The NAIM Sound
Contents
Oddly enough, the editor in question does not have a great deal of experience with NAIM. Of course, some NAIM-systems came through. But most of the time they went directly to colleagues. And at shows? Well, you get an impression, but not an ‘in depth experience’. In short: this is actually the first serious experience with the British brand.
Taking
Now we have briefly tested the dCS Bartok. That system really played the stars of the sky. But with a price tag that goes to heaven and above. All in all, towards the 40,000 euros if we take all the cables with us.
The NAIM Supernait 2 with ND5 XS2 and cables will be around 7500 euro. (We play with the standard NAIM cables). Speakers – in this case the Sopra No1 – and we come to 15,500 euros. That’s almost 1/3 of the money.
The great thing about this set is: everything’s right. It’s so finely balanced. Of course we do go down in detail and power (compared to the Bryston 4B SST3). But if you look soberly, you have to conclude that this is a very musical system. The timing, the enthusiasm, the staging… the emotion this NAIM set is able to convey is striking. Especially when we look at the price.
The ND5 XS2
But of course, how does the ND5 XS2 perform? And especially with respect to the ND5 XS.
That’s pretty easy to hear for those who put the ‘normal’ next to the gen2. We hear a cleaner presentation that immediately catches us with vocal pieces. Aafke Romeinn has less grain on the voice. And a little more ‘body’ in the vocal area. Something the Metrum-combination also knows how to put down well: voices have ‘chest’, shall we say.
The ND5 XS seems a little more mid-prominent because of that lack of – or lesser – dispensation in that area, which makes the image seem a little more prominent to you. But if you listen carefully, you’ll be able to tell that it’s in the middle/low. Imaging is quite similar.
The XS2 version also manages to pick out a little more detail from the recording, although the differences are quite small in that respect. At the bottom of the line it’s all about how the music comes across as a whole. And in that case we can be brief: the NAIM ND5 XS2 knows how to hit the core. And that’s pretty obvious.