I suggest we list the most expensive system we'd ever listened to and the BEST one we'd listened to. As I think most of us have systems that are a kind of compromise depand on what our bank account allows us to spend here we can try to find out what we think is the best and if the best is the most expensive.

The most expensive system I'd listened to
Theta/Mark Levinson/Wilson

The best

Linn lp12 - Armmagedon - ittok (don't remember the cart.)/ CDs / 52 /180/ SBL.

Arie

Most Expensive: Rockport turntable + FM Acoustics amplifiers + Rockport Loudspeakers (£150k)

Best System: CDS2/NAC 52/SNAXO/3xNAP 500/NBLs (£60k)

The Rockport system was excellent, but not anywhere as good as the Naim kit (demonstrated at the 1999 London Hi-Fi Show).

Good thread,

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

CDX,XPS,52,six pack, DBL's

Best:

LP12, Aro,Lingo, Dynavector something or other (cost about £400), 52, 250, NBL's.

Also heard CDS2 in active setup with SBL's but analogue system still beat it, even though it was just set up in a shop with speakers close to the rack on either side.

DBL's had scale but LP12/Aro had detail, timing, tonal colour (in a good sense).

All the best

David Scott

Sounded very good. Meaty and with a lot you could get into with classics and jazz but it didn't quite take to Studio 1 Dub Masters from Mad Professor and Lee Perry convincingly. A "Jazz-only" buff's system If I ever heard one.

The best system was my first. Some sort of a dansette with a stack of 45s pancaked ready to play. That >click< >Rumble< seemed to be part of the charm of the thing. Played 16rpm too but no one had any! No pretensions as to any HiFi-ness, and it was a lot of fun.

tf

--

Martin

P.S. don't go thinking that 30 levels of Mana can't be done. JW proudly told me at the London show that he wants to move to a house with a basement so that he can have a stack of mana 10 feet tall up through the floor and into his lounge. This is a true story and I have a witness!!!!

115 k Pounds and 150 k pounds ? I couldn't imagine there are such expensive systems.

150 k pounds = 900 k Shekel (Israely coin).

Avvarege income in Israel around 6 k shekels /month bruto (about two thirds of it netto).

A person with an avarege income in Israel must work 150 month = 12.5 years for such a system.

Expensive .....

The Theta/Levinson/Willson price in Israel 85k US $.
Arie

quote:

---

TF downgrades to Dansette on 30 levels of Mana shock!!!!!

---

It would of course be an upgrade.

Tony.

I've got no basement and a concrete floor. I suppose I could always move my hi-fi upstairs. But where would the kids sleep? Do children sleep better on Mana Tables? Perhaps Vuk could offer advice on how to structure a research programme, then I can get a grant awarding body to pay for the racks.

All the best,

David

Rico - musichead

The most expensive system I've heard had a Well Tempered Reference, Audio Research Reference Electronics and Wilson WATT/Puppy (series 3 I think), at a dealer in the US. I didn't even ask how much it cost when but it sounded utterly amazing

BASIS TT into a 52 or 82 feeding Avant Garde Duos. This system could put a believable full orchestra in the room and also carried the nuances of the performance.

It was dang near impossible to be three rooms away and not to listen to this system.

- GregB
Freedom is not in finding the Holy Grail but in stopping the search for it

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

I was talking about last night.

- GregB
Music, not sound

Sonus Faber Amati Homage/Audio Research Ref./Wadia/Cardas

Avalon Eidolon/Spectral/DcS Elgar/MIT

Von Schweikert VR7/KR Kronzilla/Audio Note DAC5/Harmonic Technology

Don't know the prices but these rigs all are way above 150 K$.

Richard.

The CDS2/52/250/ WB ACT 1 on WB supports with cardas neutral cable in a home demo. I'm sure you can do better but this system sounded the best of any that I have ever heard in my experience.

Most expensive:

Fully blown Mark Levinson system with JM Lab Mezzo Utopia Speakers. Detailed, airy, smooth as silk, but fell flat on its face with rock music which made it sound thin and compressed.

Dave

ok, that about it folks.
undefined

B&W N801
YBA Passion Monos
YBA Sig preamp- It's got offboard power supplies!
What's up with the 2 volume controls? A bloody hassle
YBA CD1- It's got a puck!
Those $10,000 Transparent cables

Immense scale and slam. I was very impressed. Somehow, to my ears it transcended the round vs.flat earth argument. It sounded beautiful yet violent at the smae time. However, it made everything sound too "grand", too orchestral.
There's no way thieves are going to steal this unless the have a forklift. Stupidly expensive, i'd feel silly playing Basement Jaxx through this rig.

Best- Naim of course!

CDX/XPS
82/Super
135s
SBL

Serves the music so well; conveys the "vibe" of a song perfectly. Groovy as hell. Also, the sheer speed of the stuff is amazing.
This is the best system i've heard, I shudder to think how the upper line stuff sounds.

[This message was edited by Mike S on TUESDAY 07 November 2000 at 01:21.]

Wadia Transport/DAC, Audio Research Reference Preamp, Mark Levinson No.33s mono-towers, Apogee Calipers. Sounded positively HUGE with absolutely liquid treble and more air than Led Zep can hold. Very impressive stuff, with walk thru imaging. Unfortunely violins took on the proportions of a grand piano and so large was the double bass it filled the room.

Best System

CDSII, 82, Hicap, 140, SBLs. It had music, groove, impact and delicacy all nicely threaded together. Take a bow Mr Robinson.

James

The most expensive system I'd heard were a pair of Genesis 2s driven by a full Cello system : the amplifiers were a pair of bridged Performance 2s (8 pieces of them and these were just the power amps...). The source was an unexpected Japanese Teac P2s, with its matching D3 DAC. Can't remember the cables used, but I distinctly recall they weren't expensive, surprisingly. The owner had tried all sorts of cables, but he settled with these inexpensive ones which he thought sounded best, and to which I concurred. This was the system which re-stalled my faith in the hi-end, for the sheer scale, purity and complete naturalness of the sonics. Nothing intruded - it really had top to bottom coherence, and remarkable slam in the bass. Rhythm, pace and timing were good. I don't think that system could have done well on rock, but on anything else, it certainly took my breath.

But as for the best system : this is a Naim forum, and you would think I should be pre-disposed towards the obvious. I am, to a certain extent, but fortunately, this pre-disposition is supported by fact. The auditions I'd had with a CDS/52/6 pack driving the DBLs at my dealer's place, and on another occasion with a 2nd pair at the end of an LP12, 52, 2x250/135s were truly remarkable.

It's a different sound altogether from the G2/Cello/Teac combo I'd heard and was so enamoured with. Having experienced the DBLs a number of times (pre-500, of course), I knew there was nothing else I had heard (including Wilson Grand Slamms, Sonus Faber Armatis) that were more emotionally involving. The DBLs really sang, snapped, whacked, and moved like it was the mother and father of all speakers. It had X-factor. But I was also conscious that it was a physically practical system, which didn't take up too much space the way the first system did.

Now, to save up for a pair of those... Naim had better in the meantime stop coming up with reference products like the 500, because we're having trouble catching up...

Philip Pang

Happy listening all; the music's still grooving.

naimniac for life

LP12/Lingo/Aro/Armageddon
NAC52/Supercap/6 pack 135/NBL
all on Mana...

Excellent sound, unbelievable speed and agility, the emotion and ambience portrayed with stuff like Taj Mahal just wonderful.

NB - recently heard one almost as good:

LP12/Lingo/Aro/Armageddon/Prefix
CDS1/NAC52/Hi/NAP250/Isobariks
on Soundstyle tripods...

This was overall 90/95% of the 'best' system!

Steve C 00