CDS 3, 552, 500 + DIY Speakers

Posted by: DAVOhorn on 09 November 2004

Dear All,

A friend who has a very serious system including NBL's allowed me to sully his system with my recent speaker project.

I took them round last Sunday afternoon.

The usual audience was there.

The owner of the NAIM system his wife, daughter and son.

Duly set up the speakers, they were placed in front of the NBL's,as this was the best compromise due to not moving the NBL's and shape of room and size of room.

The owner had first bite of the cherry so selected the first batch of CD's for audition.

I was meanwhile wetting my pants with anticipation. Bearing in mind that i have been listening to the speakers for about 3 weeks athome on my own system so knew that they were pretty good. In fact his daughter had previously had an audition at mine and left very favourably impressed. That was with the crap x over. So for this audition they had the sexy x over's which are a major improvement on the junk ones.

So!!!!!

well in a word FANTASTIC .

With a front end and amplification of that quality they were truly wonderful.

Very fast very dynamic wonderful soundstage.

The mid was exemplary with a truly great top end. The Bass was (well it is a 7" ) very fast and tuneful with good extension if reduced output in the lower octave. So it was all there with a lighter bass .

The speakers are designed to be placed closer to the back wall than they were, this affords some bass lift so will fill in the reduced bass output.

So Cd afetr Cd came out much tea and biscuits consumed. Even more cds came out.

Very many favourable comments. His son asked if they would be suitable as a small studio monitor for his rock band's small studio.

Phoned up another HiFi buddy who duly came round for a critical listen. Also very favourably impressed.

WE then moved the speakers inside the NBL's to get them closer to the back wall.

The Bass did fill out very nicely and we achieved a better sound balance . But image goes due to the fact that they are now too clos together. But hey the bass was very good.

So 4.5 hours later i packed them up and took them home.

A very rewarding afternoon and also very enjoyable.

Will be having some NAIM buddies over for a listen at mine in a couple of weeks.

It is very satisfying to build a speaker project that is not disgraced by a system of that quality.

Before i went home we put the NBL's back into the system for a listen.

Not too shabby.

So if anybody is thinking of building their own speakers dont be bashful give it a go.

You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

I am now planning a Bass cabinet to go with these speakers.

J.N. posted photos of the speakers for me under The Little Ones.

thanks to all involved in this exercise.

regards David