Just looking for anyone who may have experience with this…
I use Wilson Benesch Act One Evolution speakers and am looking at potentially adding the WB Torus Sub… Heard them demo’d together and someone has one for sale at reasonable price…
Connectivity looks interesting as the Torus amp takes a feed from either a second speaker output which my Nap 500 doesn’t have, or via RCA output from the pre-amp, in my case a 552.
Given that option A is a non starter, is there a way to have the 552 send the same input signal out to two separate devices at the same time?
Yes. If the sub is close to the 552, another feed from the 552PS will be fine as it has multiple outputs. It won’t drive long cables though so any interconnect over 3m is not wise.
Alternatively, you can attach jumpers at the speaker end of your speaker cables and run those to the sub.
Thanks for the note. Just to be clear, the Torus has its own amplification in a separate unit, which would sit in my rack… are you saying the 552 can send a parallel signal to both this, and my 500?
Jumpers from the speakers doesn’t sound too appealing as they are on 3m cables.
Yes, the back of the 552PS has 3 identical outputs. Currently one will be towards your NAP500 and 2 are still available. Or if you are using a twin lead configuration 2 will be in use and 1 will still be available. You just need to appropriate DIN to RCA lead from there to your sub. But remember, unlike many preamps, the Naim ones are not equipped to drive long interconnect cables.
So a standard Naim lavender DIN4 to stereo RCA of 3m or less would be sufficient. Any longer and you risk causing the 552 to become unstable and taking jumpers from the speaker end would be a better option.
Bridged power amps like the 500 require a special type of cable connection, so it’s probably just as well that you plan to use a low level connection. This would be from the third DIN4 output on the 552PS.
With the separate power amp that the Torus uses, you will hopefully be able to use a fairly short cable, avoiding the need for slugged cables where the sub amp is a long way from the rack.
Those Torus subs are impressive, if you can get one well integrated into your system and room it should sound great.
I currently have exactly this set up (pending my Resolutions being built) and discussed the connections with both Naim and WB. The only way of doing this is to connect the spare 4 pin DIN output from the 552PS to the 2 x RCA low level input on the Torus amp. The cable should not be slugged and you should keep the length below 5 meters. You must not use a high level connection with the 500 (either at the amp or the speaker terminals) since, as has been pointed out, the 500 is a bridged design and you will risk damage.
The combination of the ACTs plus Torus is excellent. The latter adds a sense of space, depth and ‘air’ which is hard to describe but very worthwhile.
I have been impressed by what I have read of the Torus, seemingly a very capable beast, though apparently not a linear response to very bottom, and I have concerns about its performance if playing at realistic levels as although its “sensitivity” is given as 100dB, from reviews I’ve read it may be that is it’s max output rather than the more normal rating of dB/W. It’ll be interesting to learn of your impressions as there don’t seem to be many people using them.
A few years ago now, we auditioned WB ACT speakers and also WB Discovery speakers on the end of a Naim CDX2/XPS2, 282/Supercap/135 set up.
The ACTs ticked all the Hifi boxes in terms of performance, yet music sounded flat, lifeless and uninvolving. As an experiment, we placed a Torus in between the speakers, hooked up its control unit to the amp and tried again.
The effect was genuinely transformational. Music sounded almost the same, yet it had so much more life, vitality and emotional involvement. It was superb. There was no perception of extra deep bass yet bass line timing had sharpened up tremendously. Even more impressive and surprising was the impact on voices, violins and guitars, where the texture of each note was better resolved and more lifelike.
We were completely sold, were it not for the aesthetics of having a large black dustbin in the middle of the room…
Hey Billy, Just checking on on the Resolutions with the Torus… you have everything installed yet?
My Torus just arrives, will be pairing with my Act 1’s and 500/552 this weekend…