HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

I was using Naim at the time (42/5 DIY p/s nap 90)
and remember reading an article in hifi answers or audiophile where Richard, or one of their dealers would visit your home to improve your hifi.!

My nearest one was Truro iirc, which was quite a distance from me, but they were still willing to visit. Fast foward a few weeks, and a chap arrived armed with a P80, 2 x PSU's, an A60 and a pair of the original mdf boxed cube 2.

Turntable was a Pink Triangle PTTOO. Not sure what speaker I was using, possibly A&R Red Box. It all sounded fantastic, and I was hooked so saved up long an hard, and eventually brought an original p50/A40 and the rest is history as they say.

What was your first experience of NVA products.?

Had not heard of NVA six years ago. I started off with the BMU in late 2016. My signature tells the rest of the story.

And 25 years later NVA are trying to get the same scheme, with a 2022 flavour to it, off the ground.
Just need the Covid chocks to be taken away and we'll see if it flies...

And my first experience of NVA was reading Richard Dunn's contributions to pfm in the 2000's. That forum was always more interesting when he was posting there. The discussions he used to get involved in.
When he got banned from pfm I felt a natural sense of injustice. A few weeks after he started the first incarnation of this forum I found out about it and followed him over to here.

I first met Richard at a small amplifier bake-off in south London.

I can still remember seeing NVA adverts in the hifi mags mid to late 90's. The adverts always gof my attention but stupidly I never followed up on them and ended up on the Linn Naim treadmill.

I was a member of pfm when RD joined and later got banned. I liked his rants - often very long posts telling everybody exactly what he thought. It was so refreshing. Unfortunately I didn't know about HFS otherwise my release from Naim may have come sooner and saved me a lot of money and energy.

Eventually I came across HFS and spent a long time reading the archives and eventually joining. Fast forward and RD contacted me to see if I wanted to buy some amplifier boards to try in my diy amps. At the time I was modding my Avondale amplifier boards - removed input coupling cap, output zobel and thiele network. Those things made a big difference to my enjoyment of music but the NVA circuit was even better to my ears. Bought six amp boards in the end.

After trying semi omni in my diy speaker efforts I was hooked and similarly with running the mid bass wide open and only 1st order high pass on the tweeter. I ended up buying quite a few Doc mod drivers (4x12", 2x5") and later doping mg own drivers.

My first complete NVA product I bought fro RD was an AP20 integrated amp that I use in my kitchen diner. Then followed a Phono 1, BMU and several sets of LS6 speaker cable and TIS interconnect.

You could say RD very cleverly got me hooked when he offered me those nva amplifier boards. I'm very glad he did. Still pissed off I passed NVA over in the 90's but they weren't on the books at my local dealers.

I regret not coming across NVA in the early 80s when I read the magazines and was into hifi. Things would have turned out a lot differently. As it was the Glasgow mafia, Salisbury stooges, flat. earth pissed me off so much I lost interest for thirty years.

My NVA P50 + PSU and A40 stereo that I bought from Huddersfield Hifi in 1985 are still in daily use and making great music.

I'm afraid I went onto the Naim treadmill, that after owner one of Colin Wonfor's Claymore amps (what was I thinking) I can remember buying from the Sound Org York, I seem to remember they advertised NVA, but maybe I'm mistaken after all these years. I know they also sold Exposure amps and I purchased one of the bargains of the century there, a pair of Epos ES14's

I can't recall how I came across RD back in 92 but I called him up, had a chat and agreed to go and see him, working on the basis of nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I drove down to a barn conversion block of offices in Hatley St George. Richard greeted me, put on his cloak and wizard hat, bamboozled me anti hi-fi propaganda and next thing you know, I'm indoctrinated in to the NVA cult.
The RRP on what Richard proposed was the wrong side of £4k, which was £2k more than my budget. Thankfully Richard wanted a laptop and I worked for one of Europe's largest suppliers, so Richard got the most powerful Compaq laptop of the day at true trade price and I handed over £2k+ in cash and drove home with a car full of NVAs finest.
On reflection it was a fortuitous meeting because I started off on the right path. The A80s, P70(?) and PSUs are languishing in the loft. The Cubix are still going strong having been transformed , they now look very different and sound to my ears a lot better.

Thankfully, I never ended up going too far on the Naim ladder as I started down the DIY path thanks to PFM and people like Les W and Andrew L Weekes etc.

I used to buy all the hifi mags back in the late 80's and 90's, and even when you picked up the latest flat response, then later hifi review you knew that Linn and Naim would come out on top, but I still enjoyed reading them.

NVA, along with other brands such as Incatech, Magnum, Ion Systems, and Oxix which I have all owned over the years were highly recommended, but never better then a Naim

Things changed a bit when Ian Rankin started writing for Hifi review as he gave the thumbs up to the Pink Triangle Little Pink thing, and even let slip that he used a PTTOO which Frankland had earlier slated, without even taking it out the box apparently

He loved the old NVA Statement 1 monos driving his Linn Kanns

quickie2 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 8:57 pm

I used to buy all the hifi mags back in the late 80's and 90's, and even when you picked up the latest flat response, then later hifi review you knew that Linn and Naim would come out on top, but I still enjoyed reading them.

I gave up the hifi mags and lost interest in the mid 80s. I recall a comparison of high end turntables in Popular HiFi; Linn, Systemdek, Pink Triangle, Logic, JBE, Ariston. I think it was Chris Frankland. The LP12 came out on top by a wide margin. Ivor no doubt pulling the strings.