The naim is fantastic, it gives great rhythm and improves the treble of the magnepan. The bass is tight and precise, powerfull enough, and is well delivered by the magneplanars, which always make the bass sound real and uncanny, with a great soundstage. So the naim gives pace rhythm and timing, precision, the impression of live music with the feelings at first, with accurate bass and very clear trebles. The Magneplanars make the mids sing wonderfull warm, have a great soundstage and a 'juicy' but accurate bass, that leaves the real instrument's timbre untouched. I think this system is wonderful for jazz, and does a great job with classical chamber music, small ensembles, baroque music, singers (opera), etc. (a Mahler's symphony would probably need a bigger budget, but it's still okay). I was looking for a CD player, but I was also reading on how CD's never sound as warm and live as vinyls. But, some day I read about Rega cd players that sound very warm, live, and gives to cd's a bit of LP's qualities, so that made the system I have today, and I think it is quite well balanced. As for vinyl, I think it's still out of my reach (I think that in order to achieve significant results over the advantage of CDs, one needs to invest a lot of money), so I'll stay with digital music for now. That leaves one way for improvment over the aging CD medium: High resolution music files streamed from my HTPC (many online download stores now offer better than Cd resolutions and I want to encourage that). So now I'm in the market for a DAC that would integrate well with my current system, and it would be great if it could have the same qualities as my current source: Rega planet 2000. I may even consider selling my cd player, if I could find something great like a CD player with a usb and/or Spdif input. thank you for your suggestions!
