As a child in the ‘70s our family music system was a radiogram in a teak cabinet with eerily glowing valves inside. Well, they were eerily glowing until 1980 when it electrocuted my father and as a result, he purchased a Technics rack system which proved to be revelation in terms of sonics and health and safety. I was just eleven years old and the arrival of the Technics with its sleek style and impressive LED displays coincided with my developing interest in music. I was staggered at the huge improvement in clarity, dynamics and accuracy of the Technics and I began buying hi-fi magazines to learn more about the science and art of sound reproduction.
The Technics was located in the main lounge of our busy family home and so unfortunately, I had to work my listening sessions in around my mother’s daily dose of TV or else listen on headphones. By 1985 I had saved up enough money to buy a pair of loudspeakers for my bedroom and chose the original Mordaunt Short MS30 loudspeakers to connect to the second speaker outputs of the Technics. Concerned about which speaker cables to use for such a long cable run, I called Mordaunt Short for guidance and was put through to co-founder Rodney Short, who mindful of my schoolboy budget recommended 5 amp twin core mains cable. I still vividly recall bringing those loudspeakers home and my father helping me to lay the cables neatly all the way upstairs to my room. The excitement of playing a record downstairs and for the first time hearing it emerge from my beautiful new loudspeakers in the bedroom stayed with me for life and I’m often reminded of it when as a reviewer I connect up a new pair of speakers for the first time.
I began buying records and was fortunate that CD launched in 1983 which meant that new vinyl was heavily discounted in many stores. Back then record shops had bins full of new vinyl records selling for anything between 99p and £2.99 and as a result I was building a vinyl collection at quite a rate. I owe my extensive record collection to the fact that for years I simply couldn’t afford to move to CD!
By 1988 I was heading for university and needed a turntable and amplifier to complete my system. I purchased a Systemdek IIX turntable with Linn LVV Basik arm and A&R P77 cartridge second-hand for £145 from a local enthusiast who had upgraded to an LP12. At that time the original Arcam Alpha was the leading budget amplifier for fiscally constrained audiophiles and so I arranged a demo at my local specialist dealer, Hi-Fi Systems of Southport. I had become a frequent visitor to the shop which was run by two incredibly welcoming brothers. My sixth form college was nearby and I would often go there at lunchtimes to drool over the rows and rows of Naim amplification and Linn Sondek LP12s in the shop. This was the stuff of my schoolboy dreams and I would devour with relish the hi-fi magazines of the day with their accounts by Malcolm Steward of Naim six pack active systems or articles by Ken Kessler on the sublime SME Series V. Such esoteric equipment was utterly beyond my student means, but through their illuminating prose I was sharing the experience of hearing such esoterica with them. The chaps at Hi-Fi Systems understood my enthusiasm and would invite me in, make me a cup of tea and then play me those dream systems I was reading about. I suspect I was the only 18-year-old for miles around who actually knew what an LP12 and Linn Isobarik loudspeakers actually sounded like.
At the end of the Arcam Alpha demo when I was about to sign on the dotted line for £129 they said, “Jonathan, we’re just going to try something if you don’t mind”. In came a Naim Nait, on went Pink Floyd’s The Wall and my life was changed forever. The sheer exuberance and visceral punch of the Naim was so far beyond the Arcam that I knew I had to have it. The Nait listed at £255 but the shop offered to sell me their demo model for £200 and to hold on to it for me until I could save up the rest of the money by working at my bar job over the summer. I pulled as many shifts as I could until that little Nait was mine, knowing that every pint I pulled took me closer to my goal. My audiophile journey had begun…
Of all the systems I have ever owned that one probably got the most use and gave the most pleasure in smiles per pound. It took me through my student days and into my first job until I upgraded the turntable to a beautiful new old stock Ariston RD110SL in 1992, that rare turntable is still giving sterling service in my daughter’s system over 30 years later. The Ariston was rather similar to an early LP12 as they shared a common heritage. The Nait resides in my study system and has been an utterly engaging musical companion since 1988.
Over the years my main system has evolved and now features a Michell Gyrodec equipped with the venerable SME Series IV tonearm, both of which had featured heavily in my adolescent aspirations. Record grooves are traced by a Lyra Kleos SL cartridge which I fell in love with quite recently when I reviewed it. I still use Naim amplification to this day and enjoy the Naim NAC82/NAP250/Hi-Cap driving ATC’s simply astonishing SCM40 loudspeakers. This system provides the brick through a plate glass window punch and dynamics that is inherent in live music and I feel delivers the sound I have been chasing in my head since 1981. Live music is an emotional experience whether it is a girl with a guitar in a bar or the LSO going full tilt in the Albert Hall and I have always sought components that convey the emotion and transparency of the live experience. Nowadays much of my music is streamed via Naim’s venerable NDX2 and Tidal but I still buy and play vinyl and CD so consider myself format agnostic. In my view as you upgrade both analogue and digital sources the sound converges, because both close in on providing an accurate rendition of the original master recording.
I’m relatively unusual amongst reviewers in that my two-channel audio system is integrated into a 5.1 projection-based cinema system too. Films and cult TV are probably almost as important to me as music and so I have built a system that delivers both to a very high standard. I delight in the ability of both mediums to transport me away from my day job as an airline pilot into a world of music and films that I love.
Over the years I have written for a number of audio publications including Hi-Fi News under two different editors, Hi-Fi Choice very occasionally as well as T3 and Naim’s in-house customer magazine Connection. I currently write for Soundstage Ultra, the high-end arm of the Soundstage Network and am delighted to be joining The Ear as a contributor.
The system
Turntable: Michell GyroDec turntable with SME Series IV tonearm and Lyra Kleos SL cartridge
Phono preamplifier: Trichord Research Dino Mk 3 with Never Connected Dino+ power supply, PS Audio Stellar phono stage
Streaming DAC: Naim Audio NDX 2
CD player: Naim CDI
4k/Blu-Ray player: Cambridge Audio CXUHD
Preamplifier: Naim NAC 82
Power amplifier: Naim NAP 250
Power supply: Naim HiCap
AV Amplifier: Emotiva MR1
Loudspeakers: ATC SCM40 front, ATC C3C centre, Naim SBL rear channels
Subwoofer: REL HT1510 Predator II
Projector: Optoma UHD55 4k DLP projector
Screen: 106” Grandview Edge Fixed Frame Screen
Record Cleaner: Keith Monks Prodigy Plus RCM
Power: Dedicated 100A mains spur feeding two Graham’s medical-grade, six-gang power blocks. Naim Hydra, Naim Power-Line Lite
Cabling: Chord Company Sarum T loudspeaker cables, Naim NAC A5 loudspeaker cables, Naim interconnects on most Naim amplification; Chord Co. Sarum T Super Aray XLR, Chord Co. Signature X Tuned Aray DIN-RCA, Chord Co. SignatureX RCA-XLR, Chord Co. Epic X Aray RCA. Chord Co. Epic X Aray interconnects for phono stages, Vertere Redline RCA-XLR between Hi-Cap and NAP250, QED interconnects for secondary sources
The music
Del Amitri, Deacon Blue, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush, Maisie Peters, Remember Monday, Tanita Tikaram, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Blue Nile, Vivaldi, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Belle and Sebastian, Shostakovich, Bob Seger, Mazzy Star, Roxy Music, James, Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, Santana, The Verve, Kenny Burrell, Glenn Miller etc