By Rafe Arnott
6:45 p.m.
If I’m not tapping my toes or bobbing my head with Johnny Cash cranked then I start to get a bit weirded out.
So it was when I sidled into the Naim/Vienna Acoustics room put up by Hi Fi Centre and tried unsuccessfully to wedge my 6′ 2″ frame into a decent listening position.
The system consisted of a NAP 250 feeding Naim’s newest NAC-N 272 Streaming Preamplifier being run off an iPad loaded with mostly 16/44 files. Speakers were the latest Vienna Acoustics Beethoven floor standers.
The system was easy to use and the setup looked the business; typical Naim greys and blacks and super slick. I confess that I’m unabashedly preferential to a big, meaty sound that doesn’t give you an option on emotional engagement, but this sound was very ‘hi-fi’ to my ears (think “clean, very neutral”, but IMHO, a bit too polite).
To me, it would be perfect if you want a system to play music on and not have to think about it: background for dinner, weekend parties or to impress your teen son that his iDevice can truly sound good.
