Would want to have floorstand speakers by then.

Inter84 - Yes, it is possible to move the room by 90 degree. However, there are some questions/concerns:

1. How far should the left & right speakers be apart from each other?

2. If the speakers are at the long walls, I will be much closer to the speakers (say 4 feet away). I haven't taken into consideration how far should the speakers be away from the wall behind.

IF I keep the same setting/layout, instead, I place two speakerstands in front of the black shelf (i.e. where I placed the Amp and CD player), will it be better?

 

[batonwielder]

Inter 84:
What about changing the layout and moving the bookcase on the 15ft wall over, then moving the desk and chair over to that wall facing into the room and putting your hifi on the opposite long wall with the framed certificates?

That was my suggestion No.1, basically.

You will be somewhat closer to the speakers, but if you give them 2 feet off the side and a foot off the rear in the each corner, you will have an amazing and wide soundstage. They might be wide enough to get past the LCD screen as well.

Keeping the same layout and adding stands will only be a marginal improvement. Sidewall affects bass just as much.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again batonwielder.

I think here is the 3 steps I would take -

1. Get a pair of 29" target speaker stands (hard to find good 33" - the top plate is so small that I am afraid my huge Paradigms will fall)

2. Move everything 90 degree (as also suggested by Inter84) this summer

3. Laptop instead of desktop ~ hmm... there is a trade off here. I am not too keen in computer hardware. Prior to getting this new system, I liked listening to itunes in my computer (i had about 80GB of music) and lots of video clips etc. I am thinking about this...

a). laptop connecting to a external harddisk (for music & video storage)

b). find a good DAC that I can connect PC -> DAC -> NAD 355 -> Paradigm Speakers.

 

[batonwielder]

Sounds good, man.

If you go the comfy chair-laptop route you might not need such tall stands, so take that into consideration.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again, man.

There are some issues after debating with my wife. I am coming up with this short term plan. Please let me know which one works better in terms of sound.

Plan 1 - less hassle for now. I will buy 29" speakerstand like these one:
http://www.speakerstandsonline.com/VTI-VSP-VI1044.html

Plan 2 - More hassle, since I will be shifting things (except the 3 units not movable) 90 degree left. Not sure if it will be too pack for me (until I get rid of the desk & chair). I think I can use 24" speaker stand in this case.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd go with plan 2 as there doesn't seem to be much to move. You were also worried about the kids knocking into the stands? This may happen more with plan 1, (right speaker) not ideal close to the door-way. Have you already got the stands?

 

[batonwielder]

Plan 2 is excellent. Reversing the listening and speaker position would be absolutely perfect. You can even put the components between the bookshelves and the cd rack. It will be neatly out of sight and easier for you to change discs.

Don't worry about knocking speakers over. There are ways to couple the speaker to the stand and even benefit sonically.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much, folks! I will go with plan#2 then. How far should the speakers be apart from each other? I have bought 2 new Kimber speaker wires last week (5 feet long each) and hopefully I don't have to buy new ones

Inter84, I haven't finalized on speaker stands yet. Thinking about this one - http://www.speakerstandsonline.com/VTI-VSP-VI1044.html - any comments? For plan 2, I may go for 24 or 29 inch.

batonwielder - i could not reverse the the listening/speaker position, because the fuse etc were between the CD shelves and bookshelfs (although in wall). Unless I place the mini-shelf (CDP & AMP) right besides the door. Will negotiate with my wife regarding the possibility to move the bookshelf (big project though ~ since two large bookshelves mounted together).

Thanks again!

 

[batonwielder]

Oh, I didn't mean to move the bookshelves. Leave them exactly where they are, but place the speakers on either side. I think it will look much more organized like that. The distance between the speakers is just fine the way you have it on the diagram.

VTI makes good stands, but isn't the top plate a little too small?

Also, didn't I tell you not to spend money on expensive cables?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again batonwieder. Now I see what you meant.

Re: speaker wires - I bought on the same day (same store) I bought my Rega Apollo. Wish I could know you earlier

Re: speaker stand top plate - at first I looked at local stores and they rarely have anything above 24" tall. Then I consider Target speakerstands but the top plate was even smaller ~ 6" x 6". Now the VTI top plate is 6" x 8.5". Hope to find larger plate to fit my huge (especially depth) Paradigm.