Getting back in the game

@asmithkash


Several things are at play here. The B&W speakers are not the easiest to drive but I will assume you are happy with the sound you are getting. The Naim gear you bought is classic and has some really cool attributes you wouldnt want to suppress. This era of Naim requires the special cables which you should probably stick with. If I recall correctly though, speaker cables with banana connections on the amp end should work fine. If you want a decently priced speaker cable, the Tellurium Q Black II has received a good deal of buzz. Your cd player is actually a pretty cool piece. That player used the Philips TDA1541 dac chip which has been used recently in a number of reasonably priced NOS dacs...Border Patrol, MHDT Orchid, etc. should be a fun listen. I have no idea how the dac implementation in the Innuos Zen Mini will compare but you will be able to compare. You can burn the cd into the Zen and the play the cd on the Naim and switch between them for comparison. Disclaimer:I have heard none of these items together or seperately, its just a road I might consider if I were in your position. Best wishes.

Also, I believe the preamp only accepts din connections so you may want to purchase some rca-din connectors. This will be required if you want to connect any rcs output devices to the naim preamps. 

Ghastly!  thanks so much.  here is what is going on in my little brain now after looking and reading some more.  i am getting a bit confused.  should i get a streamer/dac, or just a streamer and use the dac in the cd player?  I am worried about connecting to the naim cd player so should i just look at naim streamers.  am i overthinking this?

thanks for going slow with me guys

You are overthinking it. You cant connect a streamer to the naim cd3, it has no digital inputs. My advice, which is worth even less than you are paying for it, would be to buy a streamer/dac that can grow with you. Almost any quality brand will get it done.