Hi Skeptikal, I thought by keeping the TT and phono stage away from the rest of the system it would be beneficial not sure why I have done that probably read somewhere that was a good practice but yes I can switch them over to the new circuit.
I understand the importance of the source, that’s the reasoning behind my recent upgrades, basically trying to get the best out of each stage before moving forward, hence the dedicated supply and also the ndac.
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Always best connections source first.
Hope it makes a difference it’s the best way. 
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Thanks for the advice, I know how important getting the front end correct is.
I also have my eye on a pair of kudos 20a’s, have heard lots of positive comments about them but have avoided the temptation until I get what I have sorted properly.
My wife likes the look of them as well being smaller with an oak finish, she’s not a massive fan of the PMC’s 
but then she hates speaker stands as well, difficult keeping everyone happy, anyway onward and upward as they say:+1:
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PMC Fact 12? A distinct step up from the 26 in sound quality, and so slim from the front that they look positively small, so tend to be quite appealing to less hifi-enthusiastic people (don’t view from the side!) Secondhand they’re not a bad price.
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@silverback
Hi
I love Kudos speakers and would find it almost impossible to try anything else.
I have X3s and would have said they would suit you perfectly.
Unfortunately discontinued but I wouldn’t change mine.
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Just to to add my two cents regarding the PMC’s… I ran Twenty 23’s and Twenty 26’s both with a SN2 and would say the tweeters are forgiving compared to the Twenty25 series. Also found them to be very forgiving compared to the Fact 12.
SN2 was a great amp but felt too forward with Twenty25 series. So in summary, my guess would be that it isn’t the Twenty 26’s at the heart of the issue here.
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Hi Nick, I did borrow a pair of twenty 21’s from a close friend had them for two weeks the thing that sticks in my mind with those were the way they did vocals, the vocals sounded more life like you could tell straight away who the artist was much clearer.
I thought at first it was because they had a more compact sound or they just worked better in my room setup.
I know my 26’s are fine having just come back from PMC after a health check/service.
Feels strange that such a thing would happen so guessing in the back of my mind it’s an issue, sounds strange but that’s my experience in my room with the front end I have.
I spoke to a local guy who had twenty5 26’s for sale and had owned the earlier twenty 26’s his thoughts on the differences, he said the later model had a better midrange and slightly tighter bass but the tweeter was not good and I seem to remember PMC didnt run the twenty5 for long before they introduced the twenty5i range and I have seen written as good as the PMC’s are they can verge on aggressive.
So for me I think unless something else happens the PMC’s will probably end up getting swapped out at some point but before doing that I will definitely demo speakers at home first just to make sure.
Sorry for the long reply just wanted to make it clear about some of the issues involved.
Hi IB Fact 12 are a bit out of my price range especially if you factor in they level of front end that they deserve.
When you say they are a step up from the 26’s can you give me an idea in what areas just out of curiosity 
Not familiar with the twenty series, but I had auditioned the twenty5.21 (with my SN2) and they were too bright and had a “metallic” sound that I couldn’t stand. The twenty5.21i were much improved in that sense and that’s the speaker I ended up with. They are also definitely not warm, more on the neutral side, and I can also find them harsh from time to time, depending on the music that I am playing. But I couldn’t find anything better from all the speakers that I tried (apart from the Audiovector R1, which was also a very close contestant, but a bit more expensive).
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Rather than going from memory I went back to my post after auditioning back in 2016(!):
Fact 12: amazingly good bass for such a small looking speaker - but lacks the depth of either the IMF or MB2. Remarkable clarity, with individual plucked strings presented as if right there in the room. Great tautness and detail, though compared to MB2 tended to lose resolution on busy orchestral crescendo. However, the sounstage seemed compressed, giving a sort of boxed in feeling, mostly between the speakers, unlike the MB2 and IMF which spread an orchestra much wider. Overall impression was of accuracy, but not as involving as either the MB2 or IMF.
Twenty.26: bass seemed a bit constrained, and although it was taut there seemed to be a hint of resonance in the upper bass. Clarity didn’t stand out as as it did with the MB2 and Fact 12 - however i abandoned the audition fairly quickly because they just seemed inferior overall to the IMFs and not my cup of tea, so it was not worth pursuing to see if they did some things better. If that seems unkind, it is only that they were outclassed, by the others: if I were auditioning speakers only up to their price bracket the situation may have been different.
That was in a dealer’s demo room. I had taken my IMF RSPM speakers for reference to set a baseline in the room, amplification was Bryston 4Bsst. A few months late I heard Fact 12 again in a different dealer’s room (with same amp), for a DAC audition session: on that occasion I didn’t get that “boxed in” feeling, so probably speaker/room interaction (in original audition each successive pair of speakers were placed in same spots, presumably chosen as generally good by the dealer, but not carefully optimised individually).
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Massive thanks for going to the trouble and posting a response to my question loads of useful information.
I heard my 26’s many years ago along with larger models from PMC, admittedly with a very expensive Bryston front end and I was hooked hopeful that one day I would own a pair.
I know I have started backwards but thought over time I could put a descent front end together to hopefully get the best out of them in hindsight probably not the best idea but we are where we are.
I feel this issue is making me think do I stop now, find a speaker that will work with what I currently have or carry on in the hope that as the front end improves the system as a whole will finally jell.
No rush at the moment but just food for thought, again many thanks for your reply to my question.
Not at all in my view!
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Morning Scramble tried a factory reset yesterday but not totally sure if I did it correctly, my 282 has what I think is a Narcom3 remote, pressed the preamp button along the top,then pressed the program button, then held down the disp button for about 5 seconds. The lights around the input/record buttons went out but can’t say anything else appears to have happened so wondered if I have done this correctly?
I think so make sure you hold down the prog button until the volume and balance control blink to confirm its in programme mode and then hold down display.
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Cheers for that , definitely don’t remember seeing any blinking lights:joy: will try a second attempt over the weekend, off for a jolly tomorrow, day out at the Bristol show 
Evening Scramble just a quick update, tried the factory reset following your reply, got the flashing lights so all went to plan sadly I don’t think it had any effect on the system but it was definitely worth a try, many thanks for your guidance.
Definitely worth trying. I have no idea why but with mine before I reset it the soundstage was always pulling a bit to the right now it is central so something was definitely off before. So happy days listening to Dark Side of the Moon and hearing lots of detail I have never noticed before and sounds now sweep across the room as I have always thought they should
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Just an update of progress so far, we seemed to have reached a consistent point regarding the warm up issue, not sure if the dedicated mains had settled in or the cycling of the input selectors has helped or even just going through all of the system connections but generally now about 20-30 minutes warm up and we are good to go.
Have also tried a different set of speaker cables to try and find an answer to the hardness in the sound but that didn’t work, still thinking the combination of PMC’s and 282 maybe the root cause but going to have a play around with speaker positioning from across the room to playing down the length of the room just to get an idea if we have some weird room issues at play, after that it will be a rethink as to the next step, still feel I need to add a 250dr in place of the 200dr.
I did speak to a well respected dealer recently and he suggested moving to a supercap as this may help especially if the long term plan was a 252.
Personally I’m not sure which route to try at the moment, as he pointed out getting demo’s of the older classic equipment is getting a little harder as dealers are obviously focusing on the new range.
250dr and the supercap would effect all of my sources where as adding something like a xpsdr to the ndac will only benefit the digital side.
Will keep trying hopefully we will get there in the end.
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Just wanted to update the thread, after being away from home for a week (system still powered up) sat down for a listen and it’s sounds bloody awful, hard, compressed, aggressive not good at all.
I couldn’t listen to it as it was so for some unusual reason I decided to put on the tv, then thought the tv is connected to the streamer with an optical cable I’ll try that for a different source, YouTube on, found some hires stuff, smooth blues or something similar and was totally shocked at how good it suddenly sounded.
I have no idea what audio is coming from YouTube through the tv but it sounded great, 2 to 3 hours later, reverted back to the streamer and all sounds well again.
I have no idea what is happening here but it’s starting to get the better of me, starting to wonder if this is why so many people seem to go to a nova and sod all the black boxes, must be post holiday blues setting in 
.
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You’ve calmed down and mood has changed all good
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