I have a linn akurate ds going into a naim supernait 3 with hi cap dr and pmc prodigy 5 speakers. My room is 18 ft long and 8ft wide. The speakers are along the 18ft wall and the left speaker is a couple of feet from the left wall - so asymmetrical. I asked my dealer about using the space optimisation from the linn akurate. He said not with a naim amplifier; it would make it sound a bit dead. I am looking for thoughts/ experiences with this; especially as I am thinking of upgrading my speakers. Any room reflections ( pun intended) welcome?
Nonsense.
OK, let me start that again.
You don’t need your dealers permission or involvement to try out SO. It’s easy and straightforward - albeit a little time consuming- to set up and, once set up, you can play around with the settings. You can have some fun with it.
If you don’t like what it does, then that’s absolutely fine, it’s not a permanent thing; you can switch it off. But it won’t harm or spoil your Supernait but, if you do have room issues, it might improve things.
To put that into context, I have a KDSM and 552DR/500DR and it sounds better with.
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It’ll take an hour or so of your time to do the measurements and set it up. Then you can find out whether the dealer is right for yourself. Note that if you find the effect too aggressive there’s a slider in the software that lets you reduce how strongly SO is applied, or just switch it off completely. However, based on my experience (Selekt into active ATCs) I’d live with any setting for at least 24 hours before adjusting again. Gives time for your ears to get accustomed to the change.
One other thing, do you use Unity gain on your Linn and feed control volume on the SN3 or do you bypass the SN’s preamp and control volume on the Linn? I’m not sure how these options would interact with SO but you could have fun finding out!
Roger
I am not sure what unity gain is.I am afraid that I am not very techy. Partly why I thought I would put it out on the forum before trying to get the thing working. I appreciate replies so far
I am not bypassing the naim preamp , to my knowledge! I am controlling volume on the naim
Don’t worry about unity gain, as you aren’t using it. Just try the space optimisation and see if you like it. If you don’t, turn it off again. There is nothing to lose, but if you don’t want the faff, just forget about it. Another option is to find a Naim NDX2. It doesn’t have space optimisation but it does allow system automation, whereby you can control the Supernait from the Naim app.
Sorry if that confused you.
It’s not really all that techy. The point is that the music signal goes through your Akurate DS followed by your SuperNait. You can either control the volume in the Akurate and just use the power amp section of the SN or set a fixed output on the Linn (which they call Unity Gain) and control the volume on your amp. As this is what you’re doing, you are using unity gain. Space Optimisation works with both setups but the effects can be slightly different.
I rate SO highly though not all do and it’s not a cure-all for every difficult room. Thing is, though, playing around with SO won’t harm your system, is highly tweakable and won’t cost you anything but some of your time and perhaps a tape measure.
Roger
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I was very sceptical of room optimisation so I messed with it for about an hour and now I would recommend it highly. A bit fiddly to setup up but worth it for my room. I’m using an ADSM into ATC actives so not your setup but you should be able to try it out without too much effort. I think start with the way you have it now (Volume via SN3) but ultimately try using the SN3 as a power amp (Via unity gain). Surely your dealer can set this up for you, it’s not hard.
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Once you have SOset up correctly, you will have much more dynamic and clear music. Set it up incorrectly will result in you thinking that the music has become bright.
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Space Optimisation works for me, Selekt DSM into Nait 50. I played around a lot with Convolution Filters in Roon but found that SO preserves more of the Naim sound, as opposed to flattening it out to fit an ‘ideal’ curve. Does take a little time to set up, as already said, but worth it.
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