500 v 2x300 active?

If it is classical music you’re aiming, then I guess you definitely should give the Magico S3 MkII a try, or Magico M2.

Unfortunately, classical music (especially symphonic music and piano) is really demanding for both amplification and speakers.

The 500 series and Magico blend really well together. You get the extreme precision of the Magicos and the speed and lifelike presentation of Naim. Outstanding!

That said, I never tried Kudos speakers. Don’t even know if there are dealers in Switzerland.

Thanks Kevin. I did actually have a dealer bring a pair of obelisks into my house - I didn’t ask, he just brought them when installing something else. Probably because I told him that at one show the smaller shahinians he had been using were the best sounding system there…

Anyway, I thought they were ok, but they didn’t really do anything for me compared to the SBLs I was using at the time. But the source and amplification here have both come on tremendously since then, so that might be a factor. Thanks for the suggestion though

Whereas all of the Titans I have heard have been the best thing I have heard anywhere - they just seem to appeal to my taste very well. Heard the 505s first at the acoustica show 2.5 years ago - spent over an hour just sitting and listening to them, enjoying them, driven I think by a 272 and 300. That was before I had the SL2s. A year later (so 18 months ago) at the same show I heard the 808s active (3x300s) and was again sitting and just enjoying them for an hour or so. Then a year ago heard 606 and 707. Loved the 707… not really taken with any other speakers - have heard ATCs (which look awful) and Linn speakers (didn’t really like the look of them either - the grills look cheaper to my eyes) both at a bit of length (an hour or two) and various others for a little while here and there but nothing has drawn me in like the Titans

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I was listening to the Titan 808s driven actively by three NAP250s at Cymbiosis last Monday, where they presented themselves rather well, although from distant memory, not as exciting as when I heard them in the same room powered by a single NAP500. But there was a long span of time between the two demos.

That said, on both occasions I thought they might make a suitable replacement should something dreadful happen to my Naim NBLs. But they’re so big - surely I’d never be able to get away with those in the house! When I got home I checked the dimensions and, to my surprise, found they’re actually smaller in all three axes than the NBLs. So it seems they just look bigger than they really are. Best of luck!

CORRECTION: I must have misread the width in the spec. and confirm that although shorter and not as deep as the NBLs, they are ~60mm wider.

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Thanks. There does seem to be a split in opinions on active so it isn’t a foregone conclusion that it is better - although I preferred it on 707s going from 1x300 to 2x300, that doesn’t mean a single 500 wouldn’t be better (to my ears). And on 808s it’s 3 more boxes - 2 for 500, and 5 for 3x250s (snaxo and supercap). With 2x300s at the moment, it would be four shelves saved to go to a single 300 (now) and possibly single 500 in the future. So I could go from 2x6 levels to 2x4 levels

Fair point, Dave - but it isn’t Jason in my living room with my ears, and I am looking to decide for myself rather than rely on his views (or anyone else’s) - except insofar as I am placing some reliance on other people’s views in trying out the 808s in the first place :grimacing:

I ended up with active because lots of people told me I should, and I want to decide independently. And with what I have in my house now to px (not just the active bits in the main system but study system and also some other bits and pieces) I am able to make a move to 808s laying surprisingly little out

Absolutely fair enough Tim. I’m sure it will be stunning whichever way you go :+1:t2:

I was just editing my post to add that I literally have no space to add a second 555 for my nd555, so getting rid of shelves in this way may bring performance improvements elsewhere, and if I am ever to get 808s the time is now with the px value of what I have it’s a doable jump but in a few years it might not be doable (or might be doable but painful)

(Edited to apologise for lack of punctuation )

When you think about it all, you really should invest more into the speakers than the amp side, as that will almost certainly bring bigger gains.
Right now tim has it completely the other way round, i guess you could argue that the sl2 in today market might be around the 6k mark, dont know if people would buy them at that price theses days, but i feel its probably a fair price to give them, even so its still one sided.

Running active can certainly work well, but its more an 80’s and 90’s thing, that naim pushed, for there speakers, great as it sold more boxes and it did inpove the naim speakers, mainly because the xovers they used didnt get the same attention to detail, shall we say.

Moving on then, for me certainly i wouldn’t want to feel i needed to go back to active to make my speaker’s work properly, yes i know the titan speakers can be used active and i guess it works well for some that already have the active kit, but it shows to me the big split you get about it on titan speakers, that it’s so close its not worth the hassle, un like naim speakers that i feel everyone would prefer the active.
I don’t think i would worry about active at all tim, get the 808’s in on the 300dr and see if you like them and they fit, then if you feel the need try a 500dr at some point, as i found the 500dr quite different to the 300dr, and if you have a 552, then the pair together really are something

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Kudos design and manufacture the Titan range to include the option of active. They also promote running active.

Yes and?,
Its still not what most people or manufacturers do these days, unlike years ago, as there is no real need these days.
Speakers much better design, amps much better and more importantly crossovers much better.

I guess giving owners the chance to spend more money, is always a good idea, but really for the same cost, lets say,
3 x 250 dr, snaxo, supercap, then 6 runs off speaker cables, 4 mains cables and then shelves, against
500dr, 2 runs off speaker cable and a mains cable.
By all accounts the sound is very similar, but one way is so much easier and going forward much less hassle and cost.

Probably running 3 x 500dr’s or maybe 3 x 300dr’s would make the difference, but then the costs involved, you would be better to once again get a better speaker and amp in the first place?

Pass labs active crosover. With 4 Bryston amps. You have to add a pre and source. Apparently they don’t do it anymore.
Who wants to have so many boxes at home today ? The popular tendency is high end integrated.

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I’m surprised to read that crossovers are better.

What’s changed with crossovers; I would have thought (as a layman with an electronics background) that the analogue filter techniques haven’t changed greatly (if at all) in the last 25 years. Maybe components are better?

Genuinely interested!

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Some people have an issue with cross-overs… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Better design and components used.

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In the not too distant past the layouts of crossovers were truly horrible. I remember rebuilding a Warfedale 708 crossover I carefully spaced the components and hard wired it…it transformed the speaker … they tended to treat it as an exercise of how small can we make it…then let’s put the whole caboodle nice and close to a dirty great speaker magnate…

Well the lovely Helen doesn’t like the look of tineo from the picture I showed her, thinks oak would be better (I agree anyway, I think, though haven’t seen oak finish “in the wood”). Am holding back from showing her a photo of the full speakers just in case she takes fright :grimacing:

no eta yet for the dem pair of 808s - hopefully in the next few days

I suspect either would work well. You have lots of dark furniture so I could see the darker tineo working, though perhaps it’s a bit too stripey. You can’t really go wrong with oak but it’s perhaps a bit dull.

The dark tineo isn’t available any more. A dark colour would need walnut but I am not keen on more dark stuff (though it would be closer to the piano dresser and table/chairs I suppose). And the oak is very much an unknown quantity.

It will in any event depend how they look in the room, which is a function of how the light falls on them. We have had some astonishing experiences with paint samples looking like completely different colours a few inches apart to the extent that I had to draw in a line between the samples to convince myself it was the same paint

We’ve had that with Farrow & Ball Estate Emulsion, which can look so different on different walls and in different lights. That’s the joy of it I suppose. There’s oak and there’s oak. We have three items in the sitting room - an Ercol bookcase, a nest of tables made locally, and a veneered TV stand. All look completely different.

What do you think of the difference between the DBL and the 808s?