I am new in this and need some advice. Saved some mony for a hifi installation, approx EUR.5000,- available. My first visist to an audio store. Took with me a cd of Sting (brand new day) and Rodiguez spanish guitar concert. Listened to Cyrus 8vs and Dynaudio 220. Nice. Next shop. Naim Supernait and other speakers, PMC small monitors and Totem Hawk. Holy cow. That is powerfull. Instantly addicted. I want that! Or was it the bottle of beer the guys gave me. Or was that just because I am a girl... However,the price difference is huge. I have heard that the Supernait is good to use with sonos, which i like very much. Now.... anyone with some advice? I would like to invest just once....does this all sound stupid. Please give me some feedback.
But only you can decide which of those you like best...we can't do that for you. Our opinions relative to brands etc will be only that, our opinions. Advice, go listen again.
Cyrus is a polite, friendly, "nice" sound as you put it.
Naim is a high energy, almost in your face, live sound.
They're very different. Not that the speakers are that similar, but the differences you heard were due to the equipment.
The SuperNait has a built in DAC. If the Sonos has a digital output, it should sound very good with the SuperNait. Just make sure you hear them together before buying.
As Art says, these are just opinions. Its your money and ears. You can't go wrong with listening more.
If you can't afford the SuperNait, a less expensive option is the Nait 5i. About half the price and most of the same great sound. It doesn't have the DAC and some other extras the SuperNait has, but if you like the Naim sound as much as I think you do, you can't go wrong with a Nait 5i.
If you plan on using a Sonos or something similar, foregt the Nait 5i. Its not worth the money. You'll need an excellent CD player like a Rega Apollo (at the minimum) or Naim's CD5i. If you can afford it, Naim's Nait 5i and CD5x may sound better than the SuperNait and Sonos. But again, make sure you hear them before you buy.
Naim is pretty polarizing. Everyone respects it, but everyone either loves it or hates it. There's really no in between. I've never heard anyone say 'That sounds OK.' Its like the stereo equipment equivalent of Bobby Knight.
There's only one way of knowing where you stand...
Even with a month separating the two demoes, the Naim would have left a real stamp on your memory. The SuperNait is in a completely different league musically, sonically, in terms of power, price, everything. So if you went in expecting more of the same as you'd heard with the Cyrus, even with diminished aural memory, the impact of the Naim solution would be quite something. If you'd listened to a Cyrus DACXP/Monos combination, then you'd be in the same ballpark sonically, pricewise and power-wise. Presentation-wise they are still very different of course, and then you would need the demoes to be closer together. You might still come away with that 'Wow' factor but then it would be for different reasons.
Out of interest which did you prefer in your Naim demo - the PMCs or the Totems?
On the subject of Sonos, I have used the Sonos ZP80 as a digital source into the SuperNAIT's DAC and it's true that it works very well. It's not as good as a good CD player (from Naim for example), but it is VERY good and will not leave you wanting. This is provided the library of tracks from the Sonos are in relatively good shape. I have played napster and internet radio through the Sonos at lower bitrates and it's good, no doubt, but not GREAT. For GREAT, you need lossless quality or a good CD player.
Which brings me to another point - you don't mention what the CD player was that was played in both the systems. If the CD player in the SuperNAIT system was a Naim player, this is a different game, and a different price, since the performance from such a player as a CD5x or a CDX2 far exceeds that of the Sonos as does the price!
Frank, to be honest, the more I hear and read, the more confused I get. At the other hand, I have only listened twice or so.
Your question on PMC vs Totem made me remember how the session went. I came in the store telling that I don't want an ugly big speaker in my room. But there was a lot of naim stuff setup..... that was wonderfull with the hawk. And then I saw the arro's and those looked nice and small. But it didn't sound that well. It did on low volume but it didn't rock. Then we went back to my earlier question of a small speaker. They plugged in the small PMC's and made it rock. Very loud. Cool.
The salesman said that the supernait can even add a subwoofer (expensive from PMC though) for more thick sound.
Later in the car I thought.... hmmmmm. If these small speakers can give that much, why not buy a smaller system like a arcam solo.... that has also a sub-out. costs 1600 eur instead of 4000.
I know. I need to listen more combinations.... But suggestions allways welcome.
Hi guys. I have ordered my very cool set today. It was so nice to see and hear. It is a TV from Loewe, the Connect it is called. That model is available with a sort of foot on which they use to place a dvd or bluray thing. I place a Arcam Solo movie 2.1 on that. Then the Dynaudio 140's. Amazing. Smooth, full, detailed. I listened to my favourit CD of Enya. Watermark. It was without any sound that I did not like. Sounds defensive maybe. Some low missing. But thining of adding a Rel stampede to it. Maybe the picture is then perfect for me. Does anyone has recommedations on a sub for this combo?
I wonder why you feel you need more bass since the 140s produce quite a bit of bass.
The REL Stampede is a good sub, no question.
Another good sub which I rate highly in this price bracket is the Velodyne SPL800R. Smaller than the Stampede, cleaner, more powerful and deeper bass response.
1 Dynaudio 140's Nominal impedanceis is 4 ohms with a sensitivity of 86dB/2.83V/m which means that there's a very high demand on the power amp in order to get great bass.
2 Dynaudio 140 is an excellent speaker with high-end treble and bass drives together with a complicated cross-over...the coils, capacitors, drives and internal wires demand a lot of time to "break-in"...
3 when "breaking-in" a difficult to drive speaker, the treble will come out first than if the power amp is powerful enough, the bass and deep bass will come out...but if the power amp is incapable to drive the speaker, you can't get the deep bass
4 high quality interconnect, power cord and speaker cable will help to get the bass out
Thank you guys for all the good advice. I have had my first weekend with the kit. Had an arrangement with the store (nice people) that I could try the subwoofer and think about it. Today I brought it back to the store. The speakers are very nice without it. The solo, allthough only 50 watts, sounds terriffic. I understand from you that that will become even better... good stuff.
