Super 20 nightmare

Hi Lemans
I’ve posted a couple of photos in System Pics 2020 thread - you can see the positioning of the S20’s from the pictures.

Thanks Bluedog, how far apart are your s20s. nice room / setup.

They’re 138cm apart Lemans.

Hi Bluedog, just moved them in by 8cm to 192cm seems more of a solid central image, mine where from said dealer too, wish he had set mine up. I don’t know if I will keep them when the dealers open again they have been such a pain I am finding hard to enjoy listening to my system. thanks very much for your help. neil

makes for interesting reading i also have kudos S20s which i have also found to need real fine tuning/adjustment to prevent sounding too bright (doesn’t take much to get this wrong, for example wife moved couch forward by 15cm unknown to me and they sounded really bright, which left me wondering what had happened…!!!)

Kudos article really helpful currently have mine 30cm off the wall about 122cm apart with slight toe-in (only 1cm) which i found made a massive difference and sound nice at listening position of 3metres away

will try some tweaking again using the kudos method and see what moving them further forward/back does out of curiosity

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We almost have the same system!

Pop a 555dr in your NDS and you will never need to worry about brightness again. It’s truly remarkable.

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is on the to purchase list but have to wait a bit for now :slight_smile:

Tricky D is right
A 555 made a huge difference to my NDS after using the XPSdr for a couple of years

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It appears the S20 tweeter isn’t very off axis friendly or maybe some room treatment needed and yet the advise to invest more $€£¥ into electronics to cure a speaker problem is interesting to see for me.

A GBP 4000 speaker will sing with an additional GBP 7800 electronics ???

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My S20’s fire straight forward but I listen off axis. I don’t find issues on or off axis with mine.

I think the ‘problem’ with the S20’s tweeter is that it is very revealing and it will show up deficiencies in digital sources quite ruthlessly. I’ve noticed as I have progressed through various upgrades the digitalness (is that a word?!) has decreased with every upgrade. The NDS with a 555dr is sublime and is the only digital source I have heard apart from the ND555 that doesn’t exhibit this character.

My former NDX, even with an XPS DR still had an edge to the sound which is easily blamed on the speakers but I think they were showing things for what they are. An NDS with XPS DR almost eliminates this, but not completely, hence my tongue in cheek comment to @mbj666 to change his XPS DR for a 555DR.

This is where people can get into trouble with the dreaded mullet, i.e. being over speakered and disappointed with their system. A revealing pair of speakers plugged into an inadequate system doesn’t normally give long term pleasure.

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Really odd as I have T88’s, S10’s and S20’s and none of them have given any indication of having ‘off axis’ issues … to be honest in my use (which goes back six years or more) I’ve found them to be one of the least fussy speakers I’ve had to set up … I also have Dynaudio’s, Russel K’s, some smaller B&W’s and Focal’s, even some old TDLs in my ‘stash’.

I know that the tweeter used in the Titans (and the S10/S20) was chosen partially because it had such good off-axis response so I’m honestly surprised that you’re saying you’ve found this to be an issue.

Hi all, just reorganised my set up ( 5 tier isoblue ) new order as follows base unit nap 160 next level hicap dr & napsc ( for nat 01 ), tier 3 radikal, tier 4 nac 32.5 & nat 01 tuner, top tier lp12 . interesting, I have also moved the s20s closer together. Will let it all settle down and have a listen.

The S20 was certainly very revealing. Even when I went from a 300 to a 500 it felt like a totally new amp. Same when I went from a 250 to the 500.
However with the Titans 606s not really that much between a 250 and a 500. Well there is, but not justify the price difference.

I own Kudos C20 paired with a 282+250DR, I’m looking for a Titan 606 but I guess my black boxes may be limited to drive 606 how the should be!Is it right?

Yeah - that should be a balanced system.

Have mine firing forward now and following some extensive placement shuffling using the kudos setup guide have got a sound am happy with an lost the tweeter harshness (noticed a powerline on the xps dr made quite a difference so gives an idea of what a 555dr could do to the NDS)

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Up date, visited my local naim dealer today and he is going to lend me a pair of neat ministras for the weekend to see if the problem ( uneven sound stage ) go’s away, if not then we will look at new amps to replace the 32.5 / 160. what do you think will be a good replacement for the said amps.

When replacing amplification, I would look primarily at the speakers — and those will like a 282/250 system… :smiley:

I haven’t followed the entire thread most carefully — but has your kit been serviced in recent times?

Yes the 32.5 had a new balance control early this year and a check over by class A before that both pre & power serviced in 2013. when i spoke to class A last darren though that good as the pre / power is they are still 40 year old amps

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Had the neat ministra’s on loan since saturday morning ( thanks clive / sound cinergy) very impressed, anyone thinking about a small speaker must give them a try. As for my ongoing problem with sound stage, I will be trying some different amp combo’s