If the 500dr enough amp

You shouldn’t worry.

When reading the plots, you’ll see that most demanding point, or frequency is here :

No big deal for a NAP500 :muscle:

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If you want more 500DR Power (Egore) then run them Active! :slightly_smiling_face:

Power each Bass unit of my S800 and the BMR its own Amp and also remove all crossover phase and impedance problems - driving the drive units directly with the full damping factor of the Amp allocated to just the voice coils and no Inductors and Caps in the path works wonders. :bear:

But Active is not often considered - for me it is the only way to get really sublime results from speakers that in Passive mode can be excellent but really come to life when you remove the Passive crossover and do the job properly and better in an Electronic Crossover.

And my room is not that huge but is fairly large 5m x 6.3m x 2.8m height with irregular part missing to make a ‘fat L’ shape if you can imagine - it seems to work - and I have never run-out of level or even the sense that I’d want to go any louder to find out where that actually is.

DB.

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The question, Dark Bear, is if the 500 dr is enough to power optimally the Proac K10? Unfortunately Proac don’t allow active bi amping or tri amping.

I’m sure going active sounds wonderful but I’m not going in that direction. I’m either going to go with the k10’s or keep what I have. With my speakers I’ve never had clipping or overheating of the amp. Nearly all my listening is done at low to moderate levels. I’m just getting the itch to try new speakers.

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It was a more general point that many such speaker-drive problems disappear when you go Active and if the speaker allows for it often you get a better result with less expensive Amplifiers running them Active than using a very expensive albeit better Amp Passive.
In my case 3x500DR was less expensive and gave to my ears better results than Passive with Statement S1 Amps - although the latter looks better and is domestically more acceptable - if any HiFi system is!

But if Passive with NAP500 and not wanting high volume levels into a large room then I have not heard it really struggle to do this so far in several sysyems I know.

DB.

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I drew the line on my electronics with 552/500/nd555 with 2 555ps plus a bunch of fancy cables, wires, etc… I’ve always wondered if my speakers were not bringing out the best in my system. The focal maestro utopias have a reputation of being tough to drive. I don’t want to get into the same problem with the k10’s. Anyone with experience with the 500 and k10s I would love to hear their opinion, (even though I’ve pretty well made up my mind, just waiting on Proac to send the impedance and phase chart.

I bought my Nait XS, my SuperNait3, my 500 rig, and my D40R, K6 and K6 Signatures from the same US dealer. There are not that many stocking dealers for the Naim Reference System and the matching speakers in the US; they are hundreds of miles apart here. I resisted the K8 because my room is too small. My dealer now has the K10 and he shows them with either the 500 system or the Boulder rig in his big room. I have heard them all on the K8. I will hear the K10 in October when I visit the family. If he is showing it to his 500 customers, buy with confidence.

The Boulder is very nice but out of my league.

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Lazy answer - if you have drawn a line and only wish to consider alternative speakers and particularly the K10s; does it really matter what the impedance and phase charts show? Isn’t it much simpler than that - simply borrow a pair of K10s from an accommodating dealer and ask yourself if they are providing a very significant improvement in sound quality and enjoyment than your current speakers? Does it really matter if you aren’t getting the last 2 or 3% of their potential performance? The compromises imposed by room layouts and contents etc etc must surely have a greater constraint than worrying about a set of charts. As I say, I take a rather lazy/ subjective approach to these things and I appreciate that others adopt a much more scientific/ objective perspective.

Best of luck with your speaker journey!

Peter

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It’s impossible to demo speakers where I live. 400-600 miles from the nearest dealer. Then it is not in “my room”. Outside of the major cities (which I don’t live in one) the USA doesn’t have much of a demo program. You do your research, listen to people you trust, fly to a shop if available and hope for the best. And seriously how bad could k10s really be.

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I live near Paris. When we ask here to demo some speakers, the dealer responds : « bring your electronics with you to us « . Even if it’s only 20 miles.

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Vive la France!!

Peter

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I once took my own (not very big) speakers along and someone else auditioning kit in the shop wanted to buy them :grin:

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Marvellous — did you get kicked out by the dealer? :roll_eyes:

Nope – IIRC I bought an A&R A60 (and perhaps a Thorens TD160S?).

The speakers got left in the dem room as we were doing the paperwork – next thing door shut and it was a case of ‘can I have my speakers please’.

You were then still more happy to own them. A good way to stop the speakers upgrade temptation.

@zachwater I’m in the Pacific Northwest and happy to play K6 Sig’s for you. I ordered mine without a demo, Chicago was the nearest dealer with them on the floor. I relied on advice from trusted sources and could not be happier.

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That’s a very nice offer. I go to Portland every year to visit an old friend and to (hate to say it on this forum) waterfowl. I’m really down to the k6 signature and the k10. My room is large and rectangular. It’s a tv room with 2 levels of theater chairs, nice acoustics no problems. I rarely listen to any volume at all. My complaint with my systems over the years was not enough bass or fullness at lower levels. In the old days (or upstairs with the McIntosh), I would push the loudness button and problem solved. But since todays electronics frown on such heresy, I do not have that option with Naim. My only fear with the k10 is my tendency to “over speaker” and under amp. Which is the issue I have now.

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