I won’t be changing from my own slightly complicated set up with two NAP135s and a single NAP250.
That 500 that your friend had when I bought his SL2s would have been perfect, but I wasn’t prepared to spend that much at the time. And ended up spending about that when I bought the 552.
I need to stop looking at this thread. It keeps on making me look at ebay
I’ve been an avid supporter of 135’s since buying a pair back in the mid to late 80’s. I went active with six of them during the 90’s and eventually back to a passive pair. I’ve owned 135’s for around 25 years, so I wasn’t quite prepared for the shock of borrowing NAP500.
For me it was a complete step-change and better than I remember my active system being. The musical communication, frightening dynamics and boogy factor still makes it, to this day, one of the single biggest upgrades I’ve ever experienced. For me it was much more of a jump than going from a 52 to 552. Then, later, having it DR’d was just the icing on the cake. That lovely blackness between the notes and lifelike timbre everything acquired was just, and still is, fantastic!
I still have a pair of recently serviced 135’s and have used them when the 500 was away. Are they good? Yes they are but I’m afraid to say that they are a long way removed from a warmed up NAP500DR in full flight!
Get thee behind me, Satan!
G - you may/may not be aware of:
1- some, I believe even Naim, have tried 2 x PSs with the NAP500, but Naim didn’t think it offered-up more, and there were some concerns over earthing. I don’t think (if I read your above query correctly?) that running any stereo amp as one channel only would be advisable.
2- when the NAP500 was introduced (2 Forum iterations ago?), there were dem’s of it passive in to DBLs against active with 6 x 135s. If memory serves, in most cases the passive set-up was considered better (even with the handicap of the DBLs passive X-over).
3- since introduction, the NAP500 has been improved materially from learnings in the build process, transistor improvements and, latterly, DR-ing.
Of course, for the $ it should be far better than a NAP300(DR), bearing in mind the 300 replaced the 135’s in Naim’s line-up.
Satan out
Thanks, HL, for the News Update from Hades.
I’m the same as you. My 135s are going nowhere. Perhaps if cost was not a consideration I might at least have a listen to a 500 but even a non DR version is around 3-5 times what I could get for my 135s and DR……….Forget it. I read somewhere on the forum recently that Olives are cool. It’s nice to just feel cool sometimes
And content yourself, Paul, with the thought that you are getting ‘cooler’ with every year that passes!
@Polarbear did this before he got his Kudos 808 speakers. He may be able to answer your questions
I think that Nap 250 active is much more musical than passive Nap 135’s ,Nap 135’s sounds rather sluggish in comparison,when I have tried.
Passive Nap 500 easily beats active Nap 135’s,in my opinion.
I stand corrected. I have never herd my SL2 sound this good. Simply breath taking.
Really good, must of been a 500 warm up thing. Today is jaw dropping. Everyone needs one!
The 500 really starts to sing when being on for a couple of days up to a week
Is it a non-DR or DR?
Sounds like you are now in quite the dilemma - and entering dangerous territory
It’s literally like warping time and space around me, just throwing a sound stage around me, very impressive indeed. Using a good pressing the bottom end is supper lush, with control through out the rev range which seems to be unlimited at this point on time. Finally hearing my true system. Has opened up the throttle big time.
I hope I get to keep it.
The NAP500 is a wonderful amp.
But it would kill my stacked pair of QUAD ESL57s.
And it wouldn’t fit the space currently taken by the smaller cases the NAP135s and NAP250 on my aluminium shelving.
Absolutely and the ESL 57 will kill the Nap 500,so that’s not a good combination.
I did indeed try it. I enjoyed the result, a definite improvement for me. A much bigger, clearer sound stage.
I had the smaller ART Emotion speakers at the time and would love to do it again with the bigger Titan 808’s.
As always important to have amps of same age and service history for best results.
Not necessarily, a mate used his quads with a 500 that Naim specifically tweaked to avoid the crow-bar protection. If you don’t think Quads do bass you need to have heard his system. In fact he got so obsessed with bass he sold the Quads and bought a pair of Ovator S800’s and had to get Naim to re-tweak the 500 back to it’s original state.
Okay interesting that Naim does that tweak ,otherwise it’s not recommended to use Nap 500 with Electrostatic speakers.
Did he prefer the Ovator 800 ?