Sunday, August 7, 2011

Sunday Update.

I hope you're having a great weekend. I've been listening to the Sansui AU-4400 with all kinds of different speakers, primarily the Altec 5s and JBL L56s. I could happily live with either for a long time. I'm as spoiled with great speaker options as I've ever been.

I enjoyed the Naim Audio combination while it was here, but have to tell you that I don't think it sounded any better than many of the excellent vintage amps I've been lucky to have and enjoy at much more reasonable prices. In the seventies, Naim was one of the british audio manufacturers who's marketing was a calculated combination of mystique and buzz. The british audio press was complicit in putting and keeping Naim at the top of the pyramid. The combination I had was no more powerful in real world use, or more musical, than any of the black (or silver) Sansui amplifiers I've heard this year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey:

I enjoy your blog.The Old Naim
stuff is good.I wonder if they
had ever been serviced. Those old
amps usually need new caps. Once
they're up to spec they can give
alot of modern stuff a run for the
$$.

Dave Joudrey said...

I have to agree. It must have needed a recap, unless the Sansui's are ALOT better than the Marantz 2270 that I had. The little NAIM just walked all over it. Going to an Adcom GFA2 (100watts per chennel) the little NAIM was just as powerful, and had a better grip on the bass.