Kudos Heaven

Ah, now you are talking! If you are thinking of Fraim, definitely do two stacks if you can. It really will sound better, and will be much easier to dress the cables. Another, and cheaper option, is Isoblue. It’s pretty much on a level with Fraim, and is much more furniturey, more discreet, hides the wires, easier to set up, and easier to dust. They make a Special Branch version with posh veneers if you are feeling flush.

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+1 for Isoblue :grinning:

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Herbies are great. Makes moving heavy speakers easy.
I replaced Naim Chips with the Gliders

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Also consider the SimRack.

I changed from one tall rack to two racks side by side which made a huge improvement.

DG…

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Hi DG,
Your twin stack set up looks fabulous now.

I am wondering whether to put Naim cups & balls under the glass shelves on our Simrak frame. Any thought on pros & cons of doing so?

Best regards, BF

The studs and cups are bonded to the glass shelf and solid wood shelf, so would be difficult to remove.

Got mine from Cymbiosis, so you can see them there. I believe that Peter himself, uses one as well.

DG…

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Love my Simrak

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Thank you.
Do you have Naim balls & cups on your rack, or the original Simrak cones & cups?

We have the original cones & cups but I was wondering whether to try fitting Naim’s cups & balls. The original cones & cups would stay as they are bonded in place but would effectively be made redundant.

Best regards, BF

My Kudos Heaven….

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@AndyH
That’s a clever photograph
(Titans from any angle are quite interesting. The trick is to somehow convey this in a photo).

Like your profile pic too :+1: which is really classy

Best wishes
R

Andy, I have same speakers and also Tineo
Your entire system is same as mine - except preamp and 2 power supplies on ND555.
I tried the grills on and felt it sounded better sans grills
You ever try the Titans with grills off?
David

Hello all

Posting this query here as the KS-1 thread is closed.

As an original owner of Titan T88 ( from the first batch of 5 in 2010) I have always used NACA5 as it fulfills Naim’s requirements for capacitance and inductance. After 20+ years I will be changing out my 552/500 and moving on to a different system. My Titans will remain however I feel I should change out the NACA5 as it really was developed specifically for Naim amplification.

Was KS-1 developed to match the same characteristics (inductance etc.) as NACA5 so it could be used with Naim amplification? Does it work equally well with amplifiers other than Naim?

Best
Gregg

Thank you for your extremely kind comments :smiling_face:

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Here’s my brains and brawn twin Fraim setup with Kudos 606 on Gaia 2s and connected with Witch Hat Spectre. I originally had a slight toe in with the speakers but when I upgraded to Gaias I removed toe in as per Kudos recommendation. Sounding great.


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Hi David,

I do actually use them without the grills on - I just put them on for the photo.

I prefer the look with the grills on, but my ears tell me they are better without (I think )….

Great speakers either way.

All the best,
Andy

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Hi Gregg,
Kudos say on their website that they developed the KS-1 to be an ideal match for the requirements of their speakers and don’t mention anything about the amps. While Kudos are known to like Naim amps, they also like Linn, Exposure and others. At the most recent signals show they used Chord Amps with the 808’s and wired them up with KS-1 IIRC.
I’d be very interested to know which amps you are moving to. Do they have very particular characteristics and electrical requirements?
You could always give Kudos a call to discuss of course.

@KJC
Thank you for the detailed reply. If Signals is using KS-1 to demo with Linn, Exposure, Chord and others, I do not anticipate having any problems.
Either way I will check with Peter @Cymbiosis as he will be making them up for me should I choose to go in that direction.

As to your question about where I am going I have decided to take a big step and move to a DartZeel pre and power amp. The front end will remain the same with my dCS Rossini APEX and clock. Vinyl will continue to be fronted by the LP12.

I will live with the Kudos Titan T88’s and then evaluate at a later point in time whether I wish to pursue new speaker alternatives. Initial ideas are to demo Stenheim and the new Magico S3. The story continues……

Best
Gregg

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Fantastic - very jealous - beautifully engineered kit. If you’ve not seen it already, there was a very interesting and in-depth review by Martin Colloms in Hi-Fi Critic back in 2020 of the NHB-18NS/NHB 108 Model 2 combo.

I can’t post the link but if you google ‘absolute sounds hifi critic dartzeel’ you’ll find a PDF of the review at the top of the results page.

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Hi James

Trust me…I have read all the reviews😁
I have been thinking quite a while about eliminating box count. Naim black box fatigue after all these years. Then again you know it as well as your Linn NG KDS does a nice job of simplifying things (I kept my slim line KDS and upgraded to Organik as I use it to front my Stax headphones).

Between a combination of speaking with some trusted friends (one who already owns DartZeel) and demoing D’Agostino, Nagra, and finally DartZeel, I decided to take the plunge. I demoed the CTH-8550 integrated (fronted by the dCS) in a shop and was so impressed I could have happily lived with the single box alone. Knowing myself well, and having been on the Naim merry go round for +20 years, I realized it would only be a matter of time before I started looking at the separates. Age and wisdom told me to just get it done so I took the plunge with the pre and power.

Maybe I should have done that with Naim instead of Nait5, 282,252,552 and 250,300,500 however I will say the journey was fun and I learned a lot.

Time for the next chapter…….

Best
Gregg

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That’s good news Gregg. I did wonder where you would go next and that sounds like a fine way to go. Post a few pics and some impressions when the new amps arrive.

Enjoy the next chapter !

James

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