So a buddy and I were having a discussion this evening about replacement SL2 tweeters. He tells me that you can pick them up off the net for 1/3 of the price of a naim dealer. Then he went on to say how would you know the dealer has purchased from Naim? I said afaik the dealer buys the tweeters from Naim who have selected, spec’d and match them. He then continues to say, if they are a matched tweeter pair wouldn’t the tweeters have to be matched to the existing mid base/drivers as well? He then went on to say that I can’t tell him scan speak make tweeters that are so far out of each other that speaker makers have to test them and pair them etc. All I could tell him is that Naim say these are the correct tweeters for the sl2 speaker.
Any thing I could come back at him in defence of the Naim pricing and confirmation that they are really from naim Audio, He seems to think that there should be some sort of spec sheet confirming the legitimacy of them.
Cheers for any information
The tweeters from Naim for the SL2s are all selected and then matched as pairs. When Naim had a full speaker dept. they used special measuring jigs and equipment in order to first select the tweeters that fell within the required parameters and then try to find the closest matches within that selected group. AFAIK they did this for a whole bunch of drivers prior to closing their speaker production area (it’s now the area where the Statement is built). I recall when I worked at the factory that the piled up trays of new but rejected tweeters was somewhat alarming. They were of course perfectly fine overall, just didn’t fall within Naim’s required parameters when measured.
If you’re buying from a Naim dealer then they should be able to tell you whether they are supplying the Naim sourced items or not.
Thank you Richard.
when I had to replace a failing tweeter, I did inquire about matched tweeters and was told Naim no longer do this matching. I decided to buy a pair anyhow so that the tweeters would be ‘similar’ age. And the new tweeters have been working very well since installation in 2017.
enjoy/ken
Naim don’t match any tweeters any more because they can’t. Any selecting and matching had to be done before the speaker department closed. I would guess that’s why, even though the tweeters are still available from Scanspeak, last time I asked, Naim only had a small number of sets left.
When I first bought my SL2s from a well known website, they were in ‘as new’ condition but after six months one of the tweeters stopped working. I bought just one, and have never noticed the slightest problem. Five years later they still sound wonderful.
Once Naim run out of their stocks then that will be the only option. I’m glad it worked out well for you.
A slight diversion. At a recent demo Dynaudio showed their new Confidence speakers…the tweeters are made on one of these new fancy printers. How times have changed.
I personally would never consider doing that. If i did need to replace 1 it would 2 from Naim, if Naim Audio had run out, I’d email the hell out of scanspeak and pay what I needed to get scanspeak to match me up a pair. Or I’d have a bloody good go at it.
Ok
Gazza
Being a longtime Dynaudio user, I had never heard of this, so I quoted you, and asked if this was a fact on the AVS Dynaudio forum, specifically addressed to Otto, the product manager at Dynaudio.Here is his reply;
Quote
No. We use 3D printers for prototyping, but not in mass production. Not sure where that idea came from.
Edit: We may have discussed that the Hexis was 3D printed in the prototype stage, but it isn’t in production. That’s the closest to an explanation I can think of.
End Quote
I just wanted to clarify this information,
Thanks for clarifying, pretty sure i was not the only one who came away with that impression, but thanks anyway👍
Maybe whoever was doing the demo had the wrong information, but Otto is the guy who would know.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.