Only the lucky few can afford Statement. Far more can one power amp whether 250/300 or 500 then get another and go active with all the sonic benefits! Obviously with 808s one can go passive Bi-amp first before a third amp allows you to go active with a SNAXO 362. A nice progressive upgrade path over time rather than in one huge hit. This is best for most as I’m sure you’d agree.
2 Likes
Indeed it does!! 
1 Like
Thanks Peter and yes what you wrote makes complete sense 
1 Like
Well you can certainly see why naim have dropped it with such low sales.
Also for me the reason for going active years ago was to use cheaper amps to achieve the same results you would get with a much more powerful amp, plus it got rid of the not so good naim x overs and not to say use 2 x 500 or 3 x 500 amps, as for me I would go with one much better amp in the first place, plus it would be cheaper.
3 x 500dr amps, snazo, power supply, fraim, cables, got to be about £85k at rrp, you can certainly see why a dealer might point you in that direction lol
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a music lover in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of some Kudos speakers.
Or maybe not.
Sometimes you’d think that Kudos were the only speakers worth considering, given the way people bang on about them. There are some lovely speakers out there, your PMCs for example, and others like the ProAc K6, that don’t need active operation and £75,000 of Naim to get the best from them.
4 Likes
So very true
I know the kudos speakers are in fashion on here these days, but I must say for me when I have heard them they haven’t blown me away yes they have sounded nice, but on the same system and room, the last pair I got to listen to, 707’s sounded worse than the other pair of speakers used at the Staverton hifi show last year
3 Likes
Kudos owners are not the only people who bang on about the stuff they own and how great it is. They can certainly compete with the best that Dynaudio, Proac and others have to offer. Not sure why you have a problem with that?
8 Likes
Indeed - I can’t recall anyone ‘banging on’ about Rega TTs or Pro-Ac Tablettes… 
11 Likes
I was going to bite but saw your comment, LOL
I don’t know. Sometimes, reading this forum, you’d think that only one company made decent dacs, one company made decent speakers, and that there were only two decent dealers in the U.K. I sometimes wonder whether large discounts or other inducements are somehow connected to this rather overzealous promotion. Certainly, if I was the maker of either, and without my own forum, I’d be rather pleased with how things pan out.
The fact is, Kudos speakers are fantastic. Your system would benefit greatly from the addition of some 505’s. Other loudspeakers are, of course, available…
7 Likes
If you search for HiFi news Kudos 707 Exposure amps active, you’ll find a good review of the 707s driven actively.
It might be of interest to you. The magazine seemed to like them actively driven.
1 Like
And then there’s the daily pictures from every conceivable angle.
1 Like
At the 2020 Bristol show Kudos ran their 707’s actively using a NDX 2, SN3, 2xDR HiCaps, NAP250 DR, SNAXO, Innuos server. SN3 on the treble, with the 250 doing mid-bass duties. I thought it sounded amazingly good and was definitely one of those stand out systems for me at the show, in terms of pure performance. It may have been wonky but boy did that system rock. I later returned (after becoming bored), for a double helping, it was that good.
2 Likes
It’s telling that Focal don’t offer the facility to activate their own speakers (given the Focal / Naim relationship), only bi-amping on certain models. Apart from Kudos, Audiovector and legacy Naim / Linn speakers, Naim active support is limited. Linn seem to offer more choice here with support for the usual suspects and conversion kits for selected other models like KEF and PMC, but then the Exakt crossover is more flexible than the Snaxo.
Focal do offer active models in their pro range with inbuilt amps and crossovers so perhaps that may be a future direction, particularly with the Atom HE and S1 appearing with balanced outputs ?
1 Like
Have to say I demoed the 707’s recently based on what I’ve read on her and was distinctly underwhelmed. Perhaps I’d overhyped them in my head and was expecting much more.
That said, My dealer popped round with a pair of PMC Fact 12’s to try yesterday. They were brand new out of the box so are still running in but I already like them more than the Kudos speakers.
3 Likes
I had the very same once my fact 12’s popped on to my system, it certainly showed my active S600 the door, was just better with everything
They certainly suit naim power amps, but they also like as much grunt as you can give them and the 500dr was a big step up on them compared to the 300dr I had at the time
They don’t sound too shabby on the end of my 300DR at the moment……I didn’t want to hear the other bit
Don’t worry they sound great with a 300dr, just better gain with a 500dr
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.