£65,000 System !

Posted by: welshmark on 30 March 2004

Hi

I had the rare opportunity of listening to a rather expensive system last week.
AUDIENCE (01225 333310)in Bath has a pair of active B+W Nautillus Speakers (the mutant snail ones) being driven by Naim CDS3 and Naim amplification.
The speakers cost around £35,000 and B+W supply an active crossover for the 4 channels.
Andrew at AUDIENCE has:
a 252 driving 2 NAP 300's for the top 2 treble units and 2 NAP 250's driving the mid and bass units.
If anyone is close to Bath I recommend a listen before the kit is whisked away as us mere mortals rarely get to hear such exotica.
The hour I spent listening is firmly etched in my memory banks.
Go listen if you can !

All thge best

Mark
Posted on: 30 March 2004 by Bosh
What a mullet system.....it's a crying shame they couldnt stretch to a 552
Posted on: 30 March 2004 by NB
Bosh,

I was dissapointed as well, where are the 500's?


Regards


NB
Posted on: 30 March 2004 by Hammerhead
Knowing Andrew at Audience and his ability to set systems up well, I have no doubt it will be a mullet of class.

I'll have to pop in this weekend and have a look/listen.

Steve
Posted on: 30 March 2004 by Mike in PA, USA
I'm curious why he'd be using the 300s for the top and the 250s for the mid/bass. Wouldn't the low frequency drivers benefit more from the additional power...?

-Mike
Posted on: 30 March 2004 by prowla
Nice bloke at Audience - I've got his old olive 250 and also bought my wife's Tivoli there.

Paul
Posted on: 30 March 2004 by welshmark
My memory of playing around with Linn's active Keltiks was that the better power amps work best with the tweeters and not the bass units.
Andrew had similar results with the active B+W's
- but yes 4 x NAP 500's would also work quite well.
The one disappointment for me was that when I visited there was no turntable hooked up. As good as the CDS3 is I prefer my music analogue.

Cheers

Mark
Posted on: 30 March 2004 by sean
Ignorant and preconceived? I have heard 800s many times being driven with a 500 and they still don't (quite) float my boat. The bottom end is not nearly as tight, or as fast as my DBLs. They do do some things well but never really let the music go.

May-be my opinion but definately not based on ignorance or preconception.

Sean.
Posted on: 01 April 2004 by Mike Hanson
quote:
Originally posted by Mike in PA, USA:
I'm curious why he'd be using the 300s for the top and the 250s for the mid/bass. Wouldn't the low frequency drivers benefit more from the additional power...?

Power is not as important as quality of amplification. The 300 can do a better job with the complex high-frequency signals.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-