Cables more hype than value?

Ofcourse you can and you are allowed to be happy :) with your Naim. It still often depends about knowledge. There are enough peolple with sets which are based and focused on sound. ( very important part) I understand why people like Naim. It has a nice sound and is very good in dynamics. Low freq. have a very important and positive influence on our emotion. But in the world of the absolute sound/ highend a 3-dimensional sound sets music to a new and higher level. I had many conversations about this with shopkeepers, musicians and audio manufactures. They all agree about wenn we are talking about the absolute sound. And what you need. I played for a long time with the best speakers B&W makes. But cause of live music, shows and auditions I had to agree that there was an important and essential part to the absolute sound missing. This is depth. Not only depth makes music more stunning. Also a wider stage has a very important influence on this.

@ Mrtennis, Hi, Thankyou for looking into the tubes in the vincent for me, Tube Roll!

Bo1972, You feel that the source component alone at the beginning of the signal will either make or break the 3-D image regardless of what follows? I have nice other stuff further down the chain :)

I have a 12ax7 and two mullard 6922 picked out. since I will review the unit, I must get permission from the distributor to review the player using NOS tubes.

In my own Vincent cd s6, I am using a tesla 12ax7 and mallard gold pin 6922.

A source is able to break the 3-D image. What I did was using speakers and amps which cab give a deep and wide stage. After this you can test sources how they buid a stage. So you easilly can hear if they are 2 or 3 dimensional. It is quite easy. And yess there are big differences between all the brands. Testing speakers is the same. Use amps which can give a deep stage and compare speakers how they build a stage. Even with cables it is the same. For example; I sold a lot of Nordost for over 9 years of time. So I did hundreds od tests with Nordost cables. So it was easilly to hear and compare with others how they react.The biggest advantage of all these tests is that I can bring in missing properties/talents which should be in a set which are not there. In 10 seconds I know of every system what is there and what is missing. I can even describe the stage and were instruments and voices are standing. I also can hear the sound in those 10 seconds. And how big instruments and voices are projected. And how the low freq. are and if there are any layers within the low freq. And also how much resolution/information there is. Most people who use audio as a hobby often can hear one of two parts of all the parts were you Judge a system for. This is the main reason why often there ssytems miss essential parts which should be there. Tje nice thing about cables is that you can bring in new properties/talents which are not there.That is why I love cables and what you can change in every system.