Sounds like the DBLs are the only ones that have all the good stuff, without so many of the negatives. I’d love to here them one day.
What’s interesting and consistent in the discussion here - is that Naim Speakers seem to succeed like no others in creating a “live” sound - where the concert is in front of you. How desirable that is depends on a number of factors.
But principally, I suppose this presentation can be challenged by the type of music you listen to (can’t imagine it lends itself well to much of the Electronica I like) and the value one places on other hifi attributes along the way - especially Bass. I’m a bass freak - love the IsoBariks and my Kudos 808’s are and extension of that bass heavy groovy sound.
Some people LOVE the leaner Naim sound though - and I’m interested to hear what music they listen to that makes their systems sing. So yes - very much personal taste - but I’m beginning to form a picture that there are types of music and recordings that really Gel too.
I’ve heard SL2s which are great for jazz, folk and other lighter-weight music (and relative near-field listening) but chuck some rocky stuff at them and ‘there’s something missing’ (IMV).
And I’ve heard a couple of dealers who struggled with the Ovators, to the point they didn’t even suggest them. Personally, while I could get the active argument with DBLs, the maths of activating say O600’s just didn’t seem to make sense, unless you were already active.
Interesting you say that - I think I’ve just drawn this conclusion myself in my post of about 39 seconds ago, and you’ve just answered the question that you didn’t know Id asked!
We all know the amp/speaker/room combo is the most challenging to get right - and not always for the reasons one thinks.
Many years ago, I often saw passively-run NAP500s hooked up to the larger B&Ws in systems. Whenever I listened to this combo at a dealer, the B&W’s never even stirred and it was clear they were very current hungry and a 500, for all its qualities, isn’t the amp for the older B&Ws, the latter having been developed with current pumping amps (Classe’s IIRC). There’s a lot more to this speaker malarkey than just how many watts you need per the speaker manu’s specs, the latter often being highly misleading.
The likes of SL2s matched Naim’s amps very well in both forms but aren’t the right speaker if you want to hear the late & great Mr. Lynott and the gang in their full glory (IMHO, of course).
Heading into retirement I bought a new pair of ProAC D40RS. I did trade in the Ovators that were built in 2012. I bought them used a couple of years earlier and they held there value very well.
I can’t help wishing I could sell my ovator 400 (now in second system) and get another pair of audiovector floorstanders as in the main room which cost less than half the amount of the naim. In both rooms the audiovectors are massively better than the naim. Especially given covid selling large heavy speakers isn’t and easy option! I think the ovators need a much larger room and sadly better amplification than either my nait XS or supernait 2
I ran my Ovator S-400 with a Nait XS 2 and then a SN 2 and loved the combinations. They did improve with the SN 2 and agree they may have improved I moved up to a 282/250 combination. As mentioned above I recieved great value for the Ovators when I used them to trade in with my dealer. The dealer even picked up the speakers at my home after I did a home demo of the speakers I replaced them with. You may want to check with a dealer about a possible trade…
Sadly I can’t do that in my room so they probably need to go .A shame as I like the way they look and they’re as clean as a whistle! Transport and finding an audiovector dealer that wants them is a tricky one!
Definitely, in my old room my ovators were on the long wall and had no side boundaries for at least 2 or 3m, they sounded wonderful and the bass was fantastic. They were truly excellent at electronic music awell which is one of my main staples contrary to one assumption made earlier in the thread. The wide dispersion made everything sound great.
No need to be so defensive! As has been pointed out on many occasions, speakers have a huge effect on the sound character of a system, and what one person loves another can’t stand. Also, to some people and with some music the bass is an integral part of the music helping convey the emotion, as well as naturalness and illusion of a live performance, and the music is less enjoyable without it, whereas clearly that doesn’t apply to others, while not all music has much in the way of bass anyway. But of course bass must be reproduced well, which is not the easiest thing for a manufacturer to achieve, making speakers that do it well more expensive.
I think that is right IB, especially with speakers. It is of no consequence if someone else dislikes your speakers. Naim especially seem to be marmite speakers.
Adding what’s not there is totally wrong in reproducing recorded music, however it is a very bald statement to suggest that that is what such designs do! Meanwhile to some people it is almost as bad to remove or hide what is there in the recording (Unless you get into the ‘tone control’ argument around correcting a perceived poor recording or mastering that has a falsely boosted or cut frequency spectrum… though that can apply equally to anything artificially reduced or boosted in the copy of the recording being played.)
But certainly poor reflex or TL designs may have resonances that add to the sound, colouring it (also true of sealed box designs) or lead to boomy ‘one note bass’, or poorly controlled bass that sounds ‘woolly’, room of course often accentuating, none of which are desirable.
Can anybody remember what the rationale was for Naim stopping?
…obviously Focal being around won’t have made things simple - but it did seem quite early in the lifecycle of a fairly unique design to knock it on the head… And likely lose the expertise to ever seriously re-enter the market in the process.
Factory space and R&D IIRC - any ashes doused by the Focal deal.
As we both know, the market for speakers is highly competitive and keeping up would have been very expensive. Better the resources deployed to the new Unitis (at the time).
Plus, active set-ups were a declining trend. Many were asking for active S400s, which never arrived (AFAIK).
