@Mark63 i am going to build the fusion again.
Interesting! A build for someone else maybe?
No, for myself.
Since selling my fusion speakers to my friend I have wondered wether I made a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, the CNO4 is a really good speaker “technically”. It has all the attributes of a very good speaker but it just seems to miss something that the fusion brought to the table. A little magic. Synergy I suppose. I need to find out if my audio memory is correct.
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Considering you sold to a friend, couldn’t you borrow them, or do a temporary swap first?
(Not trying to discourage you from a build of course)
There’s no need. I know there are aspects of that speaker that I love. It worked well in my room too. I really like the midrange of those Scan speak revelator drivers and the fusion used a mid specific version.
How are you feeling about your speakers? Are you enjoying them. I spoke to someone recently on a forum that had purchased Troels own version of the Faital. He was describing how the midrange is very special.
Maybe they’re too much speaker for the Nova? I know it’ll drive the mid/high section fine but you have to be talking £20k+ for comparable commercial speakers and they could maybe benefit from more in the source/pre area to give you that missing something?
Just a thought as I know you’d started on the upgrade path and maybe you had that in mind when building them before changing your mind about the upgrades?
You’ve probably noticed I’ve hung back from reordering the CNOs, I love the Illuminators and I’m not so sure I want a different sound … they could easily be end game speakers. From your comments it sounds like the Seas drivers might be too much of a change.
I do want to do another build, it’s just too much fun and too rewarding not to! However I’m leaning towards the bigger brother of mine more now, the Illuminator 7751s … same three way construction as the CNOs but drivers I know I like … decisions decisions!
Anyway, hope we get to see the new build!
Yes it could be too much speaker for the nova but I think it’s more a matter of preference/synergy. As I’ve said before, there are differences between the two drivers. The Seas drivers are just a little more reserved.
I did think about building the same as yours, or maybe the revelator version, but I think I would miss the incredible bass I’ve had with the CNO4 & the fusion. It also has a high pass to the midrange allowing it to be pushed hard for parties/movies etc. I have a big room.
I thought you already had the parts for the CNO grande?
With regards to upgrades, for me it’s much greater value to chase synergy at this time. It keeps me happy for longer than a box upgrade. I really like the nova. I could live with it for a while.
Hi Mark, no I didn’t speak to Troels about the tweeters, his description of them on the site says they’re very close to each other and he likes them both equally, they sound very much the same, a little different in dispersion. Jantzen had the 6620 in stock so I went for them. I’m certainly not disappointed, far from it!
I can understand your concern about missing the bass of your current speakers if you went with these, however I think you’d be surprised how deep they do go, a friend listening to them recently got up to check my sub wasn’t switched on 
If there’s deep bass in the recording they do a great job of it, a couple of tracks on the playlist made from the Munich high end show topic on here surprised me with this, the first Ghost Rider track and Kashmir sound incredible! Having said that, no they won’t be as good as a 12” driver powered by a 500 watt amp … would absolutely love to hear that!
Regarding the CNO kit, no they couldn’t take my order due to the number of orders they had at the time. By the time they contacted me to say they were able to take orders again things had started to go downhill for me last year.
Completely understandable, this forum has tendency to push for the next upgrade I’ve not heard the Nova personally but have read a lot of good things about it here from very happy owners … more boxes doesn’t necessarily mean more enjoyment of listening to music, imo anyway. While I was trying to sort out the cable mess behind my unit I had the SN3 back out and hooked up to the ND5 with the standard lavender cable, what fun! Really enjoyed it, and through these speakers sounded even better than I remembered… caused me to eye all the other powered off boxes and wonder tbh … yes the 282/250 undoubtedly sounds better but weigh in the cost, all the extra cables, the space they take up etc, hmm, makes you think!
I consider myself very lucky that I now have the disposable income that allows me to experiment the way I have over the past three years or so … before that I could never have dreamt of being able to do anything remotely like this, family, mortgage etc etc, I turned 60 last week so it took me a long time to get there
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Thanks for that Mark.
I can imagine the bass is good. My little Ellam speaker has great bass and so did the sp 95. If played at moderate volume all is great. The biggest difference is at low volumes, and really high volumes. Low volume listening is really important to me, as my wife often goes to bed early. The fusion I remember to be particularly good at low volume. I can imagine your NAP 250 helps your speakers here.
I definitely wouldn’t build another speaker with the hypex amps. For all of its benefits i feel that one day you would be let down by a failed amp and no skills to reprogram a replacement if the hypex one is discontinued…I think I’ll order the passive crossovers as a backup.
TBH i was considering last night that i am just a little addicted to the feeling of ordering another kit. When that Jantzen package arrives with all the components it’s pretty exciting!
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Yes low volume listening is important to me as well, and for the same reason
Very interesting what you say about the hypex amps, a good point I hadn’t considered.
Isn’t it just! The sense of achievement turning that pile of parts into something like these is something else too
I just need to make a decision … was really tempted by the Fusion 22 as a different design to try, that was until I made a crude mock-up recently … I’m very glad my wife was out when I did this!
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Funnily enough I did the same for my 3WC-15, and while I fully expected her to reject them based on size, she didn’t!
She does like that I made them myself though, commercial ones of this size almost certainly would have been rejected.
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Surely the nerd alert alarms are going off! 
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Permanently
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Nice, shows she appreciates the work you put into them, bet she enjoys listening to them too
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When does the build start? 
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Thanks for the nudge 
Life’s just too crazy right now X) Every week evening is taken up with kids swimming and household stuff. Weekends more swimming and more house and garden work. I can’t even keep the car clean! Any time in the evenings I do get I just fire up the turntable.
I have kinda settled on those illuminators, as my long term goal. The Ellam Flex look fab, but the faceted panels are a bit much. I might actually start with the bass modules - they’ll compliment my Iotas, and my UQ1, for TV duties.
It’s all talk at the moment though - I have to sell on some gear for my own sanity, before I start planning when and how to fit in the speaker build.
Hope you’re still enjoying your illuminators 8)
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I had a similar problem. My solution was to use up holiday, I made it my job for three weeks.
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