It’s time to bring the Titan 606s back to the living room.
Currently playing with the NDX2/XPSDR - 282/HicapDR/250DR system.
Must say - the 282/250 drives them effortlessly- and perhaps the ND555/552/500 is overkill.
It’ll probably be a few more weeks/months until I get time to setup the 552/500 - but it seems to be a perfect match with the 282/250.
What do other owners run the Titan 606s with? Satisfied? Does the system feel balanced?
On my part - I don’t want any speaker heavier than the 606s!
I’m running your same 282/250 system with ndx-2 without the xps/dr and a pretty well advanced linn lp-12 however my speakers are Dynaudio Confidence 20 and much like the reviews (seen later) they are wonderful speakers in all ways but one- they just don’t draw you in and let you forget everything but the music.
I have not heard the Confidence 20’s yet,are you going to keep them benjy?
I remember you used to own Harbeth 30.1’s before the Dyn’s.
I wonder if that is why CF20’s seem to come up for sale rather quickly after purchase.
The harbeths still outdo the cf20 in that glorious midrange but the cf is still preferred. It has more bass and builds upon it, a foundation. The harbeths are more like a wonderful radio that sounds good, but then you hear the same song on a full system and their is just so much more sound. The original plan had been to get a pair of the heritage special, but at the time ,it was difficult to actually get a pair and these came up at roughly the same price or slightly less. I don’t expect to change the speakers anytime soon. I was tempted by a solution integrated that came up for sale. It would be nice to lower the box count. But she I m measured my quadraspire rack , it would not have fit and may have been too heavy. I may at some point jump to a 552/300 system
I have CD555, 552DR and 500DR powering my Titan 606 and the better the front end the better they sound. I chose the Titans because this size suited my listening room perfectly. Bass is detailed and well controlled much more so than the PMC Fact 12’s which they replaced. The Facts were lovely but they just didnt suit my room. I could go 707 or 808 but why change something which is sounding superb.
A ND555/552/500 front end does look like massive overkill for the 606 to me. The speakers cost about 15-16% of the front end? I would say, no wonder they sound good with this level of electronics behind them! But a balanced system is not my first thought and I can’t imagine the 606 - good as they are - does full justice to a 500 level system.
I know that very expensive systems driving relatively low priced speakers is a common thing on this forum. Always has been and always puzzles(d) me. Just as the common argumentation along the lines of; ‘speaker X made every upgrade clearly audible’ (implying they must be good enough). The voice in my head says, of course they do. But that doesn’t mean that the speakers are capable of providing the full benefit of the upgrade. You don’t know what you don’t hear.
I have the 505s with the 282/SC/250 and yes there is a great synergy but then the 505/606s are not that demanding, indeed I’ve heard them with the Uniti Nova and Linn Selekt and a great sound on both occasions. However, although not a source first disciple instinct tells me that both speaker will probably be best matched with a 552/300. That said I’d really like a 500 but for all the wrong reasons, it would just look great in the rack!
I have found the 606 to be balanced and driven very nicely by the NAP 250. I am sure the NAP 500 does it even better. The 808 seems to be very popular with 500 owners though! Quite happy with the 606 on the end of a 250 andI don’t think I would rush to change them if a 500 landed in my lap! Perhaps that wasn’t a wise choice of words. You know what I mean.
I wouldn’t be so quick to write off the 606. It’s somewhat of a gem in the Titan range. Although I’ve not lived with them, from my experience of them, I found that they offer a remarkably coherent, integrated sound across the full spectrum.
I don’t write them off and that’s not at all what I tried to say. As a side step, both the 505 and 606 were on my shortlist before I purchased my current speakers. I listened to them at a dealer driven by a Linn DSM/Klimax system. Very good. The 505 had my preference of the two btw.
Agree with your comments, always surprises me that the speakers take a back seat on a lot of our budgets here. I probably kept hold of my SBL’s for too long but enjoyed what they did at the time.
A much simpler approach for me, NDX2 into SN3 to 606s - no additional power supplies in the chain - I love the sound and consider the system to be incredibly well balanced. I use Roon, Quobuz and CD quality or greater files on an attached SSD drive.
I also run my TV via ARC to Oppo 105 Blu Ray player into the SN3 so that I get TV sound through the 606s - great TV sound as well
From the opposite viewpoint, I’d suggest that your electronics are nowhere near good enough to show what your new speakers are capable of. It’s just as unbalanced as the system you single out for criticism, but in a way that’s less likely to provide a satisfying musical experience.
When I first got my 606’s, I was using a 552/300DR fronted by a Linn KDSM and full-fat LP12. They responded incredibly well to Music cables and then a 500DR, which was simply a “Yesssss” moment.
Cables-that-can’t-be-named, Karousel, Radikal 2, PhoenixNet and the rest have all since demonstrated their superiority against their predecessors with the 606’s in place and I don’t get any sense of them being outclassed by what feeds them.
I still think that getting the right speakers for your listening room is critical - fortunately 606’s work really well with pretty much any Naim amp I’ve heard powering them.
I agree a bit with you, the full 500 series can express themselves more with better speakers than 606.
But as HH said, your system is also not balanced, because your speakers are too good for a bare Ndx2 / 282/ 200. You need really an xpsdr and a 250 dr at minimum.
So both systems are unbalanced, yours is a mullet, the OP one a monkfish. As I learned the significance of those terms recently, I am happy to use them now.
Too much work to sell off the 500 system - otherwise it would probably be gone - the NDX2/XPSDR/282/250/HicapDR + Kudos 606s seems nicely enough balanced.
The EE switch, morgana and Kudos cables are also doing their thing,
Still - let me start bringing the pieces from the 500 system over to the living room and see how it goes.
By the end of the year, I want one system and a few sets of speakers gone - taking up too much room, and not much point to it. One of my friends commented - I’ve got more Naim gear at home than most dealers nowadays.
Here’s the funny thing - the Kudos Super 20s - the original ones - clearly showed much more of a difference to moving from 250, 300 to 500 - even the jump from 300 to 500 was huge - compared to the difference I perceived last time on the 606s.
The Tweeters on the Super 20s were brutal sharp - and it needed all the control the amplification could put on it. The new Titans series is way more forgiving!
I heard a pair of Kudos Super 20A at Cymbiosis when I was there to have some upgrade to my LP12 turntable. Peter was using them on the end of a 552/500 system. I had to ask what they were as I was so impressed by the sound from such relatively small enclosures.
The 606s had been a potential option for me at one time, but fortunately I was able to wait just a bit longer…
Unfortunately I wasn’t actually able to hear the 808s - would have been able to get a good deal on them if I had tried…
A friend moved from them to some danish $$$$$$$ speakers.
