SBL...still a loved speaker?

I’m not alone :smile:

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:small_blue_diamond:Dalmatian,.HIFIman,…What do you use for amps to your Allaes.?

Have heard that someone even runs an atom to their Allae…But does it really work.?

/Peder🙂

Using a 250DR

I have a Naim Nova, upgraded from a Superuniti, both sound superb with Allaes but the Nova is on another level.

Nick

:small_blue_diamond:Thanks,…But Naim Atom is “weaker” than Nova…and 250DR,do you think it would work to Allaes as an Office-system.?

/Peder🙂

My current Allae’s are my second pair having sold my original pair I owned for 13 years.

After my first pair I tried a few stand mount speakers including the wonderful Proac Tab 10 and Tab 10 signatures but a room move required a bigger speaker and stumbled across an excellent late example in mint cherry.

I once ran Allae’s with a NAP100 and NAP155 for a few years and they drove the Allae’s with ease even at low volume.

Okay a NAP250DR shows off how good the Allae’s are and things really open up and I personally feel a match made in heaven.

A bargain on the used market!!

:small_blue_diamond:HIFIman,…That’s why I’m thinking about them as an office-system.

It becomes a little back heavy-system,…I’m actually a “Source First” guy.
But as you type “A bargain on the used market!!”

Great Information,…Thanks.

/Peder🙂

I’m a huge Allae enthusiast too. I’ve also owned SBLs. I feel Allaes are far more tolerant of lesser kit, and they just want to boogie no matter what.

Mine are on the end of an XS set :slight_smile:

However CDS3, LP12 and NAT05 into NAIT XS and SBLs was something else. (for me).

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Another very happy long term SBL owner here. Completely agree with all the praise heaped upon these remarkable speakers above. I would not be too worried about all the advice around how and where to use SBLs. Mine are all wrong: never serviced, on a timber floor, under a sloping loft roof with plasterboard walls and a low ceiling. And yet they can sound so good with well recorded music.

I would not want to overstate the faults (and these could be due to the age of my SBLs and the room) but some instruments especially piano and brass can sound a little mono-tonal and lacking in authority and realism. Instrument separation could be better as could the palpability and realism of the stereo effect. Many will say the latter does not matter but having listened to several very expensive speakers I think the ability to place instruments in the space they were given by the recording engineer can add to the enjoyment of music.

That said in an effort to address these faults I recently tried to search out replacement speakers. I auditioned a good range of new speakers in the £4,000-5,000 price range (Spendor, Neat, ATC, Kudos, Harbeth) and could not find anything that was obviously better. One of the dealers I went to nodded his head sagely at the end of the audition and very gently suggested I might have to consider spending more that £7,000 to achieve what I wanted so I brought a Supercap instead.

I drove them for years using a NAP140 and then a NAP 150 so a 200 will be fine. They do love a 250 though. A good second hand pair is a fantastic bargain and a real monument to the quality of Naim’s engineering.

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I think that of all the various pieces of equipment, the improvement over my ‘hi-fi lifetime’ has been least in speakers.

I still have my SBLs that I bought from new in the early nineties and they sound great driven by a Nova in my second system. Replacement grilles this year and they look and sound superb, £7k to better them today is probably about right.

Main system replacement was NBLs and they will remain unless they malfunction.

Indeed, in my view, if Naim want to do a favour for a sister Group Company, they should give Focal the design of the SBL, NBL and DBL to put into production. To my ears a sight better then their current product range.

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Such wise words!

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‘I’ think you may have missed something there :wink:

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I love my SBLs,they thank every time they give them a better amplifier or power source and have so many fine positioning settings. They have a special magic.

SL2s? :rofl:

IBLs :innocent::+1:

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Is that room a converted garage? Serious question …

No, it’s a room in the house :smile:

At first it was a room for sound recording, and then I converted it into an auditorium.

When I had the IBL, I dismounted part of the acoustic wall to make live the hard wall near the speakers

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How are the sbls compared to the ibl’s Crifo?

the only reason that makes me prefer the SBL to the IBL, is the last link in the chain, the listening room.

At home, I have 27m2 in a room with concrete walls, treated but unfurnished and I think we are beyond what the IBL was thought.

For me, the greatest quality of IBL is its speed. It makes all the things that will pass through believable and definite!

Never have I enjoyed so much a bass line … (yes yes bass :yum:) than on this small speaker that at first glance would not let it predict.

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Same here!!

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