G'day Gentlemen, trust your 2015 has gone off to a flying start!
I was just relaxing this evening after a hard days work, listening to Sarah McKenzie, an Australian jazz vocalist, and did a quick browse through WBF to check on new things to learn... and low and behold! I came across something that perhaps we may have missed by a far margin.
During my previous visit to demo the AA Omega's, they were quite impressive driven with VTL 750's. However, the overall "launch" of sound from the Omicron's was spectacular!
Then in my earlier review of the Omicron's, at the AA dealership, I mentioned that the amplification during the demo was from Naim, I also mentioned statements. It seems that we missed out the word "statement" and just concentrated on Naim. Hence, the reaction I got from a few fellow audiophiles that my c-j gear would sound far batter than Naim...
Then somewhere on this forum, I came across a thread posted under amplification, which read "Naim Statements"; YES this is the big Statement amplifier that was driving the small bloody Omicron's, no wonder it sound so dam fantastic! These are 1000 watt monoblocks (class D amplification) and cost around 250 grand in Australia! They weigh in over 100kg and when I first saw these things, I thought they were just part of the décor, like a coffee table top or something, until the chappy actually told me that these were amplifiers from Naim. I had never seem anything like it.
That's why I came out of that demo claiming it to be the best I've heard in the last decade! There have been memorable ones, over the past 20 years, hence I cannot remember what the sound was exactly like then... The only one ribbon speaker that I really loved and once previously owned, were the Apogee's, and that I clearly do remember their signature sound.
However, these Naim Statements, I believe can drive anything out there, and their design is like no other. Materials used is craziness to the top, everything from top to bottom has been designed with a purpose and what's more crazy is who on earth would purchase a pair of 250 grand amplifiers and drive a pair of speakers that only cost around 15 grand...? Whatever the answer is in all it's silliness, I can only say one thing, the sound was absolutely stunning!
Having said that, I personally wouldn't spend that kind of money on an amp, let alone monoblocks, and the best thing is these are SS class D. Therefore, listening to tubes is far more justifiable and equally musical. The only mind boggling thing is that these Statements sounded so smooth and had all the virtues of SS & tubes put together. These amps had no flaws, I couldn't even figure out if these were amplifiers to begin with, and the listen-ability factor was 110% absolutely zero listening fatigue, and Con, the dealer chappy himself, actually sat down on the floor and listened alongside. We both agreed, you could listen to this sound for endless hours...
Anyway, I thought I'd post this one because I had clearly missed out what these Statements were all about until I came across the thread. No wonder, yes for $250,000 of amplification they better sound dam good!
Cheers to all, RJ