It’s very good. However, however, I’m sending it back.
My 3.5/flatcap (with Hiline) is 25 years old and I fancied a change. And a perceived step up.
The naim had a new mech some years ago and at the same time naim put some new bits in it (I can’t remember what) resulting in it coming back as what sounded like a completely new player and a huge step up at the time. I don’t know if they could do the same again now if needed and that’s on my mind.
The Roksan carries many similar attributes to the old naim but is a little more detailed. Also a little more dry. The naim has ever so slightly more boogie and ‘air’. Both have big soundstages and are lots of fun. But there is very little in it and after a lot of listening a/b’ing, running in, cable swaps and downtime in between, I chose to the keep the Naim. There really was so little in it and ultimately I prefer the naim on balance so I figured there was no point in keeping the Roksan.
However if I was buying fresh I would defo. consider the Roksan. I can at least drop a hint of the dealer who supplied it if you like? Especially at this ‘B’ stock price (there is zero wrong with it) it’s really very nice indeed.
For B110s, 20 minutes at a moderately high level at 20Hz usually gets you about 90% of the way. You can get the signal for this from an internet sine wave generator. Be careful of the volume, though, as at least one of these sites that defaults to full volume, so have the whole PC volume setting low to begin with, as well as any volume control on the webpage.
This is usually done with the driver out of the box so you don’t hear much. You can also move the frequency up towards its free air resonance where there’s a much higher impedance so much less voice coil heating. In the box it’s a bit harder. You want about 9mm of excusion peak to peak, which is quite easy to see. But not much more as the damage limited excursion is around 12mm. It will survive hitting the end stops but it’s probably not a great idea with a brand new pair of speakers. One thing to look out for is that if there are air leaks, it will tend to evacuate the air from the box (which only gets restored quite slowly by the 1 atmosphere of air pressure outside) sucking the driver inwards, and possibly making it hit the end stops, even with just 9mm of excursion. You will get some warning, though, before it does it hard. Also, as it loosens up, its excursion will increase. So supervising it to begin with is probably worthwhile.
You will hear the signal (and probably some air leaks too, unless they take a good deal of trouble to make sure they are fully sealed - which, of course, neither the BBC or KEF did) so that will limit your volume. You also can’t move it up to resonance as that’s at 80Hz and will really annoy everyone. As a precaution I would suggest splitting the process into 4 or 5 blasts, leaving time in between (>20 mins) to let it cool down. It doesn’t matter when you do this, and it doesn’t have to be done in one go, just that the spider gets stretched a given number of times. Because it’s in the cabinet (and because you’re likely to be cautious) I’d extend the total time to about an hour.
Breaking in tweeters has always struck me as less important and there are pleasures in both brand new tweeters and old ones. I don’t know if the T27 does noticeably break in and, to me at least, they all sound pretty much identical irrespective of the speakers they are in.
This all sounds much more dangerous than it actually is. Obviously some guidance is helpful if you are going to do it but I also don’t want you to damage your speakers either. In real life the process is just connecting up a couple of drivers and then going off to do something else. After you’ve done it once it presents no problems and it’s not fearful. Yes, it is brutal but it’s not harming the drivers, and it’s the brutal part that’s doing the good.
