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Thanks, I had not read that. The comments w.r.t. the Simaudio Moon MiND 180 are interesting The dealer here in the UK provides the Auralic on a sale-or-return basis. When/if it ever arrives I will have a month before I have to commit to paying the balance. The iPad app for the Moon is buggy and quite often looses the network connection, which is very difficult to then regain. The apps for my old Naim streamers, and the Cambridge Audio and Marantz streamers used by my children are far more reliable and easy to use. Navigating around my music collection (>2 TB now) with a buggy app is a nightmare. Thus, the Moon might stay if it clearly sounds better and it becomes easier to use. Without the app the MiND 180 is a nicely made paperweight.

 

Currently the update to the latest iOS was a backward step. It would be good if Moon engaged in some further development. Failure to do so is a pretty strong signal of their interest/intentions for the MiND. Auralic seem very, very committed and proactive towards developing their products,hardware, firmware and apps, which is extremely promising. All will be revealed in a lengthy home demo if the Auralic ever gets here.

 

It is, after all, a first world problem. I am not really that concerned but rather am more irritated by the complete lack of communication from a dealer who is now nearly 10 weeks late on delivery.

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I can very honestly say that I don't miss the Naim rig at all, with one exception: the NDS. Running a very large Naim rig involves a fair bit of tweaking and maintenance to keep in fettle. Add to this the fact that I had a fair number of power supplies so the system tending to buzz a fair bit (and of course there is the legendary low level hiss from the speakers you get with Naim amps) which is very annoying. The 555 PS DR that powered the NDS was particularly noisy at times. I work from home a fair bit and the background noise from the system when it was not playing music was a bit of a distraction. The NDS was a wonderful thing and a joy to use. My Moon MiND 180 is lovely to listen to, but the app is nowhere near as good and can be reluctant to interact with my NAS drives. The Auralic I put down a deposit for a while back has not showed up yet which would be really frustrating if digital was not a distant second behind vinyl in my house.

 

The Gato looses nothing to the Naim setup. It is beautifully built, sounds superb, is absolutely silent in operation and has an excellent on-board Dac, I sense no compromise in the ability of this new system to play music in a really, really satisfying way. Having said this, I put the success of the new rig down to the Art speakers. Quite simply they are utterly magnificent. Before I replaced the SL2s we a lengthy series of dealer demos and then had home demos with B&W 800Ds, ATC SCM100ASLT anniversaries and Kudos Titans - the Arts saw them all off easily. I'm not sure that the Gato will be a long term solution. I plan on looking at the Modwright LS36.5 / KWA 150 amps even though this would require the purchase of a DAC and a move back towards a multi-box setup. I have had a lengthy dealer demo with a Devialet 400 and am keen to try this at home as it was very, very good although sadly there is no SAM for the Arts. However, at present the Gato is sufficiently close to the other amps we have tried (it is very light so I took it with me to the Devialet demo for example) that I feel no great need to change. There is the chance to get even more from the Arts, hence the odd demo here and there with really top notch kit.

 

After all the waffle, the message: I really, really like the Gato. I had 28 years using Naim amps and feel no need to rush back. The candidate replacements are markedly more expensive than the Gato so will have to really shine to get me to stump up the cash.

Edited by htm_1968
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Congrats on the new rig HTM. Those Dunlop brothers do make beautiful speakers.

Thanks. I have a long history of buying fugly speakers that ended when I traded in my SBLs for SL2s (which are truly wonderful speakers). Having said this, the quality of craftsmanship on the Arts is superb and they are miles better at almost every facet of music making that I care about than the SL2s. Not that I really care about what something looks like as long as it sounds good, but it is nice to get both.

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wow congrats, that is really change of direction.

You got the same power distributor as mine, that little friend from china is working beautifully on my system, can't complain much considering the price. :thumb:

This was a present given to me when we lived in Melbourne. I believe it was sourced from an online dealer based in WA. It really is just being used as a 4-way rather than a power conditioner in the sense that switching it out for a bog standard lead has no effect on the sound whatsoever. I simply could not find an extension lead when we moved house so the Xindac came out of its box for the first time in about 4 years. There is actually a dedicated mains spur in the listening room, but the Hi Fi is not near it in the current setup :rolleyes: . I would need 10m speaker cables to use it, or the speakers would need to go on either side of the fireplace. It all sounds fine as is so I'm not going to fiddle with it.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm shattered. I've watched nearly every ball in the BDT meaning that I've been up all night for the last five days and all for a draw... sheer madness :wacko:! It snowed here on Boxing Day too, which I'm still getting used to all over again.

 

I've been meaning to post this photo since Xmas day, but never got around to it:

16118318822_2e98969862_b.jpg

 

No changes to the kit......yet. Just a bunch of festive tat sprinkled around the listening room courtesy of Mrs_Htm..... :rolleyes:

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  • 6 months later...

It has been almost seven months since I last posted here. I sold the Mana recently as I simply got fed up looking at it. A quick email to Derek and Ramsey Dunlop at ART procured some samples of the Walnut veneer used on my Alnico 8 loudspeakers. This was dispatched to Stuart at Stump Furniture who took my useless blithering and turned it into the unit that now houses my kit. Again, the veneer is walnut, as is the plinth on the LP12 and the insert on the Gato.

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There is no back on the unit which helps with cable dressing and ventilation. It weighs a fair bit, but does not appear to have impacted on the sound quality of the LP12 which has been consistently good whether on Fraim, Mana or this unit.

 

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There is plenty of space on the top shelf for the new Bryston DAC I have ordered. Once that goes in and I find the extension cable for my Stax energiser we are done for the foreseeable future.

 

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The usual apologies apply for the crappy iPad photos.

Edited by htm_1968
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Great result Htm.

 

Cheers, @@illusion. I've had a very pleasant weekend blasting out tunes via the LP12 and the streamer. I can detect no loss of fidelity from ditching the Mana and I personally prefer the new unit from an aesthetic point of view. Unsurprisingly it has scored many WAF points too!

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Very nice Olan,

 

Thanks for sharing your system over this side of the ditch.

 

Cheers

No problem Andrew. I'm interested to know what speakers you finally end up with. I'm slumming it in Spain at present with a iPod classic and my daughter's Skull Kandy headphones......(sigh).

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At the moment, after much deliberation, I don't have a clue.

 

Given my space I have to be realistic about what I can fit, what will sound good, and what my wife will find domestically acceptable. 

 

Most speakers I am interested in are either too big, too imposing or without the necessary domestic tick of approval.

 

Of the mainstream floorstanders available here I am tempted by the Spendor D7's and SF Olympica II's (both being narrow baffle designs)  but haven't yet received permission for floorstanders. The D7 is domestically probably the most acceptable and half the price of the SF's (which are gorgeous in fit n finish but don't offer any sonic advantage to a D7 for the extra money asked). 

 

Sadly the AN ANe/spe's, being wide baffle, won't fit, or they would be top of the list. Like your Art's.  

 

While bass is largely absent, in my space, the P3's sound wonderful with the Gato dia 250. A great match. They also excel at low level listening, and reproduce natural instruments very well. Perhaps the answer is to add a discrete sub (like a small push pull 8 inch design).

 

I am coming around to the view that until we move to bigger digs, perhaps I should be happy with what I have (which I find very good) and enjoy the P3's domestic ease and integration ( for the moment I like being able to plonk them on the entertainment unit (a necessity borne of needing longer speaker cables) and having them sound good. That said I am tempted to place an order for Harbeth 30.1's, which i know will work in my space, and retain my P3's. But with stands, a 30.1 is as large as small floorstander but without the bass extension. That said, boy, they sound good for the type of music I like. 

 

I'm loving the Gato. A great all in one unit. Less boxes & cables = a good thing.

 

First world problems eh mate?

 

Enjoy Spain. I hope you travel for a holiday.

 

Cheers

Andrew

Edited by Tom.Stopforth
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  • 2 months later...

Right, it has been a while. I had a Bryston DAC here for a while but it refused to play 24/192 files via anything but USB, so it was returned. I'm now using a SimAudio DAC which matches my Simaudio renderer nicely in terms of sonics. It is also a good visual match but (i) who cares and (ii) you can't see it anyway in the newish unit. The arrival of a freestanding DAC has allowed me to fire up my Stax earspeakers for the first time in an age and prompted a bit of a tidy-up. Here is everything in action today:

 

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As the ARTs are quite sensitive 20 on the dial on the Gato is reasonably loud. We had a rip of an Earthless LP going at the time. The bass is phenomenal.... :cool: :cool:

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Looks great Olan - thanks for sharing :) 

 

My Gato blew it's power supply and is being repaired. I have borrowed a DiA 400 while it is away. Very different sound, and very muscular.

 

Settled on TD 712 II's . 

 

When are you coming through Sydney? Weather here is gorgeous atm.

 

Cheers

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Looks great Olan - thanks for sharing :)

 

My Gato blew it's power supply and is being repaired. I have borrowed a DiA 400 while it is away. Very different sound, and very muscular.

 

Settled on TD 712 II's . 

 

When are you coming through Sydney? Weather here is gorgeous atm.

 

Cheers

 

Woah, we have given the Gato a serious running in and it has never even broken sweat. It did an eight-hour stint at the HiFi Wigwam show last March without even getting warm. Have you been trashing yours Andrew, or was it a power surge that did it?

 

Looks like I will be in Melbourne from mid-December to end of January and then in Sydney for most of February. I'll bung you a PM when the dates firm up.

Edited by htm_1968
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I forgot to mention the Rugby......my English pals have been very quiet since about 3 hours ago. :party I can only presume that they decided not to watch the game. Surprising really as they never shut up about it all week. I wonder what happened :D ?

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  • 4 months later...

Some new additions and a return to thermionic amplification! Sheer madness when you consider the system as was three years ago :oops: . Still, it is all good fun.

25181340851_ce26755d70_z.jpg
The speakers are the usual ART Audio Anlico 8. Cabinet by stump furniture. The Gato DIA250 has gone and in return I obtained an Icon Audio LA4 and a pair of Rank Concept mono blocks.

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So from top to bottom:

On top: Stax SRM 323S and SR 307 earspeakers, Icon Audio LA4 pre-amp, LP12/Keel/Urika/Aro/DVXX2 II
Shelf 1: Linn Radikal, Moon 100D DAC and MiND180 Renderer
Shelf 2: Nakamichi Cassette Deck 2 and various bits and pieces
Bottom: Rank Concept 2 monos and Xindak distribution block.

The listening room looks a bit like this:
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That is the view from the pilot's seat. The view in the other direction is like this:

25248232146_70a38a1946_z.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

OK, so 18 months on and there have been some further changes. The LP12 departed to be replaced (for the time being) with a Clearaudio Ambient/Lyra Helikon/Alnic HS 1201 combination.

 

The Icon Audio pre-amp was replaced by a Audio Research Ref 5 SE which is off being serviced so my LS 26 is in service. The Rank Concept monos and Moon Streamer and DAC also survive.

 

 I've ordered new speakers to replace the ART Alnico 8s. The replacements are ART Diamond 12 which are 3-way speakers that absolutely dwarf the Anico 8s. The speakers in shot are the dealer's demo set. I'm probably going to go for the same walnut/black finish on the new speakers. The Diamonds are astonishing speakers, simply the best transducers to grace my listening room. At 90kg each they are also the heaviest by some margin.

 

The Alnico 8s are about 50 kg each and look tiny next to the new speakers. Hopefully this post isn't too much of a mess, I've never uploaded from an iPad before.

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  • 3 weeks later...


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