Maybe it’s a bit obi wan kenobi. You will know when you get there
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Glad to help
I have the Confidence 20s. I now have them in a garden room, supplied by a used Nova and a used NAP 250DR which I bought at a great price (presumably the result of the new kit recently launched). I felt their bass response was too light. That’s why I prefer the Specials. I augmented the bass response to the C20s by REL T/9x x 2. The C20s now sound great. It’s different from the main listening source - 500DR with the Specials - just different. I cannot swap them over as the 500 kit won’t fit anywhere else. Old age has few compensations. I guess I have earned it.
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Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Winston C
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Thanks for the post. I presume the Confidence 20s were used with the NAP 500DR when the remark on the light bass response of the speaker was made. Perhaps the downfiring bass port of the C20 has reduced the bass output of the speaker when compared to the rear-ported Heritage Specials.
Disregarding the difference in bass performance between the Confidence 20 and Heritage Special, how do they compare in the midrange and treble? Is there any noticeable difference in the delivery of nuance and detail? In other words which speaker is more transparent and has better clarity, or perhaps both are almost on the same level? I presume the reproduction of tonality of instruments and human voice is the same with both speakers.
What is usual? Most people’s living rooms are different from 2 another!
I’m glad that you’re happy with what you ended up with but I’m curious as to why you didn’t try out the Kudos Titan 505? As someone who auditioned the Heritage Specials and ended up with the 505s instead you would think that they would be the panacea to the 808s being too large.
From what I’ve read, and with bass and scale aside, the 505 most resemble the 808 in the Titan line by merit of their shared tonality and character whereas the 606 and 707 are slightly different beasts in those respects.
Five years? My habituation span is normally a couple of weeks. After that, the sound seems predictable and mildly boring and the old one is forgotten. From that point on, it’s only a tenuous hope in something else.
(But this is true with Naim. With other brands it’s usually a couple of days, if not hours).
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2 sofas, 2 armchairs, curtains, carpets, fireplace, solid walls….
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The usual stuff then.
Not sure that is usual: I think a single settee is more common than two, with number of chairs variable, and these days many houses don’t have fireplaces, while lot of people seem to eschew carpets and curtains. As for the “etc”, people might or might not have bookcases and/or LP/CD racks lining walls, and there might be a TV hanging on the wall, or sitting on a large media unit. So just saying “usual” conveyed nothing meaningful
I have reached the stage where I too am very happy 
with my system .
It plays acoustic very well as it does with spoken word, some classical and the odd jazz session on R3HD is amazing.
The system is pared down for items and maxes out on a sound per pound basis. It is my end system or so I thought 
.
If I move , then it will be into a flat, that brings up the thorny question of how I listen to the system , so I would say that the end system of today may need changing as our circumstances and health changes
I think you have described it better than me. It may be a high quality performance from the system, a very good sound but after listening to it every day for years (weeks in your case 
), that high quality sound has somewhat turned to “normal” or boring.
I suppose it’s just a case of curiosity about how other gear/speakers will sound although one may be perfectly happy with the current system.
Whilst I recognise the process of getting used to the sound and it becoming normal, forgettimg the old, I’ve never got bored with it - I forget the “sound” and simply listen to the music - and that can be as boring or stimulating as one wants. Perhaps I am lucky and that is just my psyche (I have never been “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” kind of guy), or perhaps my choices of hifi gear in my progression over the decades have somehow just suited my sound preference.
If as a person you are easily bored, always wanting something new, then there is probably nothing that would actually keep you satisfied, and the answer might be to have a collection of so many components that every month or so you change to a different combination, keeping enough kit for numerous permutations, and periodically swap out any piece that consistently doesn’t give you even a couple of weeks of satisfaction. But if normally you are not easily bored and constantly wanting change, this being unique to hifi, perhaps the answer is either find a new style of music(!), or ditch all your kit and go out to find something completely different, pointedly not buying anything you have previously had, maybe no brands you have previously had (but remain on this forum to report!).
Like most on here, I’m less than brilliant at conveying what I hear in words. But Jonathan Gorse of this parish runs ATC with Naim and has reviewed them together in Soundstage. As a professional reviewer he is much better at describing what he hears than I am, so might be worth a read. Similarly Jason Kennedy’s review of 272 with active ATC SCM 40s in HiFi+ could be worth a look. Interestingly, the suggestion for reviewing that combination came from Salisbury.
We all hear things differently, but those guys at least have some expertise in putting their listening experiences into words.
Roger
I have heared 808 and 606 with only a few days in between. They share very similar sound characteristics to my ears
Confidence 20’s on a Vitus RI-101-2 here. The HS’s do sound lovely but the bass port arrangement and the looks of the 20’s swung it in favour of the extra expense.
It is a marvellous pairing 
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I use my hi-fi to exercise my musical curiosity not the other way around.
My philosophy is to have the same attitude to “stuff” (cars, motorcycles, hi-fi, golf equipment etc, etc) as I do to our washing machine. If it ain’t broke it don’t need changing.
That’s not my experience and I found I needed to do a bit of tube-rolling in my DAC to cure excessive bass boom. I do have them in quite a small room though. Glad to hear you’re still enjoying them with the RELs. To have both C20’s and HS’s is a very nice place to be! I’ve hung on to my S40’s which will come back into use at some point this year.
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