Cables more hype than value?

"However, He did say the cheaper cd players and a couple of the cheap pre-amps have hard wired tubes!, mmmmm."

That's incredible. Hard wire tubes? At some point they are going to go bad and will need to be replaced. Makes no sense.

Bo1972,

I enjoyed reading your review of the Olive. I like how you compared it to other products. Its a very 3D review. It is that simple!!

Yess it is. A few clients came to me. They said: this is the end of a cd player. Why for god sake you would buy a cd player? It is Always nice to hear new things of your beloved recordings. The 384 kHz dac makes the stage wider and deeper. The control and sound realism is stunning. And after 2 weeks it is stil working!!!

I think it's really combo dependant cause, for my experience, i listened to a pair of mezzo utopia with Musical fidelity pre and power amp (can't remember the ref but top of the line anyway) with no result at all! The room was also very difficult to manage and we had to move the speakers several times inside the room to get a correct stereo image. Anyway the amps were pretty "MP3" kind of sound, not musical at all.

And you can't drive a B&W 802 with Naim! Not enought current, just watts for easy speakers. The 802 were probably the baddest speaker ever for small electronics with no juice. And even when you find big power amps, the sound still appear narrow.
One of my friend change is 802 for a pair of Usher audio BE-718. Even his child told hime that with the Ushers, it seemed that the players were in the room playing. The guy use McIntosh SS power amp and McIntosh tube pre and CD player.
It seems the new 800 serie is now driveable...

I'm quite surprise with your Onkyo reference? Depth is one thing but music is another matter! Onkyo is so colorfull and dull that even with more depth, i'm still choosing a Naim! (colored as well but fun)
Using an Audissey with Naim rather than Onkyo should give a better result. Using that kind of room correcting device during a show will certainly give a major asset to the system.

During the same audition with the MF and the Utopia, we used a Behringer room correcting device. It improved the overall sound but lost on the way all the music. It was synthetic like plastic!

It's important not to forget that we're listening to music, not just frequencies and spatial positionning.
Like i said, i'd rather choose a engaging sound, livelike and musical more than a perfect dimensional system with no life.
Anyway i appreciate your passion and your dedication to your customer Bo1972.

The old 802 was in dynamics with Naim quite good to be unnest. But the stage was too flat. And the Nu-Vista was superior in individual focus and also in resolution compared to the Naim. 802N is these days a far outdated speaker in every way. I modified the way of measuring a lot with Audyssey pro. Not only I measure at total different places and hights. WE also modified the stand for the microphone. This also gives a superior level how it can be measured normally. With the 5509 and Audyssey Pro I blew away many expensive pre amps. People don't understand it, but hear the stunning results. And this is what matters. I can think 3-4 steps further than any other people in this business. I have proven this many times since I do this work at many situations. I used the Behringer in the past as well. We sold it. It is far inferior to the level what I can achieve with Audyssey pro. I blew away my old Pass Labs XP-20 in dynamics, speed, drive, depth, wide, resolution and individual focus of instruments and voices. I hope I will get the option to blow away every set at a show in the US. It is on my list!!

@ Ibleive, Great post you did 9-24-13, I enjoyed reading it, I agree with your flavor for sound!, Awsome!