I have recently bought a naim 5i cd and nait 5i amp. I'm awaiting delivery of a pair of second hand harbeth HL-P3ES2, but as an impatient sort of guy I connected up an old pair (say 6 years old) of small denon speakers from I think the dm 31 (midi system) and sat them on top of partington dreadnoughts. After about 10 minutes I got a headache which I think was to do with the problemtic higher frequencies - kind of acoutic equivalent of having a bright light shone in your eyes.

Anyway, my question is - are the harbeths going to help me become impressed with my new amd and cd player or is this in part a function of the Naim stuff? The room isn't ideal but I moved the speakers around in room 1 and then to room 2 (more soft furnishing etc) but I still got headaches......

Cheers

Andy

I wouldn't worry too much, I still have a DM31 and the accompanying speakers. They seem to work perfectly well together, but not with anything else! Also if your system is new the top end will settle down as it runs in. Leaving it powered up constantly and using NACA5 will also help, a lot of people complaining of over-bright Naim kit end up finding out that speaker cables are to blame!

Thanks very much for that. I'll wait for the harbeths then and see what like - if it is still problematic than I'll get hold of some naim speaker cable. I don't think this is a running-in problem though because the naim cd and amp are both second hand too, say about 18 months old.

Dear Andy,

In general certain types of speaker wires can unhinge the musical cohesion of the Naim presentation.

Given that NACA5 is what is indented for use with Naim amps [and is used in their design and development], and works incredibly well with them, I think you at least own it to yourself to borrow some from a dealer, and see if you find they produce the balanced musicality Naim is famous for.

I am not telling you what to do of course, but offer the thought as a gentle suggestion.

Welcome to the Forum.

All the best from George

hi there and greetings frm malaysia.
i had that bright/harsh sound problem using the same combo driving atc scm7mk2 6mths ago but now it just smooth out esp on the high frequency. just let the combo power up 24/7 and let it run in and in no time you just enjoy the music. congrats on harbeth hl-p3es2, a very nice bookshelf indeed, same pedigree with proac reference eight

Thanks for the advice The speaker cables were bought by the chap who originally owned the amp and cd player from a naim supplier (at the same time he bought the amp and cd) so I guess they will be OK. Anyway, I'll let you know how it sounds once the harbeths arrive - might just sort everything out - here's hoping anyway.

The harbeths came and I connected them up - for the most part the sound was to die for - exceded expectations I have to say across a range of music - rock, classical, folk and so on.....

I have one dilema though.... The connectors for the speaker cable are banana plugs and it so happens there isn't a great deal of room for them in the back recess where speaker connections are made on these harbeths. To be honest as a former electronic egineer I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the quality of the connection - so I am wondering what people think about me chopping off the banana plugs at the speaker end and using the the wire only?

Thanks for your help

Born on 19th of December ? Which year ?

cheers
Stefan

If you want to use a bare wires on speaker connection I think it´s perfectly okay.

Just don´t touch the wires with greasy fingers while doing the connection... So, twist the wires using a paper tissue or something...

Thanks I'll probably do that - I think the connection will be more sound. 1966, by the way.

hehe... 6 years younger, then. Precisely, so to say...