I’ve
dropped in on a few threads recently about how I ended up
downsizing/downgrading my old system and swapping to a Naim Uniti and the Fact
8’s. I thought I’d write a few words about that journey for anyone who
might be interested.
The
heart of my old system was DNM amplification; a 3C Six pre amp and PA2B
monoblocs. I purchased these directly from Denis Morecroft and was lucky
enough to spend time at his home where he allowed me an extended demo and
talked passionately about the engineering principles behind his designs.
The
sound these little acrylic boxes make is nothing short of staggering – they are
so clean and fast (without being at all bright) everything else you listen to
after that sounds like it’s stuck in treacle. I’d read and heard a lot
about DNM and they certainly lived up to the hype. They remain the best
amplification system I’ve ever heard.
The
downside of the DNM amps was a simple one – it comprised of six boxes.
Coupled to the Naim DAC and Olive 4HD front end I was awash with boxes, power
cables, interconnects, speaker cables and racks (carrying the Harbeth P3ESR’s I
had at the time). I could literally not accommodate the system in my main
living space and it was housed in one of the spare room’s in my house.
While this afforded its own benefits from a set up point of view, I was making
hardly any use of it. In a way, I almost came to resent using it.
The
‘final straw’ that convinced me to have a complete overhaul (and re-think not
only my system but also they way in which I listened to my music) was
frustration with the Olive. Don’t get me wrong, nice idea, well put
together, sounded great – but I just couldn’t get on with the UI and
other…‘features’.
I
considered a number of possibilities to reduce the box count (my primary
objective). The Devialet D Premier was high on the list (before I had to
buy my now ex-girlfriend out of the house!) but I would still have needed a
front end to feed it (another box or two).
In
the end I decided to (re) rip all of my CD’s to a Synology NAS drive using
dBpoweramp. I’d also be able to drop the hi-def files onto the drive too
– the ability to manage and play back this content was important to maintain.
I figured that if I wanted to achieve my primary objective I was looking for a
single-box solution – one mains lead, a network connection and speaker cables;
you can’t get simpler than that.
The
Uniti was the ‘obvious’ candidate given my previous experience with their
DAC. I traded in all my kit and within a few weeks had the Uniti and the
PMC’s running in my living room. The iStream app is a delight to use but
the really interesting thing (to me anyway!) is how my listening habits and ‘feeling’
towards the system have changed.
The
simple act of bringing the system into my main living space means I’m using it
far more frequently than I ever used to and I’m listening to albums I probably
haven’t played in years. While the Uniti and PMC’s can’t match the
quality of my old system I am more than happy to suffer that loss (and it is
only minor) the benefits of a useable, user friendly and simple system more
than outweigh the negatives.
Lottery
win notwithstanding, I can’t see any real reason to go back to a multi-box
system.