Guys i know you will back naim up till the last man stands and thats fine, but what i was trying to say is the standard crossovers that come with sbl’s and sl2 are not great as far as quality goes, they just about do the job and thats it, they certainly could have done much better if they had wanted, but they didnt want too, as they hopped that more black boxes would be had and thats a great thing for naim.
Now going active does improve them as getting rid of the standard crossovers will do that straight away, but going active is not the only way and there are other ways to go, just take the blinkers off, just like i did and you might find it.
As said i have had naim for over 20 years and had just about it all in that time, up to 500 series and its only just recently i have started to discover that there is life after naim.
Thats all guys
‘but going active is not the only way and there are other ways to go.’
Hi Dunc.
I must admit, that I’m finding some of your comments arrogant, but I am at the same time also trying to understand your point. I don’t feel, that Naim can be blamed for designing a Xover, which isn’t a state of the art product considering, that they literally didn’t make any profit on selling SL2s in the limited numbers they ended up producing. There was of course always the opportunity to go active, which in that era was a philosophy, which Naim was a market leader to promote… and a lot of us here reaped the benefits of the whole idea from the sonic benefits, it provided. To almost approach this from the angle of a conspiracy theory pointing your finger at Naim, I find somewhat hard to swallow- but arguably I could be seen to be ‘blinkered’ and wanting to fight opposition to the idea ‘ on the beaches’.
However I would be very grateful, If you would expand on the above extract from your post, simply because I don’t understand, what you mean? Thank you Peter
There is general agreement that Naim speakers are at their best active. On the other hand, Naim always suggested taking them as far as you can passively before going active. I can’t imagine the Paxo being poorly designed or built to encourage activation. I happen to have stayed passive with a 300 on SBLs rather than active 250s. Seems fine to me.
I’m not sure if you have some particular axe to grind but it seems very strange to pop up and start slagging off the crossovers of long discontinued speakers. I wonder what your motivation for this negativity is.
I am a simple soul and wouldn’t know by looking at it whether a crossover was rubbish or not, but I really like my passive SL2s. They don’t sound rubbish at all, in fact I’ve never heard a better speaker.
No axe to grind or anything really and just saying my view on it all.
I had sbls for many years in both passive and active and enjoyed them.
I just think running active these days is not worth the expense and hassle and thats my view.
There sure is something really special about the 552DR/500DR combination Peter. Due to expecting my somewhat premature demise (now apparently not so likely), and not wanting to lumber my dearly beloved with a heap of back boxes to get shot of, I reverted to a passive system with my DBLs. Out went two 500DRs, modified 362 crossover, DR SuperCap, a complete Fraim stack, plus reams of assorted cabling. It was all quite liberating!
I’d flirted with the idea of passive a few years before, thinking I could adapt to the lesser sound after a week or two, but after a day or so I really didn’t like the result so back to active. however, this time round, even from the off it sounded, well, pretty good. But then it should do of course. OK, I’ve lost some detail, speed, maybe presence, but I do seem to have gained boogy (for want of a better word). The upshot is, I don’t miss the system’s previous incarnation. Really.
Of course, the major difference now is the DR mods to both amp and preamp. The 552 was first to get the DR treatment, with a worthwhile upgrade in sound quality, but the biggy is definitely the way DR trasforms the 500 - it really is a completely different beast.
I will very much agree with you Tony, that the whole DR technology has done wonders for our black boxes.
I’m chuffed you are feeling better in yourself now, as age slowly creeps up on us, we just have to accept ‘ to keep taking the tablets’. ATB Peter
Glad you are feeling better Tony, soon be spring, and get the top down on the Porsche convertible👍
Glad your demise is less likely Tony. From that perspective active/passive arguments seem pretty inconsequential.
I’d say try to stay active yourself as long as you manage to. Thats at least what I wish you.
Your passives system sounded superb Tony. Can still hear that base from that Led Zep track via your LP12/552/500/DBLs. 
Good to hear your feeling better too. 
Which track RackKit? 
ATB Peter
Excellent news!
Pretty sure it was ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ frim Led Zeppelin 1.
*from.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the info and the invite. Very generous and I might be passing sometime when I’m going back up to Glasgow.
Ewen.
Hi Tim, if you part ex’d or sold your other amps and crossover bits to buy Nap 500 I wouldn’t think it would be much of an extra outlay especially if you got Ex Demo or second hand.
Like the other guy suggested you could always have a home demo 500 from the shop in Chester first 
I think Dunc was referring to the Passive crossovers that come with SBL’s and SL2’s and NOT the Snaxo boxes.
Happy with what I have - if a pair of active 300s is good enough for Naim’s Jason, who am I to argue?