Saw the Naim 42/110 looking sad in the Grom's room. Since he went to university last year it's been idle. Well...not on idle, OFF actually. The problem with Naim being off for a long while is that turning them back on can be a bit nerve-wracking. When those huge caps charge up they can let go, and that's a Very Loud Noise. So the other evening I turned it on....heart in mouth...but all good. Hummmmmmm .. pop......ON. Usual Naim 10 second process. So left it on.
That was last week.
Bit of a niggle in my mind that I should move it into the main room or set up something somewhere.
Then today I was running the Myst (small MOSFET amp made in Wales in the 1980s. Carmel said 'I wanted some new hifi and you bought me jewellery....where are all the controls?...'. And she was right...lovely looking tiny thing. But the ALPS volume controller has picked up some dust and needs a good clean.
It's running into TDL G20s - which I bought on a whim decades ago. Usual TDL sound - ear searing top end and savagely deep and accurate bass. Terribly coloured but fine for domestic listening. The Myst works well with them since it is analytic at the top and missing the very low end. Corrects some of the frequency curve defects of the TDLs. It's not a SERIOUS system, that's hidden in the study. But it goes. And when I am working I want the music in the other room, not in the study. So it needs to work. And the ALPS potentiometer was causing problems with the LH channel. I had to stop work and think about what to do. Simple....move Naim into main room and then fiddle with Myst when I have time.
So I did. Disturbed a thousand spiders since the back of the system hasn't been molested for about 10 years. And living in the country, the spiders just rule the house.
Swap was easy, since CD phone-DIN is what the Naim needs too. Buggered on off switch on the 110 but that just needed removing and fettling with some epoxy. That'll go on later tomorrow after proper curing.
Out comes the Myst - unplug unplug unplug. in goes the Naim. plug plug plug. Switch on hmmmmm....pop....all OK.
Now, bearing in mind the Naim needs a few days to settle in, the contrast with the Myst could not have been more clear. The Naim sound was immediate - punchy, fast, MUCH more bass - which got the TDLs rumbling around with the lower frequencies. I appreciate the Naim sound a lot - I was a youngster in Salisbury and adopted Naim very early - they had a shop in town in those days and a deck very like the Thorens TD150 appeared one day - Linn - heard of them?
I abandoned Naim for valves around 1990, and stuck with Audio Innovations right through. That's the real deal. And listening today I know exactly why I left Naim for glowing things. But it does sound good. Meticulous (yet somehow a bit uninvolving), spacious (yet the Innovations has a better soundstage), deep rumbling bass (but not visceral like valves).
I am glad I can still tell the difference so finely between amps. My hearing has been a bit buggered by using chainsaws - with protection but still bloody loud, and sometimes you have to use them without protection so you can still communicate. It hasn't done my hearing any favours. But although I can hear the impact when I listen, I can still discriminate....which is good.
Right....back to work....
