Just wondering if SL2 crossovers are available still.
Id be surprised if there were after so many years, but best to ask Naim through your dealer.
Thanks Richard
Were you asking because you are missing a set or for a refresh?
Just had W Audio refurbish a set of (non Naim) crossovers - very satisfactory.
Since your profile lists SBLs, others will be able to comment on how different these are to SL2 - perhaps an extra question for RD?
I still have SBLs but always wanted SL2s. Saw a pair advertised without crossovers and wondered if they were available for that reason. Not sure if to save and look for something newer like Kudos 505 for example.
Hint have a look today on a well known website. For the record Iâm not selling mine.
Thanks, I did see those but wrong finish. They do look in excellent condition though.
The original Naim passive crossovers for the SBL and SL2âs werenât made with the best components in fact the opposite as they were really supposed to be used active so you can do much better than the Naim ones.
It would cost more but youâd be better to get some made up with high end better quality components.
Or go active with a Snaxo.
And there are other active XOs if you know or can find the best crossovers frequency, and original crossover slopes (order) if you want to keep to that.
You make it sound as though the passive crossovers were some kind of afterthought. I can assure you that this couldnât be further from the truth. They were designed to perform. Yes, an active SNAXO 242 is better, but thatâs active for you.
FWIW, some years back I heard a prototype of a rather lovely looking passive crossover using some very fancy components on the SL2s and I felt that much of what made them special to my ears was sadly lost in the process. (The next time I saw them they were being used to prop up a coffee table - they worked rather well at that!)
It reminded me of my early days at Naim as the Customer Service Manager, when I had correspondence with a customer who had bought a Naim CD player, was disappointed that it didnât contain all the âbestâ components (black gate caps etcâŚ) that they had read about, so had gone to great expense getting it modified with really expensive âbest soundingâ components and then complained that they found it sounded not so special anymore. So donât always assume that the âbestâ components give the best performance.
Wow I was seriously thinking of getting some to try out years ago. Rather expensive props. I wonder if there was some inspiration from hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy answer to the meaning of life
There was a fetishistic (Italian?) designer who produced a coffee table with a glass top resting on the back of a kneeling woman dressed in black boots and black leather basque. Which makes my stylish (to me, anyway) glass table on red metal looped frame seem very âtameâ.
Do you watch ARTE by any chance. They were on display there before watching the concert yesterday evening. There was also a bizarre looking chair as well.
These things are totally lost on audiophiles I guess but those crossovers perhaps not
No, that pleasure sadly eluded me!
I am glad you have challenged this apparent âfactâ Richard. I have never compared alternatives to original Paxoâs as I have always found my SBL originals excellent. I would of course concede that removing them to go active does improve them but at a cost.
I agree. Obviously going active is likely to provide a different and probably improved presentation but the cost of doing so is pretty extreme (Snaxo, PS - probably SCDR if you do it properly and if you arenât going to do it properly then question why do it at all, another amp, another set of DIN to XLRs another run of whatever speaker cable, at least two more rack shelves). When I worked it all out it was going to cost north of ÂŁ15k just to go active not even considering the extra space it would take up.
The SBL / SL2 pxos are absolutely right for the presentation these speakers were designed to provide and I donât think itâs fair to characterise them as substandard let alone deliberately so. That is not what Naim is about. As Richard says, other PXOs were considered but not used because the ones Naim made sounded best.
The passive crossovers I heard were not designed by Naim. They looked lovely, and seemed very nicely made, but if you loved SBLs or SL2s for how they performed with the Naim crossovers, you may have been rather disappointed with these. Conversely, if you never quite got on with either SL2s or SBLs, or just didnât âgetâ them, these crossovers in a box might just have changed your mind. They just ruined what i loved about SL2s and SBLs, but Iâm sure a few others, including the designer, must have thought they were an improvement, otherwise why would they bother. My view was that the money would be far better spent going active, or just staying with the factory PXOs and buying a lot more music.
Wondering if I have gone to the wrong website, hereâŚ