Agreed re Spectral - I have (oldish) Spectral amplification in one of my systems; they used to have a relationship with Avalon as well, I seem to recall.

Not just allegedly, just look at their videos.

Unfortunately the previous UK importer is no longer doing Spectral, not sure if they've appointed a new one.

NAIM NDS XPSDR

we are promised one of these early in the new year

reputedly a match for high end CD players on red book, and then some more on Hi Res material


It has the brass slab high mass leaf spring suspended sub-chassis we have seen work so successfully in the Superline Phono Preamp

we shall see...........

Martin Colloms

Even better if you can gain access to the NDS and 2xPS555DR to see Naims top offering compares to the state-if-the-art.

br
Hans

I think it may have been 'The Flat Response', Hi-Fi Review's forerunner?

The 'Flat Earth' was/is much maligned, but they were ahead of their time, IMO; most reviewers these days still don't seem to appreciate equipments' ability (or more usually lack of ability) to reproduce music, rather than merely nice/impressive sound.

Personally, I'm happy to inhabit an Earth that's still flat!

Edited by user 29 December 2012 11:47:20(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Or, he could just sell the MSB DAC!

I'm not sure there’s been much, if any, improvement over the years, in musical terms, though I've not heard much of the latest kit - certainly, there's nothing I've heard throughout the '90s/'00s that does much for me (including modern 'black' Naim), over and above what I use.
Personally, your system looks, potentially, very satisfying (I've not heard the Phonosophie, but Julian Vereker usually knew what he was talking about, so I suspect it could be very much to my liking, which is why I'd be keen to see Martin review the No.3). BTW, I'm on the look out for a nice pair of ES14s - never heard them before, but they seem like the obvious upgrade to my ES11s, which I'm still using 20+ years after purchasing them!

Edited by user 29 December 2012 12:21:57(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Since CRITIC is currently in pursuit of good DACs, I reckon that the Light Harmonic Da Vinci DAC has got to be worth a punt for a review. It embodies some interesting technology and some interesting thinking. The guy presenting it at Whittlebury was making some cogent and coherent points about phase coherency, and was confident enough to illustrate them with recordings of percussion and piano, which were rather odd but did illustrate his points. He also - when I spoke to him at the side of the room - went into some detail about why they consider SPDIF to be fundamentally flawed and why async USB is (in their opinion) the only serious way to move music from media to amplifier.

In short I think CRITIC should look at it. No idea how much it costs, but in the same spirit as things like the Audio Note or MSB DACs - what does the technology deliver...?

I'd like to read about direct digital amplifiers like the Nad M2 / C390DD, or NuForce DDA-100.

The new Rega RP8 and their phono amps would be good to read about. The RP8 is quit a departure for them so would interested to read if it has paid off.