Luckily, I had the aid of a friend of mine, who also happens to be an audiophile. And He brought with him some LS cable which we could use. We started with a decent check to see if everything is connected the right way. (Seems to be) And if the crossover frequency, gain, phase etc were in order. Resulting in taking the gain a bit lower, and the crossover a bit higher. Then we listen to the setting I have for a couple of years now. I.e. Nova connected to the Harbeths p3 esr with 2 times NACA 5 terminated by my dealer with airlock plugs on both sides. As to be expected the bass stayed the same and no changes in sound were noticeable.
Next set: we took the cables (2x3.5 metres Chord Clearway factory terminated with banana plugs from Chord) from my vintage Quad (33/306) set and plugged them into the Nova and speakers. Not a good idea. It sounded even worse (not much, but a bit) So over to the Third set of cables.
Audioquest rocket 44 with spades Dealer connected) We had the impression we nailed it. The bass was a bit tighter. But the highs became Harsher and did not sound right. And there was a Hum audible. (epic failure) so over to the next more exclusive set.
Naim super Lumina: factory terminated with Naim own connectors) The resolution and the details plus the soundstage were phenomenal and way better then I experienced with the Naca 5. (which is odd, because I am a non-believer in Cables and interconnects, maybe I must rethink?) But the overall bass was still incoherent and muddy and stayed the same as with the Naca cables.) So that was not an option. And at this point we stopped and came to the conclusion that the Muddy bass had nothing to do with the connection or LS cables. It must be something else. And then we both at the same time, had a bright idea ( sometime this happens in Holland) Why not bring the Quad set over ( who has a decent bass) and an extensive set of tone controls) to the same place were the Nova is. And we did.
Suspense-The same muddy bassâŚSo it has te be something else, and my guess would be the place and alignment of the speakers. In general acoustics. Could not think of anything else) but that is another thing, and I will address that next weekend.
The only way to find out is to try it (unless you use software such as REW to measure your room acoustics, which can be worthwhile). Moving speakers will change the sound, especially the amount of bass you hear in your listening position. However, it is also possible that your room has bass nodes caused by its dimensions that cannot be reduced to an acceptable level by speaker positioning.
It is not as easy as you might think. The thing is that as you can see on the picture of the lay-out of my room, that there are no straight walls. The only straight wall I have is the one on the right side , but that is already taken by large windows. The red dots represents the speakers, and the yellow dot my listening position.
So you see it is not possible to line up the speakers in a horizontal line. Any thoughts welcome.
No need to change the whole layout of the room, play with the position of the speaker, e.g. put them further in the room, 10 cm can make a diffrence already.
I feel your problem lays within the nature of the Nova. I too have experienced this boomy / muddy bass. I have tried several different Novas in my home with different cables and two different speakers and couldnât solve the issue. Then I switched to the Nait XS3 (&2) with the ND5XS2 and the bass just fell into place. Tighter, better control and the muddy bass was gone and more punch. The highs of the Nova seemed a bit brighter though than on the XS combination but I am not 100% sure about this.
The Nova sounds richer and fuller than the XS combo but also less controlled. The XS series always was less full and rich than the Supernait for example and this slight leanness might make for the less muddy bass in my opinion. I would say a Supernait 2 or 3 would give more richness and a fuller sound but with better grip than the Nova. I guess you can keep trying everything you can but it will be hard to solve.
I believe the topic starter has moved a completely different set into the room (Quad) with similar results ⌠I recognise the Renards regarding the SN1 however
