Hi everyone,

I will dem the S/N tomorrow at Loud & Clear in Glasgow using Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor M and Totem Mani-2 speakers to begin with, hopefully hearing Harbeth SHL5s (probably not with Naim) and Zu Druids soon (the Zu distributor is trying to arrange for a Scottish dealer).

To put you in the picture I am currently restricted to using headphones, having spent most of the last 16 years on ships with the Royal Navy (I had my own cabin latterly but 6ft x 7ft is hardly ideal . I use a MacBook Pro/ext. HDD as a server, using its optical output into a Lavry DA10 dac/headphone amp and Ultrasone ProLine 750 headphones. It works well but I am now in a position to move back to a speaker setup. I have no desire to go back to using a traditional CD player (the thought of wading through my CD collection manually really doesn't do it for me anymore) so the plan will be to buy a Mac Mini for use in the lounge as my music server with a NAS for storage and backup. I like iTunes and Front Row so will use these as my GUI, connected to the LCD TV (which will be between the speakers) as the monitor and bringing out a keyboard and mouse only when needed. I also intend connecting the TV/Sky HD+/DVD player to a dac (mine or S/N) and playing all music, TV and movies through my stereo setup, whatever it eventually ends up being. I believe this is exactly the sort of market the S/N was designed for.

Although I have not heard Naim gear for over 10 years the S/N ticks lots of boxes: digital inputs, sonic reputation, upgradeability via power supplies, remote control and its British (and yes, being a Scot I will also listen to Linn as well although my gut feeling is that Naim will be more to my taste). Its versatility really appeals to me and I am very keen to see how close its internal dac gets to my Lavry which is pretty well thought of here and in other forums. I will find out tomorrow whether it is for me but I suspect it will be the kind of presentation I am after (I also suspect from recent posts that the Zu speakers may also be the ones I prefer but time will tell).

However, bringing out my dreamsheet (and noting that I have not heard the S/N yet) I would far prefer it if there was a product which combined a dac and preamp in one box, keeping the power amp separate. I know that Naim ideally prefer to have the transport (CD or HDD) in the same box as the dac but problems with this can be ameliorated by using clock outputs/inputs (lots of studio gear uses this) or maybe a firewire or ethernet interface. The fact that NAS is recommended for the Naimnet and HDX suggests that the problem of getting good quality digital data to the dac from an external source has been overcome. Surely by taking the power amp out of a S/N there would be more space freed up to improve the sound of a dac/pre, possibly giving better connectivity for external power supplies - a twin feed power supply to improve the analog and digital sections unlike the HiCap which only works with the analog section of the S/N? I can see that Naim would rather I bought the HDX/power supply and a preamp/powersupply but the fact that they already produce the S/N gives me hope that they soon produce what I am talking about.

Pretty please?

And apologies if this has all been said before - I have not been able to read all the threads on the forum (when I was on the ship internet access was restricted, even when it was available it made dial-up seem fast).

Cheers,

Colin

Hi there Colin and welcome. Although I am a relative newcomer to this forum.

It appears we have possibly a few things in common. I currently have a SN/HiCap with Ikemi CDP, & Keilidh's (had these for donkeys from new) after auditioning 122/150, 202,200. Linn Majik int, Majik pre/power. I have recently been using my MacBook Pro into an Airport express optically into SN with great results, almost to the point where I may sell off the Ikemi CDP or P/ex against a speaker upgrade.

When I auditioned the Hicap as an upgrade, I was surprised at the difference it makes, and I believe it helps the Dac ?indirectly? in the SN, it's well worth considering anyway.

I have heard B&W 805s, Allaes, and would like to hear 804's and more especially the Zu Druids. So I would be very interested to hear your impressions of your auditions.

As to source components I have heard the Linn DS's (Akurate and Klimax) and was most impressed with the sound, just not the price. I am not quite happy with the sound of lossless WAV/iTunes/Mac/Aiport/SN-dac...out in the long run, so I will wait on new relaeses to the market.

I have limited time at the mo to go out listening / sorting home demo of the Druids so keep us posted, and happy listening.

Mike.

Hi all,

I heard the S/N today at Loud & Clear in Glasgow and overall I was fairly impressed by it - it is definitely a candidate. Idiot that I am I forgot to bring along my interconnects (the Lavry has XLR outputs so needs a special XLR-to-RCA i/c) so I couldn't hear the Lavry vs the S/N dac. I will definitely remember it for my next visit. I did not hear any other amps or a HiCap 2 but did hear the SF Cremona Auditor M and two pairs of Totems, the Mani-2 and Forrest. Mani-2 was the best of the three for my tastes, the SF being a bit bland and boring and the Forrest not as controlled or articulate as the Mani-2. They were just a little bit shrill (as were the Forrests but not the Auditor Ms) but the room was very lively so they might be better in another room; if they're not then I will definitely be looking elsewhere. Soundstaging wasn't great for any of them but not sure if this was a S/N dac, S/N amplifier or just setup in the room. I will have my own dac and also use an alternative amp, maybe Moon I5.3, next time to narrow things down. Many posts here indicate that the Mani-2 really needs as much amp as possible to drive them but it didn't seem to have any problems with the S/N. I don't listen at high levels, never going beyond 8.30 on the volume control at any time during the 2 1/2 hours I was there, so maybe that was a contributing factor. If I think these are the speakers for me I would definitely listen to a higher spec amp to see how much difference it makes (just out of curiosity of course...).

The shop are going to contact Musicology to arrange for the Druids to be sent up so hopefully I will be back there next week. The thing is, if I don't go beyond 8.30 on the volume control with the Mani-2 I'm not sure I will have any usable volume control with them! They sell Linn as well so that will be my next stop.

Finally, it was interesting to hear that I was the first person to ever use a laptop for a dem input on the shop's S/N. After my original post asking for a high-end dac/pre maybe there's not as much demand for it as I would like to believe.

Cheers,

Col

quote:

After my original post asking for a high-end dac/pre maybe there's not as much demand for it as I would like to believe.

Maybe not at present–but I think it's simply a matter of time that most control preamplifiers will have this facility built in as standard (just my opinion, not a nod toward future products).

I think an external Naim DAC will turn up before long.

Fender (Strat)