though I am not sure it will be that much better than my Meridian

A HA HA HAH AH HAH

Best one for a while 😉

As others have said, take some music you know well.

I usually take some Peter Gabriel which tends to sound better and better as you listen on more expensive systems.

Expect a lot of modern music to still sound compressed.

Maybe take something you’ve never really liked as well.

Alison Krauss and Union Station – Baby, now that I’ve found you
Slade – How does it feel
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Pat Benatar – Shadows of the night
The Alarm – The Deceiver
Andy Williams – Happy Heart
Band of Horses – The Funeral
Blondie – Call Me

My recommendation is listen to the music with your feet.

If your feet aren’t tapping involuntarily when listening to music played on an all NAIM system (or all NAIM bar the standard recommended sets of speakers that go well with NAIM), then there is something wrong IMO.

Seriously, I am half serious. NAIM should have your feet tapping and wanting to get up to dance, with a caveat regarding Bach etc, then it may be more of an emotional flow.

I’ve got a Uniti and also now a Qute as well. The Uniti runs through a set of Rega RS5s and the Qute is attached to some mission m35’s which also do TV duties. I love my Uniti’s – mainly the sound quality of the UNiti/RS5s is stunning and the Qute is just so damn useful – we have the Uniti in the ‘other’ tv-less lounge and the qute in the kitchen/lounge area. Love it, iRadio, uPNP from an iMac with lossless library running DBPowerAmp to stream – works perfectly and sounds incredible. I’m sure there are better more expensive systems but i get all my Naim kit at cost and this fitted my requirements for streaming media and good quality well made stuff. The range and cost of the kit is eye watering though.

One cd that auditions stuff quite well is Turin Brakes The Optimist – it is very very well recorded.

Obviously you should take music you love, in a variety of styles. I often use fairly complex pieces to see if its easy to pull out the strands. In contrast, a solo recording of an instrument you like is helpful. Would agree that badly recorded material is a must.

Most importantly, don’t try to work too hard at detecting differences. Listening to music is supposed to be fun. If you find the demo very enjoyable then that’s good. If it feels like hard work you should listen to something else.

Stuff you like, but also stuff you know. For me, two amongst many would be:-

K&D Sessions, Kruder and Dorfmeister
Dummy, Portishead

Yes, I am stuck in the 90s. They don’t make stuff like that anymore 🙂

I found (of all things!) Kate Bush to be quite testing for hifi stuff, she has a hell of a voice and it may highlight any sibilance (which really grips my s*it) as well as all your favourite stuff of course!

I find this track tells me a lot about the bass on a system. Cheap tinny radio can make it sound OK sometimes, and on a good system it will amaze you, but lots of systems in between just turn it to mush. Fantastic track anyway.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkEDe6Ljqs[/video]

i’m another ‘take the music you like, not what you think you should play’.
i went to listen to my 1-box system ( that i shan’t name ) at an audio place. sounded shite. kept wanting the bass to be turned up, but just couldn’t wind it up far enough, no matter what i did with the controls or the speaker positions. the nice man suggested that the cds i was listening to didn’t have very high production values. i explained that this was the sort of music i enjoy, and wanted to enjoy on my new sound system. if that new sound system couldn’t make this stuff sound nice, i wasn’t going to buy it, no matter how well it sounded with something else with ‘proper’ production.
another set of speakers later – sold. been very happy with it for 10 years.

1. Something with a decently recorded double/acoustic bass is always good for sorting the wheat from the chaff – Astral Weeks or Solid Air for example. Amazing how many ‘posh’ systems can’t reproduce a double bass.

2. Something simple with a well recorded vocal – if this sounds ‘odd’ then you know the tonal balance is off.

3. Something rhythmically complex – jazz, Little Feat, Beefheart etc – can you still hear the individual instruments and place them spatially in the mix?

4. Something you find over bright and almost unlistenable on your current system – remastered Zappa, something like that. Does sound any better?

Never mind the foot tapping, what used to drive me mad was turning up the volume when the expensive gear was being auditioned. Grrr 👿

Oh, don’t go in with expectations about what you ‘should’ like because it gets raved about in the mags – I always felt slightly troubled that I preferred the unfashionable Exposure, Creek, Rega and Pink Triangle stuff to the more hyped Naim, NAD, Linn and Mission.
The power of advertising has a lot to answer for 🙂

Something with as big a dynamic range as possible.

When I was a test engineer for Arcam ( a good few years ago now) we used a Philips test disc that had all sorts on it, ranging from very boomy spoken word to incrediably dynamic and detailed classical recordings.

Also, bear in mind (as some have said) that hi-fi is very subjective and unlike the world of studio equipement for example, where linearity of response is king.

#

My dissertation was very nearly about the ideal linear response of spherical speaker inclosures.. they would have sounded nice in theory but making a rigid sphere of sufficient density isn’t easy… why the flip did I go into computing and not take up that research degree at York, mutter, grumble, moan

#end rant

I love the idea of shiny HiFi kit, but since I’m deaf in one ear and therefore don’t hear in Stereo, I don’t see the point…….

If your feet aren’t tapping involuntarily when listening to music played on an all NAIM system (or all NAIM bar the standard recommended sets of speakers that go well with NAIM), then there is something wrong IMO.

If your feet aren’t tapping its more likely that the music is shit rather than the system it’s coming out of 🙂

I’ve just had a thought.
If you don’t actually know what music you like, why get a fancy, expensive hi-fi??
Serious question!

I always go for something by Michael Jackson, the production on his stuff is consistently awesome

That’ll be down to Quincey Jones, the most successful and best recording artist of all time!

“Hell Freezes Over” by the Eagles.

“Hotel Califonia” having the ultimate intro with acoustic guitar and thundering bass drum. A far far better recording than the original!

A quality recording of a standard to which other audio engineers should aspire to!

You need to get a variety of material – acoustic, classical and modern as well as recordings that have proper deep bass – the stuff you can feel more than hear.

The problem I find with owning a high end hifi is the sheer disappointment when loadingh up a mediocre recording (of which there are too many). Only a handful of CD’s do the system and the artist justice, which is really annoying when the content is great.

Well, I’ve always thought for bass, Stone Roses – Fool’s Gold is a good one as the bass line goes very deep to the point where lots of speakers and low-powered amplifiers seem to struggle.

As for a recent album that’s appallingly recorded (to my ears on my Denon-Teac CD/DAC, Arcam amp and Castle speakers) – Arcade Fire’s newest offering. Sounds like it’s been recorded at 128 kbps. No such issues with their earlier stuff though.

When I eventually get round to testing some newer stuff though, I don’t doubt that I’ll be bringing along some Floyd. I reckon Jeff Buckley is probably a good shout too for subtleties.

EDIT: And Hotel California on heavyweight vinyl…. 😉

The best Hifi I ever heard was at a place called Walrus in central london. High End TT, Lavardin Amp and some Harbeths I think the key was how they had the speakers positioned though I remember that it was just beyond anything I thought hi fi could actually do.

I firmly believe that 5k badly set up will be outperformed by 1k set up optimally. There are some good tips on the Audio Physics website for set up.

Also, if you’re planning to play MP3s through it, take your MP3 player and see what it sound slike.

My distinctly average kit from 15 years ago (all Arcam, Quad speakers) makes my iPod sound dreadful (thick, muddy bass) and really shows the limitations of compressed audio replayed through a headphone socket.

Basshunter

HTH

Oh, and the best system I’ve heard wasn’t the £10k of hardware through the £25k Dali speakers that killed the life out of RATM Bombtrack, but a Creek CD and amp into small Epos speakers.

Realistic, neat and timed beautifully.

People like Creek, Sugden, Rega – not flashy, certainly not lifestyule looking but seem to do the job of playing music well very nicely.

I firmly believe that 5k badly set up will be outperformed by 1k set up optimally.

Price is no guarantee of good sound. I listened to a Krell and some Cabasse speakers on very expensive stands. Suffice it to say this £30k system sounded thin and flat. Some hifi snobs would describe the sound as detailed, but I thought it sounded very unatural and my ears were tiring after 5 minutes. Different material revealed the same traits.

Just because stuff is uber expensive does not mean it will be better. My 1994 £3.5k’s worth of kit sounds way more natuaral and realistic than this demo system did.

Using the correct interconnects, speaker cables, stands and getting the room right is the second half of the battle. The first half is about good component matching. You need to take advice from experts and work out which kit is known to partner well.

Kate Bush and Bjork are good calls.

I have found that Massive Attack (Angel) is fantastic at displaying bass competency. Damien Rice (9 Crimes) is excellent for vocals and piano reproduction. Also Nitin Sawnhney produces some lovely layered pieces.

One objective of reviewing a HiFi is to understand if it is more ‘revealing’ as far as the detail and subtleties of he music are concerned, so whilst it is a good idea to audition music that you know well, it’s also important to have a fair idea that there are subtleties to be revealed 😀

This:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8RvY9r93a4[/video]

I love the idea of shiny HiFi kit, but since I’m deaf in one ear and therefore don’t hear in Stereo, I don’t see the point…….

😥 tinnitus in my case 😥

I always take something that sounds nasty on crap equipment but that I like e.g. Radiohead OK Computer which was unlistenable on a Rega/Cyrus system I auditioned a few years ago. Messy, horrible, all over the place – whereas on a better system you can hear every instrument properly. Enjoy…

Using the correct interconnects, speaker cables, stands and getting the room right is the second half of the battle. The first half is about good component matching. You need to take advice from experts and work out which kit is known to partner well.

…or buy a Linn Classic and some good speakers and stop obsessing. 😀

You do all realise that domestic hi-fi is fundamentally flawed in it’s design?

Some manufacturers seem to go to great lengths to create decent products within the boundaries of the excepted “norm” for hifi, others seem to charge crazy money for naff all.

My 2p’s worth is to check out active speakers with a digital input. It’s what studios have done for years and it makes so much more sense to have a speaker crossover working millivolts not dozens/hundreds of volts. It also makes far more sense to have amplifier boards tuned specifically to the individual drivers they control.

Anyway, all this talk of hifi has made me want a new one 🙁

+1, but if you’re going to do that, spell it right when you recommend it. 😉 😀

iPod sound dreadful

AFAIK iPods have notoriously bad sounding headphone amps, worse than many other mp3 players.

I understand the pain that comes with having flat sounding speakers and listening to stuff that’s badly produced or encoded. When I got my monitors I had to actually buy the cds as many of the mp3s I’d downloaded sounded so awful. I’ve noticed Amazon mp3 downloads being particularly crap. LAME MP3 at 320kbps sounds near enough the same as the original wavs to me though.

i would take a wide variety of music you enjoy. There’s no point of demoing a system with music you won’t listen to at home. You’re wanting a bunch of electronics to play the music you enjoy on, not to make clear noises!

Also, I would ask for a home demo for a week.

As I’m also stuck in the 90’s I’d say blue lines by Massive attack should have everything you need to test the mettle of a hifi system.

I do like to take the track “Superpreadtors” from the boxed set and see if it makes any of the components catch fire or melt too.

80’s Nad amp, 70’s Warfedale speakers, and a 2004 Zune sounds freaking great to me. – There is no susbtitute for cubic centimetres.

Hi, I don’t know if you’ve already had this demo but a few here have touched upon the right way to choose demo tunes: Listen to your favourite cd’s, the music you will listen to when you get it home.

Sounds obvious but what’s the point in buying a hifi system because it sounds great with, I dunno, Kraftwerk if you only listen to, say, Slipknot?!!

I have a Rega Saturn feeding a Naim Nait 5i and I think it sounds great with everything, although the speakers (Jamo Concert 8’s) make the system IMHO. Naim stuff is good but it’s not the only brand out there!

Good luck!

Everything in its right place from the Radiohead album Kid A

that will tell you all you need to know.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots parts 1 and 2 from the Flaming Lips album of the same name.

Donald Fagen The Nightfly is a stunningly well produced and recorded album. I’ve got a.special vinyl pressing from the Masterdisc masters that was pressed up for B&W after their boss heard it, and wanted it as a demo for retailers. I used to work Saturdays in a hifi shop. Still got my Logic DM101/Zeta/AudioTechnica MC turntable. Another good album would be Driftwood, by Eddie Reader. Listening to it at the moment, and there’s an acoustic drum on the first track, Old Soul, that really moves air, fantastic recording. Paul Simon’s Hearts and Bones is also a fabulous recording, and Peter Gabriel 4, in particular San Jacinto, can get the speaker cones moving around. Laurie Anderson’s Mister Heartbreak is a lovely recording, one track, Gravity’s Angel, has some low-frequency bass that is more felt than heard, just air pressure on your eardrums. My UE Studio monitors on my iPhone pick it up, but you need pretty good speakers to hear it. There’s a passage on Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances that I used to use, that was really quiet, then a sudden crescendo would really make people jump, and was a good speaker/amp tester, lesser set-ups would have bass cones popping like mad.

The best Hifi I ever heard was at a place called Walrus in central london

Les at Walrus really knows his stuff and won’t lead you wrong.

What Harbeths were they – I like the M30s quite a bit but you need the room, otherwise I am an LS3/5a fan, although a bit modded.

The room and placement of the speakers in the room makes a huge difference to the sound, which is why something that sounded good at the hifi shop might not necessarily sound good at home.

Of course if hi fi nerds had girlfriends they wouldn’t be able to position their speaks optimally and the whole industry would be pointless.

I’ve never ‘auditioned’ high end stuff but when I was buying a small system for the lounge a year or two back was amazed by the difference a different set of speakers made – and it wasn’t a day and night price difference either.

I just used stuff I normally listen to; some Pulp, some classical something acousticey, some Faithless.

Sadly since having it my girls have also decided they like music and I really should have had the foresight to audition it with the Lazytown soundtrack and Cheryl Cole.