Re-installing sbls
Posted by: graphoman on 07 October 2002
I’m really not employed by Naim Audio for praising the company but their suggestions used to turn, I have to admit, to be right. Like some of the dealers I consulted, I did not know what’s the big fuss about re-installing the speakers after moving them around. I got my pair S/H from Germany by post but they was put together frighteningly stable and I did not risk to cut them apart with a knife. (At the end, that was the way I had to act.) The speakers served well but the pair did not sound equal and that’s why I decided to carry out the operation, though I did not have great expectations, I thought the difference was because of aging of tweeters etc. not to mention the really uneven acoustic behaviour of my room. And having opened the inside of the patients, I still did not see severe faults.
Nevertheless, I followed the instructions of the humble kit (20 pounds including postage) and it was a success. The left speaker lost its presence hub and increased in bass. The right one did not lost its bass but won back its highs. The two exemplar is now perfectly equal, irregularity of the room are hardly to percept. Stereophonie that was rather left/right now build an even sound stage that is more or less equal when listening from different positions. And it has more space behind it. It’s really an other quality. My CD collection is not especially big, some 400 pcs but now actually 95% of them is listenable in 95% of time. (Listenable means enjoying 60 minutes of opera without pause.)
Now I think I understand the constructions of sbl. (I was embarrassed to learn that the driver box was hold not by a wooden thing but by a complex steel stand.) It’s not as much the silicon, it’s mainly the spikes/wood interface that matters, just like in case of the bookshelves. And the thinking behind it is the same as the consideration with the Chips. (I use some very good imitations of the original, both under supports and sbls.) Spikes going too deep into the wood spoil the sound.
It’s interesting to re-think about it: many years ago, frequently I had the feeling that something went wrong with the sound, I felt the frequency range was not even any more, sound energy was coming on discret frequencies instead. That time I used tiny speakers on heavy stands. Sometime I tried to re-position the system and, as I can recall, it helped for a while. But it was only half-conscious. Having read about the Chips I felt it must be right – and in the practice it turned out to be right. Just like re-installing the sbls.
graphoman
Nevertheless, I followed the instructions of the humble kit (20 pounds including postage) and it was a success. The left speaker lost its presence hub and increased in bass. The right one did not lost its bass but won back its highs. The two exemplar is now perfectly equal, irregularity of the room are hardly to percept. Stereophonie that was rather left/right now build an even sound stage that is more or less equal when listening from different positions. And it has more space behind it. It’s really an other quality. My CD collection is not especially big, some 400 pcs but now actually 95% of them is listenable in 95% of time. (Listenable means enjoying 60 minutes of opera without pause.)
Now I think I understand the constructions of sbl. (I was embarrassed to learn that the driver box was hold not by a wooden thing but by a complex steel stand.) It’s not as much the silicon, it’s mainly the spikes/wood interface that matters, just like in case of the bookshelves. And the thinking behind it is the same as the consideration with the Chips. (I use some very good imitations of the original, both under supports and sbls.) Spikes going too deep into the wood spoil the sound.
It’s interesting to re-think about it: many years ago, frequently I had the feeling that something went wrong with the sound, I felt the frequency range was not even any more, sound energy was coming on discret frequencies instead. That time I used tiny speakers on heavy stands. Sometime I tried to re-position the system and, as I can recall, it helped for a while. But it was only half-conscious. Having read about the Chips I felt it must be right – and in the practice it turned out to be right. Just like re-installing the sbls.
graphoman