Impasse

Thanks! It’s good to be back. No Sats yet, but as Richard said, the world moves in mysterious ways…

Enjoy,
M

Thanks, I have some experience of Dynaudio and of ProAc, but very very little of Kudos.
The SuperNait hasn’t complained yet, but I understand it very much wants to enter the game.
:slight_smile:
M

Dvorak’s Eight’s has such a wonderful Scherzo!

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I can’t help but think trying a pair of Shahinian Compass might be the answer. Small footprint, flexible on placing due to the “radiating’ design and not too demanding of your amp. The previously mentioned Shahinian’s on casters would be the Obelisks and likely too large for the room and demanding for the amp. The Compass is, in my experience, a good second hand option and, if you did change your mind you’re unlikely to lose much money if you want to sell them on again.

I still have Compasses - now upstairs. They are great speakers- reasonably flexible on placement (though not tight to any wall please), not much of a sweet spot for the listener so you don’t have one music chair, fun and involving.

However, they can sound thoroughly confused if you turn up complicated or bassy stuff, the tweeters do wear out eventually (mine lasted well over a decade), and an olive 250 was imho the least they needed to keep them under proper control at higher volumes.

Great on Kind of Blue or Vivaldi with the volume at 8pm. Not so great with Stravinsky or the Stranglers with the volume at 11pm.

A chunk of stone under them was a help if you do get enthusiastic from time to time.

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From personal experience Dynaudio’s like Power. I had Dynaudio Special 40’s with a Naim SN2 plus HiCapDR it sounded good, but it wasn’t really enough. ProAc are fairly easy to drive and sound great. Everyone here seem to like the Kudos, British thing I think.

@Buz, @NickofWimbledon,

Shahinians have always intrigued me, but I have never seen or heard a pair. I don’t even know if they are distributed here. Too bad.

@opus,
I agree. The only Dynaudio I tried here, the Contour 20s, had exceptional build quality and looked and felt truly first class, but they needed power and I hadn’t enough…
I remember a magnificent upper range. My dealer offered them to me with a large discount because he was dismissing the brand.
Again, too bad.

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I would say Shahinian as well, maybe also consider Larsen Model 4 or 6, they work right up against the wall, and sound great when paired with Naim. I lived with a pair of Model 4.2’s for almost five years, and enjoyed every minute with them. So many choices though…Have fun with that! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks!
Max

Roberto,

trying the system in the other room is a possibility of course. Rearranging the apartment could be a good way to make it through the summer… and to redesign life and music.

M.

Yesterday I found a mint pair of n-Sats 10 km from here… No boxes, no stands but manual and papers.
They would be my seventh pair so I thought that buying them would fall into the folklore dept. rather than satisfying a real need… :slight_smile:
I auditioned them, discussed the price (a bit too high) and eventually left without them.

I know well how they sound with a SN1, and still think they are the loveliest small speakers in existence, but there is a limit to one’s self indulgence.
Or isn’t?

M

I had nSats plus nSub in my second system for a while, also a very difficult shaped room. Very good together. SBL better though.

I suppose going on from that how about trying to source some s/h SL2? You could probably sell them in without a loss if not the answer you are looking for. Not sure if you have enough am for them to excel but just an dea.

Bruce

Bruce,

I had a chance years ago to buy a splendid pair of SL2s from RSCH, but eventually declined. I wasn’t ready for such important and committing designs. True, I’ve seen a pair of DBLs driven by a Nait 2 at Naim Headquarters, but the system you live with must have reasonable balance…

Now Naim speakers have become rare here, difficult to find and even more at sensible prices.
As Kuma said, you snooze you loose…

BTW, SL2 is my second aesthetically preferred speaker ever.

Max

Go for the SBLs instead. You only owned them once or twice :wink:

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I was tempted to suggest Shahinian too, although a Supernait may not be ideal. I bought my Arc 2s from a long standing Naim dealer who is also a Shahinian fan, and he said that a 250.2 was the minimum Naim amp I should consider. I had a 250DR at the time, and that drove them well enough, although the more powerful non-Naim amp I now use can control them much better.
I don’t know if the Compass is easier to drive well?

Conversely, I bought my N-Sats out of hibernation some years ago to use with an Atom in a second system. It really wasn’t able to make them sing, so sadly they are now back in the loft, replaced by a pair of diminutive Shahinian Larcs which work so much better with the Atom.

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:smile:
Twice.

Chris,

my last pair of n-Sats didn’t last long here because I had a PrimaLuna EVO100 integrated (push-pull of EL34s), and the result was treble-y, nasal and poor.
Conversely, I long used Sats with a SN and they projected a full scene beyond the speakers in all directions.

A few years ago I had CDX2, 282, SC and 250 with Sats, and they were anything but treble-y and poor…
Sats seem to respond gloriously to the electronics. Richard has a well known anecdote about this.

I have no idea how to audition Shahinians here.

Max

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Larcs might well be a great choice with SN2 or even Nova -but not Compasses or anything bigger.

With Obelisk and above, I think you need more than a 250 to make the most of them. A chum had Hawks - they worked with 135s, but were clearly better with a huge Dynavector power amp (or a 500, or some huge Krell).

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Having only ever owned one pair of N-Sats I will not pretend that I have any useful advice to offer you that you don’t already know.

As far as I’m aware there is no distributor for Shahinian in Europe, so other than sourcing some from the UK your options are limited. Probably academic given their amp requirements.

Good luck with your search.

The dealer I bought my Arcs from said that olive 250s, and even 135s, weren’t really up to the job, and that only the later Classic Naim amps were a good match, so perhaps it’s no surprise that your chum looked elsewhere, as I did eventually.

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