As been said all depends what sound you are looking for and that’s certainly different for us all.
Also depends heavily on the type of music you like.
But i have to say the 808’s certainly work very well passively driven by a great class A amp.
Also the built in x overs are built with great components as in mundorf capacitors etc, so they are very good and really it’s the amp or amps that are defining the sound when using naim
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I’m normally reluctant to pass judgement on another persons system but @HungryHalibut is right those 808s need space, and need to be away from the Linn. Sorry!
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I fully recognise it’s someone’s pride and joy, and I tried to be constructively critical. It’s a shame to see something so good set up in such a compromised way. So often to people try to squeeze too much in.
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Kudos are generally regarded as a room friendly brand but I can recall when @Polarbear had the 707s on home demo and moving them out 3/6” and giving a little more room literally transformed their performance.
I understand 808s are the least fussy of the titans re placement
Even so, his 808’s need more space which I doubt he has looking at his photo.
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The 808’s for a large speaker really do work very well in less than ideal positions.
But moving them away from the rear wall so it all clicks into place is easy to do, i have mine about 30cm, this puts the front of the speaker about 13cm from the front of my rack, gives a bit more air around it all, but more importantly it just works best like that for me, my room and my system.
So if i was you i would pull them about 30cm out and then move them backwards about 1cm at a time until it clicks into place.
How far apart are they ? 2 meters.
Sorry was asking forestm
My fault as wasn’t really very clear was i
My fault as well, it was below my post so I assumed you were asking me.
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In the real world we have to compromise somewhere, however I must tell you this sysetm has been carefully set up and sounds fantastic. I had it set up in another room in my home (8m x 5m, solid floor, no records) but that did not suit my listening habits, so it all moved upstairs. I have to say there was no huge loss of quality, but a different room brings new challenges.
The main challenge has been to get the speakers far enough away from the rear wall as quite correctly identified in other posts and I have experimented and settled on about 18cm which is within the manufacturers advised range and produces minimal resonances above 30Hz. The 808 is, as are all good speakers designed to push energy forwards not to the sides and so the front baffle needs to extend beyond any other furnishing and be well away from the rooms corners. the lower cabinets are isobarik low frequency units and handling bass to 20Hz is challenging on solid floors or floating floors as these low frequencies will inevitably create resonances unless in completely free space. Go and listen to a good organ with 64ft pipes and see what resonances take place!
The records act as a damper on a pretty flexible floor, having them where they are neutralises colouration with a variety of speakers, and the 808 are perhaps the least sensitive that I have tried. I have removed the records, but find the greatest neutrality with them sited where they are. As for the Snaxo, imagine a passive set up with the X over inside the box subject to all the energy flying around, I think it is fine where it is and Naim agree with me and the Supercap is on it’s own shelf as advised.
I did actually speak to Naim about how best to create these heaps (I am not sure Naim would like the Fraim’s described this way). They advised that the Snaxo and Armagedddon were the least likely to to suffer from electro magnetic interaction with the power amps, but that the power supplies should be on the right hand heap. They also advised that each unit should have it’s own shelf, which I will get to in due course, and if practical to put the 552 and ND 555 on the top shelves, but not mounted on wall shelves to give them space.
The turntable is attached to a brick wall which at this point is about 5ft thick and 18m tall (my home is essentially a chimney) Even when playing at 110db it does not vibrate much as It is quite solid! There is no CD player and the cables have all been carefully dressed by a dealer, but as you know unless your heaps are in free space cable dressing is a dark art!
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2.4m tweeter to tweeter
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Was thinking at work, normally that’s a bad idea.
But why would you want to run 3 x the same amp’s into say the 808’s?
As a true active speaker doesn’t run 3 x the same amp’s, it has matched amp’s to each driver so everything work’s correctly, so surely running 3 x the same amp’s is just over kill on some drive units?
As i am sure active speaker designers/manufacturers know what they are doing, plus they have the info to match everything together correctly rather than just throwing 3 x the same amp’s and hoping for the best.
It would be great to see kudos design a more appropriate active way, especially if they are going to bring out an active xover
Geoff Coleman (former owner of Acoustica) was adamant that wonky active (different amps) was a mistake for active
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If that’s true, then why do active speakers with built-in amps run different spec amps on each drive unit ?
I can see why a dealer would say it as it’s more commission in his pocket.
But as said, it crossed my mind today whilst i was filling a load of underfloor heating up, that’s all.
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different amps that were not designed to the same characteristics would probably sound weird, they could have different gain for example. In the past i did bi-amp with a pair of audiolab 8000M monoblocks on LF and and an audiolab 8000P stereo amp on HF and that combination worked fine. However Audiolab did claim that they designed the 8000A integrated, 8000P Stereo power, and 8000M monoblocks to compliment each other, so that probably why it worked.
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I’m looking forward to hear your findings, when you had the demo between NAP500 passive and 3xNC250
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Hoping to have a listen in June