Partners for Pro-ac tablette ref 8 signatures?

[admin_exported]

My current system is: nad c320bee, c542 and project debut 3, with pro-ac tablette reference 8 signatures.

The idea was always to upgrade the rest of the system to match the speakers (there was a reason for not doing the source first). 5've now got a budget of approx £2000 for amp, turntable and/or cd player. I will be auditioning naim 5i and cd5i amp/cd and rega p5 and some primare kit, but wondered if there's anything else that would be worth a listen? I don't want to change the overall sound too much, just better quality.

thanks for any advice.

 

[Anonymous]

Word of warning, the Naim sound is rather different to the NAD sound...more upfront, more rapid timing and brighter. I think you will prefer the Primare kit...but who knows! : )

 

[Anonymous]

thanks very much. I'll just have to give it ago. I was going to partner the pro-acs with Linn kit when i still had a huge discount but that never happened. I think the 'upfront and timing' will be good i just want to avoid the harshness of e.g. cyrus with kef speakers. which i couldnt stand.

 

[JoelSim]

My Ref 8s sound wonderful with my Arcam kit. I have some Dali Ikon 6 too which are more mellow, the ProAcs are more involving and pacey.

 

[John Duncan]

Dunno what happened there, lost my post.......user error probably

With that kind of budget you can get some serious kit, and I'd skew towards the amp, as those speakers are wonderful and deserve it. My all-time-coveted amp is Primare - the older a30.1 or the new i30. Pair that with a cd21 and a dealer would probably do the pair for £2k. Best knobs in hifi........

I have a Creek Classic and love it, but haven't been impressed with their more expensive Destiny (relative to cost). The Naim pair look fun as well........

Oh and Joel, I take it back about my CD player........

 

[Thaiman]

Naim should be good! My friend is running SuperNait with the big proAc to a great effect. The Tab ref 8 luckily not fussy about partners or position although a big toe in help sharping up the sound stage. let us know how you get on

 

[gregory]

just a thought but valve amps love proac speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was leaning to the Naim/Primare system as (in a slightly cheeky way) i called pro-ac and asked what they'd suggest... The guy said he couldnt comment as they didnt get to listen to it much but that they use those brands at shows (which i know doesnt mean they're good) and lots of customers apparently use Naim (backed up by my local shop)

I'll be taking up a lot of demo room time before committing though

 

[JoelSim]

Let me know how you get on. They certainly go well wit my Arcam stuff, and would probably be even better with the FMJ range.

 

[Mike_Schmidt]

I just sold my reference 8's which i was running with cyrus, and there was no harshness but I find the cyrus spendor combo dull and boring so there go. What you do want is something that is fast, neutral and smooth in the upper mids. You'll love em with no matter what you put them on. I swapped them out for the Proac d28s and borrowed the spendors and like i said I found that combo lifeless. I would still go the cyrus route

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Mike_Schmidt"]I just sold my reference 8's which i was running with cyrus, and there was no harshness but I find the cyrus spendor combo dull and boring so there go. [/quote]I'm a wee bit confused by the flipping to spendor here, you're saying that cyrus goes well with Pro-ac right?

 

[Mike_Schmidt]

cyrus sounds fantastic on the proac's. Its the speed, detail but ahh I could go on

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there Schimdt

I have a similar set up to yours, I'm
running the Proac Ref 8 sigs in a Cyrus set up, I know what you mean
with the Spendors, I had the S5e's which are a great speaker, you knew
it was a good sound but it never felt that involving. Whereas the
Proac's draw you in.

How are you getting on with the D28's, I'm
just curious, what sort of sound are you getting compared to the
Tablette's as I was thinking of going down the floorstander route.
Any tips on speaker cables, which ones do you use?

 

[Mike_Schmidt]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, but the D28's my god thats all i can say. For a large speaker they come across so delicate and hard when they need to. The bass in these is incredible, though only 75 hours on the reference pound for pound is still unbeatable. At this point my signatures can come across and had me more involved than these...to this point. I have a cd8x with psx Pre X Vs with psx and two smart powers in mono, with cardas golden cross speaker cable and cardas golden reference interconnects with a wireworld electra power cord running all of my stuff. I used the cardas golden ratio for a set up, you cant go wrong. As for the spendors I wasn't sad to see them go, happy actually. The D28's will make a happy listener for a long long time. From Metallica to Hayley Westenra back to Megadeth and then some Tori they dont put a foot wrong!

 

[Anonymous]

I've listened to the D15 which I was impressed with, they had the speed and punch of a small speaker but scale of a floorstander. My only criticism of the Tablette's is that sometimes they can be slightly bass shy, but on most music you don't really notice. But I don't want to stick a subwoofer on the end
Cardas, I've heard of them but we don't really have them in the UK. At the moment I got the system hooked up with Chord Epics and Anthem cables which seem to work well but I wouldn't mind trying out other brands.

If you like the Cyrus sound then I'd recommend upgrading to the DacXP and CDxt transport, which will give you better definition and a more analogue sound.

 

[Anonymous]

Forgot to ask; I'm looking for a new turntable as well (or maybe instead of the cd player), would the Gyro se be a significant improvement over eg the rega p5 (excluding the fact it looks a million times better). I've been told that at the price of the p5, Rega sounds better than pro-ject, is this true? The shop supply both so it's not like they need to put me off a brand they don't stock.
is there anything else i should consider?

 

[Anonymous]

*bump*

Any views on the above?

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Anonymous]

So, I went, saw, and listened.

I've been swaying between wanting the Naim and the Primare since posting this thread so didn't have any bias. Both look nice (well my g/f hates the naim black but she doesn't have to live with it)

Instead of the dealers suggestion of listening to my cd player vs both systems I decided to pick one then compare. other wise I'd have spent more time listening to my kit than theirs!

Started out listening to the Primare cd21 and i21 with pro-ac tr8s which sounded good. I did think that maybe the sound stage wasn't quite as good as at home, but then the speakers were about 6ft appart as opposed to 8ft. Also I thought there was maybe something missing, not quite sure what though.

As soon as the Naim got plugged in (listening to Mozarts Requiem) it was an instant win, more foot tapping etc than with the primare with every disc. Strangely I found that when I eventually switching Naim to the Primare, the difference wasn't as noticable as when switching Primare to Naim.

Finally listened to cd5i Nait 5i compared to NAD c542 and Nait 5i, obviously better, but maybe not as much of an improvement as I expected. Maybe that was down to having already listened hard for an hour or so, or lapsing in concentration because I knew the g/f would be getting annoyed at how long I was taking.
I still bought though, Naim cd5i and Nait 5i to be picked up on wedensday I hope. Given the price hike tomorrow I wasn''t sure how much, If any discount I'd get, so happily settled for both bits the £1,500. Sadly I ran out of time to listen to the Gyro SE, but that may not be a bad thing. at home, Project debut 3 vs c542 I couldn't tell the difference between the cd and vinyl of Tom Waits 'Real Gone' so I'm not sure it's worth having two expensive sources. although I'll still go and try to be convinced.

 

[John Duncan]

In my experience, the Gyro will walk all over the Debut in pure hifi terms, but you may find it a little clinical. I've only ever compared it and a Rega P3 at the same time, and whilst it was clear that the Gyro was a better deck, the Rega was more fun.

 

[Anonymous]

How did it compare to a similar quality cd player? I'm sure it'll beat my project (it should for the price), but isn't vinyl also (mean to be) sound better than cd?

I'm quite tempted to go for the cheaper clearaudio emotion (need a listen first) because it looks good and gets great reviews. £1100 for a turntable is affordable at present, but just way to extravagant I think

 

[John Duncan]

Interesting question. I personally have not really seen what the fuss is about, comparing vinyl to CD, though saying so may bring hoots of derision. By that I mean given a pristine record on a decent deck and a good CD player, there isn't that much in it any more, and that 'pristine' bit is hard to achieve and maintain - I regard a Knosti Disco Antistat as obligatory kit.

Though I'd have a Gyro SE at the drop of a hat, obviously, just from an aesthetics point of view (I have an RPM5).

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"]Interesting question. I personally have not really seen what the fuss is about, comparing vinyl to CD, though saying so may bring hoots of derision. By that I mean given a pristine record on a decent deck and a good CD player, there isn't that much in it any more, and that 'pristine' bit is hard to achieve and maintain - I regard a Knosti Disco Antistat as obligatory kit.

Though I'd have a Gyro SE at the drop of a hat, obviously, just from an aesthetics point of view (I have an RPM5).[/quote]Yes, I love the look and feel of records - the packaging, and the disc and watching it spin, but when I've listened to it I can't honestly say that the debut vs. the c542 or the linn lp12 vs the cd12 or unidisc 1.1 (ie both budget and high end) has made me think its actually a better format. Also some records have had slight scratches appear even though they've only been played once before and that's it, which just makes them less practical.

 

[Anonymous]

I curently have Proac Refernce 8's ( not Signatures ) and I run them with a Naim Nait 5i..........i could not recommend this combination enough. And I agree fully with Thaiman - my Proacs sound best with a good toe-in. I don't think you can go wrong with Naim to be honest, and they are upgradable......

 

[John Duncan]

I agree, it's a more tactile, pleasurable experience, and that's half the attraction of it, but when your 30 quid 180g vinyl import from the States starts to crackle after a couple of plays, even after cleaning and storage in Nagaoka Inner Sleeves, I do wonder a bit, and won't *generally* seek out new vinyl. But when it gives me access to my thousand or so LPs which I don't have on CD, that's a different matter.

 

[Anton90125]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"]Interesting question. I personally have not really seen what the fuss is about, comparing vinyl to CD, though saying so may bring hoots of derision. By that I mean given a pristine record on a decent deck and a good CD player, there isn't that much in it any more, and that 'pristine' bit is hard to achieve and maintain - I regard a Knosti Disco Antistat as obligatory kit.

Though I'd have a Gyro SE at the drop of a hat, obviously, just from an aesthetics point of view (I have an RPM5).[/quote]

This isn't hoot of derision, just a little "ah?" of surprise.

I have found on every occasion that when I have compared CD to LP (not necessarily pristine either), I have always preferred the LP. CD (to me at least) have never come close. This is despite the clicks and pips on the record. I have found the LPs have fundamentally more depth and a feeling of environment while CDs being more 2D. The treble being generally sweeter. Only in the bass dept do I find CD having an edge (albeit small).

Only SACDs IMO come close to LPs and thats only 85-90% close.

CD score for me in the convenience/durability side of things. I always find it annoying that you have to get up and turn the LP over after only 15-20mins just as you have got settled in to listen to the music. Can disrupt the mood a bit.