The problem still remains, the Cyrus 8a, now sold, gave a much more prominent low end than the much muscular 250DR…
Thank you anyway to all of you contributing.
I just recently used DSP to sort my system and room interaction out and very happy with the results its never sounded so good. I tried moving speakers but the position they are in had the best overall imaging and sound stage. I may try DIK and see what they say about my readings but I cant really treat the room much at all and bass traps are well out.
You don’t say whether you are going to follow though with some serious assessment of the room, which many of us have suggested is probably the root cause of the problem, whether doing it with a tool like REW to actually see what is going on, or by trial and error?
I don’t know if HH is right and nothing will make it better in that room, but if it were me, unless I had another room option to try, I’d be all over it seeoping if there is a solution as simple as rearrangement. (Simple doesn’t necessarily mean either easy to accommodate domestically without everyone on board, or necessarily quick to finalise!)
What about something like that? you close it when listening to music and open it when you want. It must be less expensive vs a nap 300dr and bigger speakers.
you can have a smaller room for your system and also the same big room for most occasions.
Get a copy of REW and a suitable calibrated mike. Use that to determine the response of the system and room working together.
Then get a DMM and measure the output of the power amp at 25Hz, 50Hz, 100Hz and 200Hz (measure it at the speakers). If these measurements are almost the same (say within 10%), then there’s nothing wrong with the electronics and the problem is all to do with the interaction of the speakers and the room.
Use the REW room and time response graphs to work out how to fix the problem(s).
1 Like
How to I measure the power output Xanthe? Like I said before, I need to make sure my electronics are working properly, the Cyrus 8a giving way more bass than the 250DR is a major red flag for me. I know that amplifier, its so much leaner than the 250DR.
Set a digital multimeter (DMM) to AC volts and attach it to the speaker terminals. Set a function generator (e.g. a track on a test CD, a digital download track or via an app on a mobile phone) to 25Hz, 50Hz, 100Hz and 200Hz (or there abouts, the exact values aren’t critical!), and measure the voltage at each frequency. The result should be generally similar for each reading (say within +/-10%).
Compare this to the frequency response result from REW and you’ll see the problems caused by your room. It’s most unlikely to be a problem with the electronics, much more likely to be a problem with the room.
Yesterday I cranked the volume on the 272, to 50. It sounded more balanced (bass wise), except for a bit of harshness, understandable given the speakers are almost brand new.
Still want to check my black boxes. Any Naim owners in Adelaide, willing to help? 
That’s the effect of the Fletcher-Munson contours.
When you compared the Cyrus and Naim power amps, how did you ensure that you were listening at the same loudness level?
So after loosing countless hours fidling with everything I could think of except moving places again or selling the damn thing all together, my fur buddy pointed me in the right direction.
It turnes out, it sounds almost great behind the ikea lamp, in that little corner.
can you make a larger photo? i don’t see what have changed vs first installation.
Thats the point, nothing changed. Sounds horrible as before, except for that corner.
Then I have three suggestions for you…
1 Get hold of a copy of REW (& a calibrated mike) and find out what’s actually going on (including using the room simulation dialogue to try out different room arrangements to see which ones work best).
2 Use the trial and error approach of completely rearranging the room until it works.
3 Separate out the AV and music use (i.e. use a separate 5.1 sat/sub system), with each system optimised for their own role.
Note that even when the music system is optimised, in a larger space like that you may still need a sub (or even more than one sub).
Neah. Have better things to do with my time, until we move houses again, I have a huge classics collection that needs auditioned on these new tweeters. Might as well exchange my X38 for a pair of X18 + Dyn sub.
The lesson here is room plays a huge factor to the point one might think the electronics are faulty. The naim guys even said every time black boxes are flown anywhere, they need to be broken in again… So I have a shitty room, and a brand new system. No wonder I get no joy…
See you on the beach gents. Thank you for everything.
the sub is probably a good idea. I understand that you don’t want to reinstall all your living room. It would probably not change a lot because the space will be huge in all cases. So only bigger speakers or amp or just a sub for less money than the speakers/ amp upgrade.
The bass is there in the corner because it is not cancelled there. Still sounds very much like a room issue, as some of us have been saying al the way through, which might be fixable purely by playing with the layout/room. (If it is cancellation, changing system won’t fix it). A couple of hours with a tool like REW would get you 95%+ of the way to as good as it can be - probably less than the time you’ve spent fretting, but if you don’t want to invest time/effort to fix it that is of course your prerogative. Clearly I can help no more, so best of luck.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.