I spent about an hour listening to the Naiad - amplified by PS Audio, feeding a pair of Heco full range speakers. The cart was an Aphelion 2. The records I brought with me: Paul Chambers; Bass on Top (Tone Poet), Coltrane; Blue Train (Complete Masters), Garcia and Grisman; Bare Bones (ATO Records) and Eva Cassidy; Live at Blues Alley (Blix Street Records); the first two for lower registers, the third for strings and male vocals and the last for female vocals (and because it's a 45rpm release). I'm intimately familiar with these recordings - they don't necessarily qualify as demo room albums, but I don't really like those because of how showy they are.
The first impression I had, when Blue Train came on, was jolting. This turntable is quiet, extremely revealing and inherently dynamic. Its primary intention is that you listen, not hear. This is both good and bad (or rewarding and taxing) because while the act of collar-grabbing ensures you don't miss anything, it also prevents you from doing anything else. So I spent the next hour listening to a very serious turntable, one that was intent on acing pace, rhythm and timing, and mining atomic details from the grooves.
At the end of the hour, the gent who owns the TT brought out a demo room track - Dire Straits; Private Investigations. Like I wrote earlier, these showy tunes are outside my wheelhouse, but I'll grudgingly admit that the song achieved what my reference tracks did not (at least not to the extent that this one did). I've heard Private Investigations many times - blasted through pub speakers, piped from reference-level floor standers and even on headphones, but this was the first time I actually discerned marimbas on the track. I don't care much for marimbas (or vibes; I balk at records that list Milt Jackson or Bobby Hutcherson under personnel) but the fact that the Naiad reached down into the record and presented them in full bloom underscored its strengths.
I have a feeling the Naia, if I get it, will display three layers of lateral shift in my chain - the sound will be a little warmer (because of the Hana Blue), richer (because of the PS Audio Stellar; the Rega Aura that was in the listening room, is, I feel, rubbish) and mildly sepia-tinged (because of the MoFi SourcePoint speakers). But even if I do end up with something else, I can vouch that a) high density/mass isn't the only way to go b) the Naiad is an astonishingly good TT c) listening is demonised.
PS: I spoke to Reggie at Audio Lounge. The SME Model 8 retails for 13 lakh. I'm going to listen to it on Saturday.
PPS: As for the way the Naiad looks, eye of the beholder, one would imagine; I personally think TechDAS and its ilk are the love children of a cash register and a lathe.
PPPS: Sorry to nitpick the sepulchral analogy, but if the Rega were disinterred from a TT grave, it would stand to reason that it was interred with flesh intact, which might be hard to do for a fleshless thing
