I had the same head of steam up when I was looking for my SBLs! :-))
Wot he said!
And they can be moved - I moved mine about 40 miles, but they were boxed, and it takes a lot of TLC & gentle driving, and a fair bit of luck (I got lucky 
). If the seller has a gasket set then buy it.
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Dot & Dab is absolutely fine for SL2s and no different to a masonry wall with lime plaster on top. Assume it’s the same for SBLs.
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I bought a pair that were assembled with no boxes.
I went to collect them, the tweeter enclosures came off easily enough but the bass/‘resonant chamber’ didn’t come apart easily.
I had thought there was a risk of this so I had taken a few wedges of wood (about 6mm or so) and I placed the wedges inbetween the ‘box’ and the bass/mid driver ‘box’, then put some cargo straps around the speakers to hold them together (the wedges were there to stop the pins being driven through the pads).
I transported them from Norfolk to the south west like this. They were intact on arrival, I don’t believe any worse for the experience. I’d happily do this again if I bought a pair without boxes.
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Perhaps the previous owners of both our pairs had used araldite!
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Dry lining (dot and dab) is nothing like the old traditional plaster walls, you will have a void that extends round the hole room, this will certainly be much bigger than 5mm, and depending on how good the block work is and then plasters , but if its a modern site house it will probably be poor, his wont help the bass at all i am sorry to say. Not as bad as a stud wall, but they really need a solid wall to work best
Slightly OT, but has anybody tried Isoacoustic Gaia feet on their SBLs (currently spiked on concrete floor)
Yes, that is a concern, and one I’ll never be able to test out until I try them. I remember when I started off with decent HiFi, I had an Arcam Alpha 10 amp, and I tried loads of different speakers, and it was the Credo’s that won it for me. Then I upgraded everything else to Naim. So the Naim sound is for me, and I dont think anything else will compare now, even if Naim go back to making speakers, they will probably be a nearer sound to moderns speakers, than what they intended in their Olive days.
All in all, this is a bit of a gamble, hence starting off this topic to see if I can alleviate any of those concerns, and to be honest, I still don’t know, but I do appreciate everyones help and honesty. Until I get the NAP 250 back (end of Feb when I can hopefully travel again) I wont know what the Credos can really do, and perhaps then I will be more than happy to stick with what I know and love.
Credo for me was a 5 out of 10 speaker. SBL 8
In comparison SBL are faster, more alive and music is just more interesting.
SL2 in my system gets a ten.
Ah, but on looks SBL scores 10, SL2 only 5.
IMHO of course and I’m now running for the hills!
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I just bought some SL2s blind via a Naim dealership, I needed speakers that would go against a wall but that aside, I’d heard active and passive SBLs in the past and really liked what they did but never SL2s. Currently I’m using passive 135s so very similar to your 250, the overall presentation is very Naim, initially they were a bit bright but as everything warmed back up they mellowed and become very nice, plenty of drive and they really bring out the typical olive sound so well, I’m completely sold on them. I imagine SBLs are very similar, they are closely related. I suppose the trick is to buy a good pair, that way if you like them you’ll be with them a long time, or if you don’t the chances are you’ll sell them on quite easily and without losing too much cash. I’d say the SL2s are exactly what an 82/250 need regardless of the power supply if you like the sound of the turn of the millennium Naim kit
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Not putting it too crudely, does that mean if a consecutive serial number pair of speakers fail the SBL test, they are likely to be used for Credos which presumably have a less stringent test?
One way to fill the void is with dry sand, obviously this can have its own problems, as its very fine and will find any holes, and you will have holes, that you can’t see, but the fine sand will find.
But you would only need to fill the void to the height of the speaker.
If i was doing it, i would mix the dry sand with a week mix of cement, put it in dry, from a hole above each speaker, the air will set the mix over time, this will put less pressure on the boards and stop it spilling out if you ever disturb it
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Yes, credo selection criteria was not as tight as with SBLs.
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