new and old 250 in Active Setup: recommendations?

Posted by: Rich Jerskey on 29 February 2004

Hi all,
hopefully someone can not only steer me right but at the same time tell me what I want to hear (smiley). I want to get a new 250 and use it along with an olive 250 to power
my active sbl's using a new snaxo. My question is: if I'm going to do this it makes more sense to me to power the mid/low with the better 250 and
the treble with the olive. This seems right because the tweeter itself is hardly discernable in comparison to the woofer. Since I'll be hearing a lot more of the mid/low freq component of the speaker I should benefit more
by using the new 250. What do you think? Any other recommendations? (BTW, I can't pick up 2 new 250's).

Second question.

Can I use my 2 older 250's together to power the hi-freq component and
the new 250 with the mid-low component? If there is a way, how would you recommend
I join them up? I'm using a SC2 to power my 252 and a hi-cap for snaxo242. Thanks for any help in advance.

Rich J
Posted on: 29 February 2004 by Paul B
In "olive" days, when mixing 135s and 250s in an active setup, the recommendation from the authorities was that the 135, being the better amp, should go on the tweeters, not the mid and bass drivers.

I have no idea how this would work with an olive/new 250 mix. Naim did not recommend mixing the two amps PRIOR to the release of the new SNAXO which changes the amp/driver configuration. Why Naim did this has not been made clear, at least to me, as the older configuration was considered superior. However, the new SNAXO does, of course, allow different amps to be used in an active setup whereas before they had to be identical.

Has anyone compared the old/new 2-4 SNAXO? Reports on the new 3-6 SNAXO suggested it was clearly superior despite the changed amp/driver configuration.

Paul
Posted on: 29 February 2004 by Rich Jerskey
It just seems counter-intuitive to power up the tweeters with a superior amplifier (new 250) when the other amp (olive 250) should be very adequate in doing justice to the hi-freqs. Also adjustments can always be made within the SNAXO to compensate for any apparent audible imbalance.

Any further comments before this thread finds it's way to the thread graveyard?

Rich J
Posted on: 01 March 2004 by Bosh
Although it is counter-intuitive, it does seem to be the forum consensus that the better amp should go on the tweeters.

I can see however the logic of Andrew Bs setup when using 250 and 140, but why not try and compare both options

AFAIK you can use 2 x 250s by using only one channel of each. I recall the theory went along the lines that as only one channel was drawing current from the internal power supply performance was better

HOWEVER, Rather than doing this I would advocate replacing the SNAXO Hicap with a Supercap
Posted on: 01 March 2004 by Rich Jerskey
Andrew,

thanks for your comments. I will try the better amp on both tweeters and woofers to see what sounds better to me. Also, I use a heavy and massive granite stand with Neuance shelf under the CDS2 as well as DH Cones under all the boxes. Sounds pretty decent to me but I've no way of telling if a Mana or Fraim would sound even better.

Bosh,

Thanks for your comments. I may try using the 2 older 250's as mono amps as you suggested and see if it makes any noticeable difference.

Regards,

Rich
Posted on: 01 March 2004 by Richard Paget
Hi
I tried the active 250new +250olive whilst waiting for my second new 250.
I've mixed a 160 with a 250 and chr 135's with olive 250-they worked surprisingly well-horizontally arranged.
The 250 new/250 olive just didn't.--it just sounded strange. I'm a huge lover of active--and felt active olive 250 is a massive improvement over passive 250 new--but not this mix--250new passive was better.
The older amps were same amp board differing power supplies. The new is 'new' like mixing with a non Naim make-different amp voltage gain and very different character.
of course you should try it for yourself--but I thought it retrograde.
Regards
Richard
Posted on: 01 March 2004 by Rich Jerskey
Richard,

when you tried mixing old and new 250's, which amp drove which speaker driver? Also, was your new 250 fully "burned in"?

Rich
Posted on: 02 March 2004 by Richard Paget
Hi
Tried um both ways round-but was better new 250 on treble
The new 250 was burn't in(months old)

Don't let you put me off--wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong! But Naim also strongly discourage this mix.Hope it works for you.
Regards Richard