Naim Statement + Stella Utopia

PS Audio for turntable motor only. I am partial to Regenerators & for some reason Purepowers even though their reputation precedes them. Hence, the Stromtank as eventual backup. I do own a pair Shunyata Denalis for the subs that is not in play at the moment.

I heard what I heard at the dealers - twice. So, I have to persist with the round the clock burn in. Hopefully by next week, things will improve.

I do realize as one moves up the chain, things will get more difficult, bliss vs shrill is but a fraction of dB in terms of response away. Matching is critical. Room acoustics is the most important component of the system. Certainly paid enough school fees to get to where I am now in terms of room treatment. When I moved in a decade ago, I had rock wool panels completely surround the 4 walls. Sucked the life out of the system & killed the bass. Had to remove all of them & bought diffusers & absorbers to suit. Made use of online calculators to design helmholtz resonators to target certain frequencies that cannot b avoided due to room dimensions & the active bass units etc. Still not quite there yet. Standing waves vs even response vs good RT60 times amongst other parameters - itā€™s a compromise.

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Sound like youā€™re on track! Good luck getting those highs less spitty

I found your system in another thread Joeling. Perhaps the most impressive of the forum!

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I will never let my dogs into this room. They might like them so much and start to mark territory. :cold_sweat:

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That really would depend upon oneā€™s definition of ā€˜impressiveā€™.
Iā€™m afraid a room looking like that would, for me, mandate the issue of eye masks upon entry!
image

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The cable dressing needs work
And what are those things on the NAP S1?

Coastersā€¦gotta put your coffee down somewhere!

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Impressive staff. I agree for the room, I would not like to leave into that. Would keep the Statement, the Bergman tt, and DCS , and sell the rest. :laughing:

It must be a bugger to vacuum aroundā€¦

I suppose I better show the latest setup. Wouldnā€™t want people to misunderstand :sweat_smile:

Iā€™ve sobered up a bit since the last photo. The Power Amps have been moved to the next room. I realised that too many equipment only clutter up the small room to the detriment of the sound. No more Gryphon or Accuphase, just the Naim. I am now beholden to Naim no other alternative.

Right now, I am fairly nervous. The sound from this pair is still not what I heard at the dealerā€™s or an acquaintanceā€™s (out of town, so no easy way to get any reassurance). I will let it cook for another week then revisit.

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Suedkiez, Those were supertweeters from the same guy that sells ASR. No way I will need them with the Focal :rofl:

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Are they ASR resonators on the wallā€¦and a sugar cube ? How do you find them ?

I experimented with them quite a few years ago, was extremely sceptical at first but they made quite a difference. I was chasing a problem which at the time I thought was room related and since the resonators didnā€™t solve the problem they went back. The problem turned out to be in the electronics but I never got round to revisiting gt be resonators.

I am sure you will get it right with some help from your dealer, assuming they are really good, which should be the case in this price range. If you heard the speakers sound fabulous that should be possible in your setup as well. Be patient and invest some time and effort in getting the setup right.

Elfer, Letā€™s put it this way, once u have them up, very difficult to get them down again. Are they good ? Canā€™t tell (i.e. system did not sound any better after installing them on a whim). However, once they r removed after being on the wall for sometime. music just sounded a little off. No choice, had to put them back on again. So, the moral of the story, ignorance is bliss. Donā€™t try if u r not prepared to go down the rabbit hole.

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afgverhartinfgers crossed. I live a thousand kilometers (literaly) from my dealer.

Not enough boxes, it must be upgraded with some ps more .

It may well be useful to email Jason Gould at Naim. I know that he felt that some of the room treatments that heā€™s been using lately for the show demos has made a big difference for the better. At the last Munich show (where I though the ND555, Statement and Evos sounded really great on the few pieces of music I listened to) a lot of effort had gone into treating the room and I noted that there was attention paid to the ceiling in particular.

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Just an observation, in my experience floor coverings can make a significant difference in damping upper mid frequenciesā€¦ ie what we hear as strong treble. I canā€™t see what your floor is but it looks smooth. Is it possible to get carpeted, but with a medium or thick pile? Some borrowed think rugs could be used to drape across the floor, starting from the middle. See if it helps. It did for me. My floor in my listening room, is concrete, underlay, short pile woollen carpet with a few woollen rugs.

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Indeed, a 20 mm thick rug starts being efficient at ~3kHz.

@joeling, Iā€™d add that the Vicoustic WaveWood panels placed at first reflexion points (right and left) are poorly effective above 2,5 kHz.

A better choice would have been Vicoustic Cinema Round Premium. They are really effective from 350 Hz up 8kHz (and above). Or even better, a couple of GIK Acoustic Monster Bass Traps (2 on each side).

GIK Acoustic Monster Bass Traps arenā€™t really bass traps, more likely wide range absorbers.

In my system I upgraded the ethernet loom and switches and it made phenomenal difference especially to bass and openessā€¦I suggest you take a long hard look at your networkā€¦there are some good threads on the Naim forumsā€¦Obviously you may have already done thisā€¦so forgive me if you haveā€¦just a thoughtā€¦ I remember mentioning this when visiting Salisburyā€¦in their statement dem roomā€¦they were using a good very basic gigabit switch ā€¦ I remember thinking at the time I bet this system would fly if the ethernet was optimisedā€¦