Which pocket money upgrade? Or.......

[chebby]

You may be right messiah.

Of course there will not be an awful lot to say here afterwards. With everything sorted and further upgrades 'engineered out' for many years, what is left apart from a nice little music centre that sounds great?

I am gradually getting back to my photography and enjoying gardening for the first time in years and can do without a 'consumer goods' hobby that absorbs me so much with so little creative or productive output.

The nice thing about Naim is that it has (almost) made the hifi 'bug' go away and allowed me to enjoy my CDs for the first time.

I have started getting back to my books too.

Anyway there is a little time left until I make an absolute decsion on the naimuniti.

I am having my first casual listen tomorrow when I get the NAC-A5 cables made up. (Yes I decided to do that.)

 

[JoelSim]

chebby:JoelSim:
A few questions and querys

1) How on earth can 5m of Carnival cost £125?

It doesn't. 7 metres of NAC-A5 (plus soldered Naim plugs) costs about £125

JoelSim:2) A Uniti would stop any upgrading, good for the bank manager, bad for fun and dreaming

3) Have you really reached Nirvana? It's not possible in my view

Never intended to reach 'Nirvana' whatever that is. Just enjoying having a decent music-centre sinced I dumped the Arcam.

JoelSim:... as you will know my CD sounds much better than vinyl so I don't really use vinyl

You never gave vinyl a chance. You compared a £900 CDP with a second hand £100 Project with the supplied cartridge. You wanted vinyl to 'lose' that contest.ÿ

JoelSim: 5) Sell the Naims and but some Arcam stuff.

I enjoy music too much.

JoelSim:6) Buy yourself some upgraded mains cables.

Don't need to. Did that before. (IsoTek etc.) Load of old tosh frankly.

Quite how you can compare your Naims to an Arcam Solo Mini is beyond me Chebby.

ÿ

 

[chebby]

JoelSim:Quite how you can compare your Naims to an Arcam Solo Mini is beyond me Chebby.

There is no comparison.

Nor was there any comparison with the A18/CD17 combi I tried out earlier this year (what was at the time a £1100 pairing much vaunted by various magazines). I was staggered that Arcam had the gall to call it hifi.

 

[John Duncan]

Moving swiftly on.....

What if the NaimUniti isn't as good as the 5is though...?

 

[idc]

chebby:

.... I was staggered that Arcam had the gall to call it hifi.

If it reviewed in What Hifi and it makes a sound, then it is hifi. Otherwise those who scrimp and save, or for practicle reasons cannot have the traditional hifi set up are going to feel a bit left out and I don't like such exclusivity.....IMHO.

 

[chebby]

JohnDuncan:Moving swiftly on.....

What if the NaimUniti isn't as good as the 5is though...?

Easy. I will feel very happy and maybe get a totally pimped out SL-1210 mk G (mettalic gloss black and blue LEDs) instead of the more 'vanilla' SL-1210 mk2 and buy all those 1980s 12" singles the Rega stopped me from wanting to get because of the tedious speed change routine.

 

[Craig M.]

the natural progression to that comment is i'm back with the arcam! if sound quality isn't the driving factor, surely it's all a waste of time and money? i'm steering clear of naim if that's what it does to you.

edit: jd, this site is rats! while typing a reply to chebby it took a good 5 mins to post, and then i find chebbys reply is a lot longer then the one i replied to!

 

[JoelSim]

chebby:
JoelSim:Quite how you can compare your Naims to an Arcam Solo Mini is beyond me Chebby.

There is no comparison.

Nor was there any comparison with the A18/CD17 combi I tried out earlier this year (what was at the time a £1100 pairing much vaunted by various magazines). I was staggered that Arcam had the gall to call it hifi.

ÿ

ÿ

ÿ

That's not really apples for apples given the price differentials. And at the end of the day it's all about what kind of sound you want. I listened to some good Naim kit a few years back, and some top-end Cyrus last year and thought both were very average, lacking in the kind of sound I enjoy.

That's why this 'hobby' is so good. One person's joy is another's Beelzebub.

ÿ

 

[chebby]

Craig M.:the natural progression to that comment is i'm
back with the arcam! if sound quality isn't the driving factor, surely
it's all a waste of time and money? i'm steering clear of naim if
that's what it does to you.

The natural 'progression' is if the naimuniti sounds as good as my 5i stuff then I may well buy it.

If it does not sound as good, then that is fine too because I save money and it makes me happier with what I have.

Where Arcam comes into anything I do not know. I have no temptation to 'go back' to it.

I want to put an end to all this 'hifi' stuff and just have a great little music system. If I can make it 'littler' still then I will be even happier.

I am fed up with hifi basically and don't want to spend much more time on any 'endless quests for Nirvana' like some have described it.

I need to get off soon and leave the 'endless quest' to others.

 

[Craig M.]

no worries chebby, the way i read your post was that you were going to get the uniti, even if it sounded worse then the naits. my mistake.

 

[JoelSim]

chebby:
Craig M.:the natural progression to that comment is i'mback with the arcam!ÿ if sound quality isn't the driving factor, surelyit's all a waste of time and money?ÿ i'm steering clear of naim ifthat's what it does to you.

The natural 'progression' is if the naimuniti sounds as good as my 5i stuff then I may well buy it.

If it does not sound as good, then that is fine too because I save money and it makes me happier with what I have.

Where Arcam comes into anything I do not know. I have no temptation to 'go back' to it.

I want to put an end to all this 'hifi' stuff and just have a great little music system. If I can make it 'littler' still then I will be even happier.

I am fed up with hifi basically and don't want to spend much more time on any 'endless quests for Nirvana' like some have described it.

I need to get off soon and leave the 'endless quest' to others.

ÿ

lol, and leave the forum?

ÿ

 

[manicm]

chebby:

Craig M.:the natural progression to that comment is i'm back with the arcam! if sound quality isn't the driving factor, surely it's all a waste of time and money? i'm steering clear of naim if that's what it does to you.

The natural 'progression' is if the naimuniti sounds as good as my 5i stuff then I may well buy it.

If it does not sound as good, then that is fine too because I save money and it makes me happier with what I have.

Where Arcam comes into anything I do not know. I have no temptation to 'go back' to it.

I want to put an end to all this 'hifi' stuff and just have a great little music system. If I can make it 'littler' still then I will be even happier.

I am fed up with hifi basically and don't want to spend much more time on any 'endless quests for Nirvana' like some have described it.

I need to get off soon and leave the 'endless quest' to others.

Please do be a good guinea pig and give us feedback when you audition the naimuniti If the sound is as good as your Naim combo I would be very tempted too. Logic dictates that it won't. Either way come back to us. I'm especially interested in the streaming capabilities.

 

[lordmortlock]

chebby:I have enough money to afford the requisite 3.5m x 2 of Naim NAC-A5 speaker cable and have it terminated/soldered with Naim connectors and bananas.

I've just spotted this Chebby

http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=65053

Any good?

 

[chebby]

Just got home with the 2x 3.5 metre lengths of NAC-A5 (black)

It was only £105. (They did not charge me for the soldering or the banana plugs and I provided the Naim amp connectors, so I only paid for the cable!)

I put the left over £20 (I had budgeted £125) towards a new pair of Doc Martens. (Get your new ones now if you wear Docs. They have not had a price rise for 7 years and they go up on July 1st)

I saw and heard the naimuniti briefly (plugged into some Dynaudio bookshelf speakers on Partington stands).

Sounded excellent and looks great! I will arrange for a proper listen (or even a home dem) soon. Today the guys were busy with another demo and soldering my cables and taking lots of phone calls.

 

[Anonymous]

chebby:I need to get off soon and leave the 'endless quest' to others.

Sounds very sensible, something I see myself doing in the not too distant future. This stuff is never-ending!

 

[John Duncan]

chebby:I saw and heard the naimuniti briefly (plugged into some Dynaudio bookshelf speakers on Partington stands).Sounded excellent and looks great!

nnnnggggghhhh

 

[chebby]

Cor!

NAC-A5 ain't 'arf good!

Took two hours to pull every thing out, bend and loop ('jumping jack' style) the cable with a hair dryer to 'set' the bends, secure the loops with cable ties, and hang the loops over self-adhesive plastic hooks in the recess behind the unit so they are secured away from any signal or mains cables and are well out of sight. Plus all the hoovering, dusting, cleaning of everything behind the hifi and TV, skirting boards, wall etc)

Everything has been warming through again for the last two hours (Radio 2) and is sounding very much better than before despite being 'cold' for two hours.

I have done everything by the Naim 'play book' including having soldered Naim amp connectors and the recommended minimum of 3.5metres each side (hence all the 'looping') and it really sounds much crisper and snappier.

Youngest daughter just got back from college and made me a cuppa and asked if it was a CD playing, sat down and listened for a while. (It was some track she likes on Radio 2) she does not even know about the cables but thought it sounded good. Same volume settings as usual so it must be good for her to comment! (She is 17 and very good at being so.)

I am Naca'ed now after all that work.

 

[JoelSim]

My Odyssey is going on tonight whilst she puts baby to bed. Hopefully.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't wish to tempt you, Chebby, but: http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/technics_sl1200_e.html

 

[chebby]

NAC-A5 cable update.

Sounds like someone popped in earlier and fitted new tweeters without telling me.

When off-axis (which is often) I can now hear furthest speaker far better than before.

Stoopid 1970s compilation has daughter and missus hand jiving on settee to 'Moon of Love' and 'Tiger Feet'. Hilarious. Idiots!

(Yes we are all that shallow.)