Thank for the feedback and nice gear ! Sopra 3 and a full 500 setup are for the 0.5 % out there.
Indeed I am turning everything louder and I am fine with it this way.
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Hello everyone.
I have been enjoying the NAIM for quite a bit since I last posted.
Yesterday for the first time, I started to see proper frequency separation even at lower volumes.
There was a discreet hint of sub-bass that was enticing me to turn it louder. This was not the case in the past and it looks like the speakers and amp have started to understand that friendship is indeed magic :).
I also got tempted and turned it louder on a variety of songs from Dire Straits, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Deep Purple and then moved into Martin Garrix and David Guetta. After 30 minutes of Garrix and Guetta I started to develop a mild headache from the bass and sub-bass. This was not the case in the beginning so now I am convinced that this speaker is too much for my living room. I would not trade it for the smaller brother as size does matter :).
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Herbieās gliders are not too dear and make experimenting with speaker positioning easy. Look up Sumiko Masterset as a methodology, you might be able to tame that bass with a but of work.
Try something like Isoacoustic Gaias once positions are set if you still think they need a bit more help.
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Mistio, Did you buy the standard Nova or the Nova PE? My friend has the standard Nova driving Proac D38 speakers and it sounds great, however you can hear it could do with more power. He heard the Nova PE recently and said that sounded far better to his ears.
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Welcome, Mistio.
Youāre a braver man than me going down the rabbit hole of Youtube watching and buying blind without a demo. 
Good luck on your journey of hifi discovery.
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Thanks. I will start looking into the positioning if the space permits it. Thanks for the advice.
@Mrhappy
The NAIM in question is a non-PE as my budget did not allow me to get that one. It was practically double the price. I am not going to sharpen my pitchfork if it is not a class A/B amp. The PE is class D and surely sounds amazing. I am not surprised NAIM managed to make the PE sound like a NAIM.
Thanks :). his NAIM is the second blind purchase I make actually. The first one was the Focus RS MK3. I saw the car in the showroom, I liked it, I sat down in it and the first thought I had: āthis is my carā. This was in 2017 :). The car is still with me in the garage and Iām loving every minute.
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@Mistio both the Nova and the Kantas will still be breaking in, give it more time. If you can stand it, play all your rock loud to assist with the break in process. Also, how far from the back wall are the rear ports of the speaker? Mine are 35cm and it is very noticeable that when I move them out, the bass tightens up. Iād prefer about 40-45cm but my space is restricted (actually not too dissimilar to your space).
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Keep an eye on that engine, its got a head gasket reputation and i think there was a recall too.
Martin
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I have taken a quick measurement. Sadly my back wall (due to some piping) by default allows a farther positioning on the right channel than the left. For example, the left channel is 25cm from the wall and the right channel 35 cm. As you can see in an earlier picture the blue wall has a bit more depth where the right channel sits. If i pull the left channel forward to have the same distance from the wall one of them will be closer to the listening position than the other.
Outside of this issue which is not something I can fix, I have looked in the User manual where:
- is the distance from the listening position to the left channel tweeter.
- is the distance from the listening position to the right channel tweeter.
- is the distance between the left channel tweeter and right channel tweeter.
Running lasers and old-school measuring tape I can follow the 1 = 2 >=3. I am actually exceeding 3 by a few cm which I will round down and make the formula 1=2=3.
When I look at the earlier measurements, proximity to the wall, according to the manual I am in the upper bound of zone 2 where the level of low frequency is stated to be +3 db. I see this as a positive as I donāt need to spend 5k extra on a sub with a wireless module from Rel as pulling cables and crossing from the speaker terminals to the other speaker terminals would make a convoluted cable mess even more convoluted.
2017 to 2018 where not the best period as the car went under the knife twice to have it fixed properly. The only reason this got fixed was because as i was researching parts I saw a video from MJ Performance Plymouth (Martyn the Owner was working on it) and he explained how dealers did not do the right job and he had dozens waiting to be fixed. I rang the guy, spent 1 hour on the phone, ordered some parts from him and a lovely custom turbo return line. I hooked him up with my local mechanic and the car is now rocking 440 hp, 610 NM torque and has zero issues since 2018. The only issue I have is the consumption :).
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Actual real world rooms need more compromises than theoretical (or dedicated) listening rooms. What works best for a full and vigorous bass sound may make the rest lethargic and dull or kill the stereo separation or otherwise mess things up.
In your case, the pics suggest that this speaker would really benefit from being further from the radiator, even if that meant that the distance between the speakers became a bit less than the distance from speaker to ear. However, it is hard to see how you could do that with your rather pleasing furniture.
Iād suggest giving it a week of two of uncritical playing/ listening first. Then I would encourage a bit of experimentation.
25cm and 35cm are really quite different distances, and you may find that (say) 40cm and 50cm work better. Experimenting a bit with toe-in is also often helpful.
I am also a big fan of Isoacoustic Gaias on many speakers and floors, but I doubt that the floor potentially bouncing and making bass woolly and vague is your biggest priority here. Like power cables/ supply and more conventional choices of speaker cable, these these can be really useful tweaks too, but I wouldnāt suggest starting there.
Good luck!
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It seems I got the itch now.
Ordered the Supra Pack MainBlock MD06-EU/SP MK3 + Lorad 2.5 IEC and had it delivered yesterday.
Installed everything and as some of you know, the Supra mains block has 6 inputs and the filtering will increase the farther you are from the power cord. I am running some tests and for the time being the Nova is connected to the farthest input which is number 6.
The change in sound is noticeable and the signature is towards a V shaped curve with even tighter bass. It is clear that my set-up will never need a sub. I will test the other seconds to the left of this one to see how the sound will change as the filtering will decrease to a point where no filtering exists with surge protection.
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