Completing the picture with Peter the Great - Topic Powered by eve community

Having barely recovered from his marathon visit to Brighton, Peter has been down again, leaving just before midnight.

This time he came down with large amounts of Fraim and my 552, plus another twenty or so boxes....

The large amounts of Fraim took the best part of the morning to be assembled. Peter has developed this into an art, the intricacies of which he explained with great patience in between interruptions to scribble a press release. By the time this had been completed, we had just enough time to get all the black boxes plugged in and warming up before we rushed off for a bite to eat, aiming to ensure there would be no risk of the great man fainting during the exertions that lay ahead.

The object of today's (or should that be yesterday's?) exercise was to get Peter's demo SL2s reassambled and set up (following a delay with the delivery of my own), and to then compare a 300 / active 250.2 / 500 PA at the end of the 555 / 552 system.

I have done very little by way of PA comparisons in recent years and it was over a decade since I had heard an active system. In addition, I had never heard a 500, so what lay ahead was very much a mystery.

The 300 I had heard in my room a few weeks ago thanks to Peter had impressed me with its detail, delicacy and autority compared to the 250.2, but I had no idea what to expect from the active 250.2 system, and postings on this forum made me wonder whether the 500 would sound overwhelming and unsubtle in a smallish (3.5 x 5 m room).

Logically enough, we were both agreed that we should start off where we had finished last time round, with the 300.

After a little fine tuning of the SL2s we were off and I was reminded of everything I had been so impressed by, although things were a little brighter and thinner with my 552 being new and a new spur that had been installed still not being fully "burned in".

The next step was to set up the active 250.2 system, which Peter heroically did while I disappeared to walk the now very full dog, who was in desperate need of emptying.

Returning some 30 or so minutes later, the improvement was so obvious that I could hear it from the hall as soon as I opened the front door. The additional clarity and separation of the instruments, greater dynamism and attack were extremely impressive. I could finally see what all the fuss about active systems was about. At the same time, the system still very much had the sonic voiceprint of the 250.2 and some of the body and tonal delicacy of the 300 was missing.

During the switchover Peter and I teased each other a little about what I would end up choosing. We agreed that he would write down his prediction and seal it in a mini Jiffy bag.

We had been lsitening to a mixed bag of music: Elisabeth Scwartzkopf singing Strauss' last songs (for a change!), David Bowie's Low, Antonella Ruggiero, Kubelik conducting Mahler's 5th, Bohm conducting Schubert's 8th, Gorecki's 3rd, Yaron on the Naim recording of the Devil's Trill, Perhaia playing Beethoven's 17th and 23rd sonatas. Out of a misguided impression that I should be listening for dynamics and scale, I initially chose large orchestral works to listen for pizzicato, the scale and breath of massed strings and so on...

I say misguided because what really suprised me with the 500 was the sheer delicacy and tonal accuracy of the "beast", its ability to separate everything out so clearly and with such unwavering stability, and its ability to bring out details that were not previously perceptible. In many ways the differences I heard were more the sort of thing I would have expected from a pre-amp than a power amp. I was sold on this amp after the first few bars of Schwartzkopf singing the 4th Strauss song. Everything else both confirmed my choice and continued to amaze me. Scale, yes; authority, yes; dynamics, yes; but poise, delicacy, detail, flow and sheer musicality, too. This was an amp I thought would impress me. I didn't expect to be so moved.

So there's another piece of the jigsaw in place, and I'm delighted. It's taken me over 30 years to get here since I saved for my first "proper" amp, and boy is this a nice place to arrive. Thank you Naim and thank you Peter. The man's dedication has to be seen to be believed. The same goes for his patience. He wouldn't give a thing a way. He let me listen my own way, but sure enough what was written on the scrap of paper but 500? His dedication to getting absolutely every aspect of the setup just right so that I could hear precisely what every part was doing, that was equally impressive.

A the same time and as the cherry on the cake, in some ways the big smiley jaw-dropper of the day was the subsequent addition of an empty shelf below the 552 - this has to go alongside the Hi-Line as my most ludicrous suprise of the year. That 4 inches of air and a "wire" can make such a difference to clarity, delicacy and tonal accuracy simply make me laugh....

So there you go, I'm a happy bunny.

We've got a few more experiments to go, but we're nearly there.

I suppose it's comical really. Man buys top-of-the-line gear and smiles... Big surprise, eh?

But I know exactly how it works in my room and just why I chose it.

While waiting for the new bits to arrive, I still got a great deal of pleasure from my CDX / 55PS / 202 / Hi-Cap / NAPSC / 200 / Ariva system. But this is simply stunning, and there's no way I can pretend that my musical enjoyment isn't very substantially enhanced. The great thing about this stuff is that as much as it all looks like some altar to black box technology with the only thing missing being a hand-scuplted billet aluminium Buddha on the top, as soon as I put a CD on it all just disappears. It's just me and the music. Especially since Peter was kind enough to leave me with his demo 555 head unit until mine finally comes through. May the M25 smile on his tyres as the Volvo takes him safely home.

Cheers

Mike

Posts: 1028 | Registered: Mon 09 May 2005

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