New Speaker search has begun, and it's interesting to say the least

What would I do? I’d try some different speakers. The massive TV and the big black fronted speakers looks rather oppressive. Remember that the cabinet will compromise the performance of the electronics. Assuming it has to stay, I’d try the Naim on a proper stand off to the left, and keep the cabinet for the TV, though it does seem rather too tall for the size of TV.

Check your wiring, Both the connections and the way they lay over each other, adjacent to each other, and proximity to equipment. Swap your speakers left to right and see if any difference is noticed.

If still not sounding right, try positioning them on another wall and using a different mains socket temporarily. Is it still the same sound ‘defect’ then its not a positioning or extra furniture problem.

I would wall mount the TV and get rid of the cabinet if you want to restore that great sound you had before. Either go back to a dedicated HiFi rack (which should work better without the mass of the TV sitting on it) or try putting the cabinet on a side wall if you can.
I do think the cabinet looks good as it is now, although for me the mess of cables visible underneath dtreacts from that look. Still, the loss of sound quality it has caused seems like a step too far, but only you can decide what level of compromise is domestically acceptable.

Make sure the mains cables are as far as possible from the interconnect and loudspeaker cables. This helped me a lot with Ovators.

Is the order of the mains cables in the mains block the same, this could make a difference.

Are there other changes in your house? I can hair it when my wife uses the hairdyer.

You speakers actually look quite close together for your listening spot. Have you tried making an equilateral triangle with your listening position?

5 Likes

I have S400’s and they sound great afaik. My immediate impression is they are too close to the back wall. Mine are about 4 feet in front of the wall. Also I recently relocated my electronics so they aren’t between the speakers. This had a significant increase in sq even though the rack is now directly behind the right speaker.

In your situation I’d definitely try positioning the speakers well in front of the cabinet. Start with two feet. Also like others said they should probably have more space between them. Mine are separated eight feet.

I have a question about the cabinet in the above @SmauGii post because it’s a good example of something I’m contemplating.
If it were moved to the side, would the resonance problem be somewhat or adequately abated if the center section of the cabinet housing the components were independent of the rest of it? For instance, if the shelves were cantilevered from the wall, like a stack of Rega platforms, with air space on all sides and the remaining side sections simply slid over them would the “box effect” still be in play?

A few thoughts from me

I agree your speakers look too close together for the room. At least aesthetically.

I’m sorry I have to say it. That cabinet looks bad…it’s overwhelming in a minimalist room. Get something streamlined. More similar to what you had. Wrap up the cables. It will look better and may sound better. Also agree a rug and curtains may help on multiple fronts

Mount tv on wall

Unfortunately sometimes people can’t just get rid of things. He probably has a partner that likes it. If you have to stick with that unit, try getting the speakers further away from it, and also moving them away from the wall. You can also try moving the whole setup to the left so that the right hand speaker is out of the corner. A big rug is essential.

I have a similar setup. I’d try moving the speakers so they are forward of the TV cabinet and have them wider apart to give an equilateral triangle with the listening position. If you can manage it and have speaker cables long enough, move the electronics to one side of the speakers using the rack. Good luck, so.

Thanks for all comments thusfar everybody. I really appericiate the effort! I have to stress though, my room is not minimalistic. There will be some more in terms of rugs and stuff on walls, but curtains, very large fabric sofa and some barchairs are all in place which give a good dampening to an otherwise lively room. There is some noticable reverb on the clap test though. but the installation did sound absolutely great with the TV smack in the middle upon first installation.

I’ve had a good day of testing and removed every other factor from the rack apart from the CDX2 Supernait and the speakers, still in the same place. Sound was still grainy and somewhat restrained. Then i started rearanging the signal cables to some positive effect, but not quite satisfactory.
It was when i removed the Din-Din interlink alltogether and replaced it with some high quality RCA interconnect i had made back in the day (Coaxial singles) that everything fell back in place. Most obviously, at the unchanged position of the volume dial, sound was unrestrained and WAY louder. I don’t expect the output voltage or input gain to be any different, but i’d like to confirm if anybody has the answer! Grain is gone and all sounds way more dynamic and effortless again. EUREKA!

So what do we have here? Failing soldering connections in either Supernait or CDX2, or is it the Interconnect itself? The current connection via RCA sounds mighty fine to be honest so i might just leave them in place for now. But it’s not quite the Naim way.

Sure am happy to learn not the speakers were at fault here. Now to decide… should i try to reposition the TV furniture :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Well done!

Well done on the fault tracing. I suspect the interconnect if the rca’s are working.

3 Likes

Did you have to switch the player back to RCA or were both RCA and DIN outputs enabled all along?

Glad it’s worked though

1 Like

Well i guess you learn something every day :slight_smile: Din’t know there was an option so i just got lucky that both were enabled.

New furniture is back. Yes there are sonic differences obviously, but not at all on the same scale. This i can probably work with. So all seems good.

Once the leads are sorted out, make sure that only one of the outputs is enabled. Instructions are in the manual.

glad you’ve sorted the problem - just wanted to mention a typo on distance from back and side walls - didn’t sound right - i’ve double-checked the a british audiophile video (great channel by the way) and the distance is 85 cm back wall to front of speaker and side wall to tweeter - not 58cm - might be a typo but as you have rounded to 60cm probably mis-noted / misheard . worth trying a repositioning but it’s nearly an extra foot so may not be practical - i guess the same logic applies to distance from the cabinet/tv screen as likely to reflect sound tho to a lesser extent?

Were you using the standard grey ‘lavender’ din din cable?

1 Like

That is a strong negative in my view. The consequence will be muddying of the sound.

Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve reviewed the episode and you are totally right. Got mistranslated probably during the roadtrip home. Sure am going to move the speakers around some more and fine tune the sound.

Yes i was using the standard Din-Din cable that came with the CDX2 for the last 6 years.

It sure is. The room is certainly not dead, but it’s also not as bad as it might sound.
Now that the furniture is all in place i can start decorating walls/floors and work with plants which.
I might go with some decorative acoustic panels right behind the sofa.