Own my Ovator S400 pair since 2012 or so and I find them relatively easy to setup. My room is approx 4,75 m x 4,85 m, the wall are solid build from bricks and cement. The Ovators are placed 50 cm from rear of the cabinet to the wall behind, placed parallel, not toed-in. Allow some room besides the speakers, lets say 30 cm to both sides of the cabinet to avoid nasal sounding in the mid-band. They work really well, I began with a superuniti and now have a SN2 with Hicap DR. Very good, detailed, rich colour and good timing. Much easier to place than the very old KEFs and Mission speakers I owned before.
But they can sound worse with the wrong material, I recognise this especially playing records which are highly compressed. Maybe they are not the first choice for Metal or Hardrock. But I think, the Ovators simply present, what is on the record, isn´t it?
My 400s are lovely ( bigger room) but at the moment outstripped by a pair of audiovector floorstanders - the basic version which cost a mere £400 ex dem when they started putting in ribbon tweeters.These are in a much smaller room with less furniture. Whilst the s400 are detailed tonal etc the audiovectors are FULL of energy. My next wet day project is to swap the speaker around!
I have bought a pair of new S-400 about 7 years ago, short before Naim stopped producing them. In my room (about 5.5x6.5 m^2 with high ceiling) they work very well. I mainly listen to classical music and really like the speakers.
There is a weak point that you should be aware of, however: the female plug in the plinth (the couterpart of the NAC A5 spade terminals) is ill designed. It consists of two plastic shells:
The two shells are kept together by two tiny screws which are screwed in very short and thin plastic threads. In the picture, these threads are visible in the right half of the plug.
The problem with the plug is that, if there is a little bit too much friction when inserting the spades of the cable terminals into the plugs (as it should be the case in order to establish a good contact), it can happen that the two shells of the plug fall apart. One half of the plug falls then into the plinth.
This has happened to me two times and is extremely annoying because the speaker becomes unusable. One has to lay down the speaker, unscrew the basis of the plinth and replace the plug. This requires an unusually long, thin screwdriver and, of course, a new plug.
…I enjoyed a pair for a couple of years and could find no fault.
With retirement on my doorstep I went out and purchased a pair of ProAc D30RS speakers. (The Ovators were traded in and noticed my dealer had them resold within a couple of days.) I had a pair of D2’s prior to the 400’s and decided after I demo’s the D30’s I wanted to return to ProAc.
One thing for sure, there are a lot of good speakers out there and there is so much music and so little time to listen to it all.
Enjoying my 600 Ovators very much, can not find any faults, the music just sounds very good to me.
Probably there are better speakers out there, but I have no reason to bother.
I have active Ovator 600s and have found no speaker to equal them. Recognising the value tied up in NAP 300s x 3 + Snaxo and Supercap I have had demos of most alternatives without success they all sound inferior, notably the Titan 707s, for which I had high hopes, but were a big disappointment. With superior ears to mine my wife was shaking her head after just 1 minute.
Glad to see one person has got active 600’s work for them, as myself and there previous owner couldn’t live with them.
Would be nice to hear them working as they should, as i am sure they can sound lovely.
Enjoy
Thanks, just enjoying perhaps my favourite band ever - Secret Machines with
Josh Garza on drums, he makes Bonham and Moon seen almost anaemic in comparison.
I thought I was hallucinating so, giving you the benefit of the doubt, I decide to check and saw a few videos because that is either a brave or stupid statement.
I was hallucinating…
Just swapped in the old audiovector floorstanders into the bigger room and stunning results.
All I guess down rooms and amount of furniture which I have always been a bit sceptical about … until now
Let’s hope the ovator are good in the smaller room or it’ll be more shopping!!
