What kind of music do you listen to? I found that the performance of the Ovators is very dependent on the type of music.
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I have the impression that s400 are around 1,5-2kā¬ and s600 3,5-4kā¬ used right now, depending on where in the world you are located right now
Mostly I listen to Soul, Jazz, R&B, Rock, Pop, HipHop, House/Techno/Electronic, Singer Songwriterā¦ classical only rarely.
Frankly I can not tell how true a system sounds to the original timbre of an instrument, because almost all concerts I attend are electrically amplified.
Rhythm, immediacy, speed, scale and the feeling to be close to the music is what I enjoy when it comes to hifi. I want the sound to be big, but I donāt care about depth of soundstage or spatial separation of instruments.
If you want to change the finish to red, i would wrap them rarher than paint them as it can easily be removed back to standard finish
Thatās an interesting idea. I have re-finished speakers quite a few times, (I love colour and texture). My polisher has done really great things with lacquers, textured paints, polish and hand waxing. I have applied stainless steel sheet, anodised aluminium and hand beaten pewter. Also stiffened the external surfaces with Corian, stone and solid timber. There can be sonic and stylistic improvements, (and unfortunately the odd disaster).
But just thinking of your idea a bit, shrink wrapped latex or vinyl or textiles come to mind. Some manufacturers have done the interchangeable fabric sleeve already, (Linn and I recall ages ago JR), so this should have occurred to me earlier. The Ovator range would really lend itself to this, as the front grille sits proud of the body of the speaker, and will hide all the sins of velco/elastic/stitching depending on how you sleeve them.
I have always hankered for red speakers, (one of the reasons I got the white S400 was that it looked like an easy conversion), but your idea is both cheaper and easily reversed. Thanks!
So yesterday a friend came over to check the torque settings:
The bass drivers torque settings were good, almost no need to re-torque them. But the BMR needed some re-torquing, something around 90Ā°-120Ā° until 2NM was reached on the scale of the tool.
Although this is the recommended setting, the heights sounded too harsh/shrill to my ears then. Maybe the scale on the tool was not absolutely precise.
So after about an hour or so I slightly loosened the screws around 20Ā°-30Ā°.
So this evening the speakers just play wonderful music, seems the torque setting is just right now: They were a but dull when they arrived, but after re-torquing and letting them settle in one more day, the sound is very open but not too harsh/bright, sounds just right to my ears.
The BMR grills are a nightmare to re-fit, at least the one on my right speaker, hope I donāt have to do this again 
Nice, i am still waiting to check mine, but i like the sound they are producing so might just leave alone after reading your post. As looking at some for sale the reading that they can give is all the place unless you spend Ā£100ās on one and carnt see the point in that just to use once.
But interested on your findings and enjoy them
That is what happens when you over-tighten the BMR housing bolts front and back. Naim recommend 2nm and I found a little less that this with my torque-driver (1.97nm) was better. I donāt know what the actual setting is but too tight (it glares) or too loose and it āzingsā - you need to back and forth until you hit on the right setting with your device and write it down for re-check again in a few years. If the speaker is not moved much then it should remain good for several years.
The main thing is experiment - get it sounding good for you - then enjoy!
DB.
May I ask what sort of torque driver you use to set the screws to within a few hundredths like that? Drivers Iāve used are marked in tenths rather than hundredths, and generally have a quoted accuracy of within 6% which looks like it would make them far too imprecise for such an exact setting.
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As I remember (and I could be wrong) grille orientation also needs to be taken into account although itās 2 years since I sold my Ovator 600s so other with more recent experience might like to comment.
I use one of these.
I donāt mean to say that the setting is absolutely accurate, but that I found the relative setting by the driver could be hear as different as you increased the setting or decreased. I spent a bit of time out of interest and that is what my driver said.
So another driver may be several % different is what I mean (different relative device tolerance) but possibly near Naimās setting or a bit less is where to begin.
DB.
I think that another advantage of the above is that the force applied to the bolt at 0Ā° angle.
On the contrary with ordinary torque wrenchs you are rotating at an angle of 90Ā° and with bolts this small itās easy the skip the driver and damage the head.
Regards
Roberto
I canāt imagine that anyone would use a ratchet spanner/socket type torque wrench to tighten little screws in a loudspeaker. They are best left to car mechanics etc.
The screwdriver type is now common, an electricians are required to use them when making electrical connections in junction boxes etc. and there are plenty on the market.
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