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chebby said:
I posted a hurry...I certainly meant it only in the context of the Naim Nait family.
I remember all too well the chronological order of the British Integrated amp; I am after all, nearly as old as you are! 🙂
The Nait was often seen by HiFi Mags back then, as the king of the budget amp. I appreciated its strengths but preferred the A60 (and bought one, which I still have).
I'm not sure the following models would cost cheaper than £300, but these are my prefered budget amplifiers:
- Cyrus 2
- NAD 3020
- Naim Nait 1 and Nait 2
- Pioneer A400
- Musical Fidelity A1
- Creek CAS4040
Anyway, the above mentioned models were not that famous in other countries, like Japan. During 80 and 90's, the best budget amplifiers were
- Cyrus 2
- NAD 3020
- Naim Nait 1 and Nait 2
- Pioneer A400
- Musical Fidelity A1
- Creek CAS4040
Anyway, the above mentioned models were not that famous in other countries, like Japan. During 80 and 90's, the best budget amplifiers were
tonky wrote:
moon wrote:
So far we have the
Creek CAS 4040
Pioneer A400
NAD 3020
NAD 320
AND the A and R Cambridge A60
didnt you say the A30
I did - but such is the fame of the A60 you knew what I meant.
I was having a "senior moment" which doesn't bode well when I'm only 57!
The A60 was the amp which got me to appreciate good quality equipment. I remember taking it to a friend and swapped it into his system. The superiority of the sound was far greater than chalk and cheese! His wife was dumbfounded at the difference.
He had a more expensive system and all he could say was " I don't like it Tonky - there's far too much ambience!"
If you loved ambience - you loved the A30 - I mean A60!
moon wrote:
So far we have the
Creek CAS 4040
Pioneer A400
NAD 3020
NAD 320
AND the A and R Cambridge A60
didnt you say the A30
I did - but such is the fame of the A60 you knew what I meant.
I was having a "senior moment" which doesn't bode well when I'm only 57!
The A60 was the amp which got me to appreciate good quality equipment. I remember taking it to a friend and swapped it into his system. The superiority of the sound was far greater than chalk and cheese! His wife was dumbfounded at the difference.
He had a more expensive system and all he could say was " I don't like it Tonky - there's far too much ambience!"
If you loved ambience - you loved the A30 - I mean A60!
ok revised listing
Audiolab 8000A
Creek CAS 4040
Pioneer A400
NAD 3020
Musical Fidelity A1
A & R A60 ......
Denon PMA250 SE
Sansui AU17
Naim Nait.
One space up for grabs...... NAD320 Gone
Audiolab 8000A
Creek CAS 4040
Pioneer A400
NAD 3020
Musical Fidelity A1
A & R A60 ......
Denon PMA250 SE
Sansui AU17
Naim Nait.
One space up for grabs...... NAD320 Gone
With the Dentons, about £80 all in, but both ex display in Comet, Shrewsbury in September ish 1983. Well under the threshold, and sonically probably too, the 3130 ate it for lunch in one mouthful without belching
The Garrard added another £50 but it was brand new:
The Garrard added another £50 but it was brand new:
moon said:SteveR750 said:One of these then:
cost new?
Nah, that's such a good list you need something more exotic, like that Inca Tech Claymore, or even the classic Cyrus 2.
CnoEvil said:moon said:SteveR750 said:One of these then:
cost new?
Nah, that's such a good list you need something more exotic, like that Inca Tech Claymore, or even the classic Cyrus 2.
Hey, there is nothing wrong with a Ford Escort OK? 🙂
SteveR750 said:CnoEvil said:moon said:SteveR750 said:One of these then:
cost new?
Nah, that's such a good list you need something more exotic, like that Inca Tech Claymore, or even the classic Cyrus 2.
Hey, there is nothing wrong with a Ford Escort OK? 🙂
Agreed......provided it's an RS 2000. >)
I wonder why the Nytech CA 252 wasn't mentioned even once :quest:
IMHO affordable competition for the Naim Nait... and all the other amps mentioned here.
IMHO affordable competition for the Naim Nait... and all the other amps mentioned here.
AnalogEars said:I wonder why the Nytech CA 252 wasn't mentioned even once :quest:
IMHO affordable competition for the Naim Nait... and all the other amps mentioned here.
Good Grief! I haven't thought about that amp in years. Nice catch.
CnoEvil said:
It's been returned after a week's extensive listening. My opinion is that The new Primare is well worth the £2100 asking price!
The level of detail is stunning - translates into a huge soundstage where instruments or particular sounds could be easily picked out such as a guitarist lightly tapping on their guitar. Instument timbre added to the sound. I heard it up against a McIntosh 275 on its return - as good as the valve amp was (it has what I would call a "Big" sound with planty of bass into a pair of SF Cremonas - preamp was a Primare i32 feed with a AR CDP) had the Primare sounding less active in the lower octaves but more to my taste. I found the same at home against the Restek. However, the Primare's bass has a vice-like grip which keeps that end very tight - perfect for a suspended wooden floor with my neighbours livingroom below me! So the bass end lacks bloom - some may call the sound "dry". My Totem Arros were singing!
The midrange is very insightful & very clean! The Restek sounds distorted by comparison. The treble is also clean & avoids any hint of stridency or sibilance. Again the level of detail is amazing. the overall sound was noticeably free of artefacts. Importantly, the sound I was getting had my feet tapping & playing song after song or symphony after chamber piece. You do notice recording quality with some pop material sounding harsh at times or thin but it didn't have me wishing for less detail just better recordings.
I'm glad the Restek is still a very good amplifier & the sound from my M-DAC contributes massively to my system but the new Primare is something a little bit special & I do miss its grin factor!
I am very grateful to Karma AV for arranging this loan. I'm contracting at the moment with next week being idle so parting with £2k would be a little foolhardy until I'm earning again overwise I'd buy one in black like a shot when available.
As an aside, the Sansui AU217 was to be replaced with the original audiolab 8000A - I sold the latter after one week & returned to the 217. I eventually bought a Linx Quasar integrated (£500 ~25yrs ago) which beat everything else I heard into a cocked hat with a comfortable margin.
In my house at the moment. In my chronological order of purchase
An original A and R Cambridge A30 with 2pin din speaker plugs and 5 pin din input connectors - sounding very euphonic but hums and is a bit crackly.
A Mission Cyrus 2 with shorted out output transistors (courtesy of my daughter)
A Pioneer A400 - still superb. (preowned 40£)
A Rega Brio 3 - working very nicely.(preowned 40£)
And my current fave - a Cambridge 840A v2 -oodles of clear spacious power!
Shall I open a hifi museum!
tonky
An original A and R Cambridge A30 with 2pin din speaker plugs and 5 pin din input connectors - sounding very euphonic but hums and is a bit crackly.
A Mission Cyrus 2 with shorted out output transistors (courtesy of my daughter)
A Pioneer A400 - still superb. (preowned 40£)
A Rega Brio 3 - working very nicely.(preowned 40£)
And my current fave - a Cambridge 840A v2 -oodles of clear spacious power!
Shall I open a hifi museum!
tonky
busb said:
Thank you for the interesting and informative reply.
IMO. You did exactly the right thing in comparing it to something very different (McIntosh + SF), to make sure of your decision.
What did you think of the Cremonas and did you hear them with the Primare?
Cheers
Cno
CnoEvil said:
I did indeed listen to the Cremonas through the Primare. They have the authority that my Arros only hint at. Hardly surprising considering their design & size. They sounded very good though the A Research CDP was 2nd hand, needed a good service & if balanced outputs were available, Chord ChameleonPlus ICs were used. I found a borrowed set of no-name XLRs sounded marginly better than my own Chord C+ did between my M-DAC & A34.2.
I invited a couple of friends round for a listen. The owner of the Restek thought the level of detail was stunning as was the sheer cleaness of the music. Another friend who rarely buys anying new commented on the clarity & what that brought to the sound - spine-tingling! Much to my surprise, he thought the Primare was worth the money.
I read up on class D amplification - I now have some idea how it works. I mused whether or not I wanted an amplifier that cut, sliced then filtered out the out-of-band chopping frequency until I remembered what an ADC then DAC did! Class D will catch on if only for its lower power consumption - Primare have proved to me that the technology works wonderfully when it comes to SQ. Being Primare, the build quality was up there & light at 12kg boxed - I had to carry it on the train from Oxford!
Another aspect of the A34.2's sound was that the delivery sounded so effortless - solo vocals, mass voices, orchestras, synths, guitars, triangles, woodwins, drums, you name them, all had an extra dimension. If you don't mind being startled from time to time, this amp delivers IMO - it's no slouch. I was able to listen to the Primare in Oxford Audio at higher volumes than I dare to back home. I could carry on a conversation with my GF at higher volumes than I'm used to (she likes it & wants me to buy one)!
I also thought it important to listen to another power amp at a price well above the Primare.
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