By adding subs you might not be satisfied as you loose a bit the coherence in your side, give it a good try before pulling the trigger.
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I think its about time someone addressed the elephant in the room with some utter sacrilege! If you are just unhappy with just one track why not eq the track in iTunes and live with the perfectly good system that you have. Not being a fan of Focals I use a pair of Neat Ultimatums MF9’s with my 500 system, and when the track has bass then bass is what get. I seem to spend most of my time sorting through the 28000 tracks in my library and there are good recordings and bad recordings of the same track depending on which album it comes and whether its LP (ripped) or CD, compilation or original album, remastered or not. Yes you could start down the route of swapping out the 500 for something else, but inevitably you will start swapping everything else and before you know it you’ve spent a fortune and are even more unhappy. Becareful with adding a sub as it may mess with the timing of everything if not very carefully tuned and you may end up constantly tweaking the various settings depending on the music you are listening to. I say that hypocritically as in an office system I have a pair of REL Stampedes adding to a pair of Kabers due to a lack of wall behind the speakers.
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REL subs are great match with stereo music. Have a single REL212 next to Magico S3 speakers plugged with Nap500. great sound depth and lows impact and very defined. Thinking about next upgrade with 500dr…
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I often wonder about the Wilson Benesch Torus…
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Im a bit late coming to this , but thought a bit of personal information may help.
My experience would be to regard that statement from PMC with a very large grain of salt.
I was interested in the MB2se but was not sure if my Rega Osiris could drive them satisfactorily . Even PMC could not answer that. To their credit they supplied me with a brand new pair , built especially for me as they had none ready built , for an extended home demo.
Suffice to say i purchased them.
Not only does the Osiris drive them exceptionally well , but its taken the PMC to show just how good the Osiris [and Isis] are. Yes i have wondered if a larger amp , Bryston mostly paired with , would be beneficial. But im in that place with my system where you not only have to think what you may gain , but what you may lose.
If its not broke , don’t try to fix it.
So i would expect the Nap 500 to drive them with ease.
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I have a 500 with mb2’s and I can say there is no problem driving them with ease
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I have decided to keep the Focals and be satisfied. In my area there would be no way to demo the PMC’s and I not willing to take that big of a chance buying blind. I’m sure the PMC’s are wonderful but the Maestro Utopia’s aren’t bad.
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Hi IB,
I once auditioned a pair of Wilson Benesch ACTs and found them to have excellent resolution and to tick all the hifi boxes and yet to be ever so boring. Then we dialled in a carefully calibrated Torus. Music sounded pretty much the same. No uber impressive, ground shaking bass or any of that nonsense. Music sounded the same and yet… tremendously better. Previously wooly basslines timed right and had a certain snap to them. The biggest impact though was on human voices, string instrument and imaging. Everything had much greater resolution, accuracy and musical insight.
I really didn’t like the ACTs on their own but a carefully calibrated Torus transformed them into something wonderful.
Only downside other than cost? Having a big black dustbin sitting front & centre in the living room. That was the end of the Torus for us.
Best regards, BF
Hi Blues man, and fan,
I have heard in the past some Wilson Benesh bookshelves and found the sound with Naim very enjoyable.
However it was 15 years ago.
So you didn’t liked the WB Act with Naim?
No FR, they were beautifully made and looked superb to me at least. However, they sounded sterile, for want of a better term. Something about the bass just wasn’t right and that killed all life from the music. However this was a few years ago, so their successors could be much better and will be much more expensive. I actually preferred the Discovery to the ACT back then but the Discovery didn’t work in our room.
Best regards, BF
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Have you tried Superlumina speaker cables? They will provide lower refined bass.
I have a full setup of sl’s including speaker wire. During this virus I’ve had the opportunity to reflex on my entire system. The elusive goal for me was attempting to get all music to have great sound quality to my ear. This is impossible and I’ve been foolish and in error to attempt this quest. Naim plays what’s on the recording. Some recordings just plain stink. My system has an abundance of bass on all modern and most classic music. If I want to listen to Kashmir I go out in the garage and play it in my 1970’s Marantz and Klipsch Belles, push the loudness button for low to medium volume and turn up the bass, works perfect and justifies keeping the ancient system. I’m just a speaker guy and if I lived down the street from a hifi shop I would be changing speakers constantly, but I’m not and I won’t.
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I played Kashmir last night to check, the recording just has horrible bass.
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