Finally Active Ovator 800

Posted by: Patrik on 07 July 2013

Finally recived my active Ovator 800. In summary :-)))

The Ovator 800 has a very clever packing (more on that later). There are reusable plastic locks to open the box and there was a ramp included to roll of the loudspeakers from the pallet. Thanks to the ramp and wheels it was an easy installation.

The problem with the clever package is if people who are not interested opens it, like the customs, they will probably trash the package. Of course on box was damaged by the customs during there inspection. When you have waited over six months for the Ovator 800, I can promise you that you're heart rushes before you can check the loudspeakers. Apart from a lot of fingerprints they were Ok. I think that Naim need to have clearer instructions on the outside of the box for when "dummies" open it and have to close it again.

Ovator 800 is huge loudspeaker. They will dominate most rooms and its the price you almost always have to pay to get to this level of performance. After some initial listening the Ovator 800 were placed 75cm from back wall and 53cm from sidewalls. (Measured from edge of loudspeaker box. This will be revisited once they have been properly run in). A minor point is that the volume knob needs to be turned slightly higher to get same sound pressure as with active Ovator 600. I payed extra to have them in high gloss black with some silver sparkle. They look beautifully and are finished to a very high standard.

Now to the important part. How do they sound? They are just a week old so its still early impressions... I once had active Linn Kan which sounded amazingly fast. Some of that speed was due to missing bass performance and to be honest a lot of other things was also missing. But they could play music. I also have had active DBL and the bass was amazing and they really could play music. You could also have amazing parties. When I moved to active Ovator 600 it was a very balanced system and the best system I ever heard judged on PRaT. But I missed the bass from the DBL, although everything else was better. The Ovator 800 are everything above: super fast, amazing bass, loads of PRaT, and of top of that they can play "HiFi". Yes, they can party as well. The Ovator 800 is so balanced! When you close your eyes the system disappears and its all about the music.

I don't miss anything, for now ;-)

Patrik

Posted on: 09 July 2013 by Patrik

Originally Posted by Chris Bell:

Impressive stack of Fraim Patrik. Look forward to reading your thoughts on the S800's. You must be one of the first to take delivery.

The main reason for the delivery time to be so long was that the Snaxo for the 800 was not approved by Naim for production. I were first told that the Snaxo for the 600 could be rebuilt but in the end the difference was so big so I had to buy a new Snaxo.

So for active Im the first customer.

Chris I understand you had DBLs before and I can vouch for that the 800 is so much better. And you still get all the benefits of a modern speaker.

Patrik

Posted on: 09 July 2013 by Engelbert

Originally Posted by Chris Bell:

You must be one of the first to take delivery.

Nah - thousands of pairs have already gone to happy owners.

Engelbert

Posted on: 09 July 2013 by Patrik

Originally Posted by analogmusic:

Hi Patrick

Congrats on your new purchase. It looks amazing and I am sure it sounds more than sublime

How would you compare both your systems?

Going from your amazing 500 series to the superuniti?

could you live with the superuniti alone? does it do prat as well.

lots of people have said that musically, the NAITS are almost as fun (if not more) as their bigger brothers, is this so in your opinion?

I think that the SuperUniti and the Ovator 400 is really good system and put a big smile on my face. I also use that system for my wife's karaoke, TV and other entrainment. With the streaming and other features its so versatile. Probably the system were you get the most music per pound spent. If couldn't afford my big system thats the one I would have. So yes, lots of PRaT.

I have owned a lot of Naits and they have musicality thats hard to beat when you play on low to medium listening levels but they are not a 500 series.

Patrik

Posted on: 09 July 2013 by Patrik

Originally Posted by hafler3o:

I also have three different wall materials to control reflections.

Hi Patrik, lovely system and photos. My question is surely you need some sort of floor covering to control reflections from the hard floor too? I see lots of expensive systems in rooms with tiled / flagged / parquet / laminate floors. Are these type of speakers designed to perform with those harder floor surfaces in mind?

Thanks for you're kind words.

I don't know about if they are designed with any special room in mind. I have put in three different wall materials (felt wall, foam wall covered in Thai silk and structured wall paper). This was done on three different occasion to be able to evaluate after each instalment. The goal was to have room that had very little echo but still was not completely "dead". Tried to make it look good as well.

A carpet is really good way of fine tuning a system and take away early floor reflections. I will add one, once the loudspeakers are run in so that I can do properly fine tuning.

Patrik

Posted on: 10 July 2013 by Naimiac

Originally Posted by Patrik:

I think that the SuperUniti and the Ovator 400 is really good system and put a big smile on my face. I also use that system for my wife's karaoke, TV and other entrainment.

Don't forget that the SuperUniti can be used as alarm clock too.

Posted on: 31 August 2013 by Chris Bell

Patrick,

Give us an update on your S800 installation.

Posted on: 01 September 2013 by Patrik

Hi Chris

The 800 sounded fantastic and extremely balanced from the go. The improvement from the first week has been that the music sounds more fluent. I haven't changed the position of the loudspeaker just improved some cable dressing.

It very easy to hear when you change something in the system. For example before you heard a small improvement when using two PS to the NDS. Now there is a big improvement. So If you want to buy the 800 I would recommend to maximise the NDS first. (For me the NDS is the best source from Naim and the best source money can buy!)

After living with the Ovator 800 for a while I play more diverse music and have revisited my 35 years of music collection. I found that the loudspeaker are excellent on PRaT as expected with Naim but also conceive emotions on for me a completely new level. Far, far ahead of the Ovator 600 or DBL/NBL. If you're on 500 level system and have the cash I can't think of anything that you can buy that will put bigger smile on you're face.

Finally I can say that my music collection has the hifi system it deserves ;-)

Patrik

Posted on: 01 September 2013 by Mark J

Patrik, those look extremely impressive. Make my S400s look like satellites by comparison.

Do you live in an apartment building?

Mark

Posted on: 02 September 2013 by Darke Bear

I had a home demonstration of the S800 (only for a day) yesterday to confirm they would work in my somewhat smaller room than Patriks.

One problem I encountered was due to the weight of the speaker and my initial placement of them on a carpeted floor - they sounded great then after a few hours started to go 'off' - I realised it was the spikes embedding themselves into my floor! I'd noticed the same effect with DBLs - once resolved with fraim chips all was singing again!

The scale and 3D space reproduced by these speakers is outstanding; there is not just a 'sense of space', but the stripping away of so much distortion and colouration reveals whatever recorded acoustic or acoustic effects in the music better than I have ever heard done before.

We played around with placement forward and back and side to side - about 75cm from the rear wall worked very well - and it is worth getting the side-to-side distance right, as this impacts of the presentation.

Good to hear a report that they run-in well! My source was CD555 with twin supplies - IMO you need the second supply with these speakers to properly resolve the bass and HF, as they reveal any compromise in the source. I've not yet tried the 555 vs NDS shoot-out, but was very pleased with what CD555 delivered.

Now I have some decisions to make.... (music/money)

DB.

Posted on: 02 September 2013 by Skip

Quite a set-up!

I use US pennies under the spikes on my Merlins, on recommendation of the Merlin factory. They sound better than you might imagine. You might try them if you want to save a few bucks on Fraim Chips.

Posted on: 03 September 2013 by Justin9960

Skip, I use 20 pence pieces under mine, which are a little more expensive than yours, depending on the exchange rate!!!

Very, very nice Patrik.

Posted on: 03 September 2013 by Jason

Patrik,

A beautiful system and very interesting reading, thank you.

Can I just enquire about your speaker cables.....are your cables insulated in something or are your cables something different from NAC A5?

They look very thick, so doesn't appear to be A5 in its standard form.

Thanks.

Posted on: 03 September 2013 by Patrik

Apartment building

Originally Posted by Mark J:

Patrik, those look extremely impressive. Make my S400s look like satellites by comparison.

Do you live in an apartment building?

Mark

Posted on: 03 September 2013 by Patrik

Its a woven plastic sock from B&O that is used for 3 reasons. Easier to clean, less risk to trip over the cable and it looks much nicer.

Originally Posted by Jason:

Patrik,

A beautiful system and very interesting reading, thank you.

Can I just enquire about your speaker cables.....are your cables insulated in something or are your cables something different from NAC A5?

They look very thick, so doesn't appear to be A5 in its standard form.

Thanks.

Posted on: 03 September 2013 by Patrik

Thanks for the kind words.

I use a total of 25 chips should have thought about the pennies ;-)

Originally Posted by Justin9960:

Skip, I use 20 pence pieces under mine, which are a little more expensive than yours, depending on the exchange rate!!!

Very, very nice Patrik.

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Miki185

Very nice indeed.

Can you please upload more pictures so we could see the environment in which the speakers are standing in.

Maybe one day in my living room... (or it's too small for them - 6.4 m X 4.2 m?)

Enjoy!

Miki

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Jason

Originally Posted by Patrik:

Its a woven plastic sock from B&O that is used for 3 reasons. Easier to clean, less risk to trip over the cable and it looks much nicer.

Originally Posted by Jason:

Patrik,

A beautiful system and very interesting reading, thank you.

Can I just enquire about your speaker cables.....are your cables insulated in something or are your cables something different from NAC A5?

They look very thick, so doesn't appear to be A5 in its standard form.

Thanks.

Ah, ok thanks Patrik. Sorry for my delayed response, first chance I've had to get back on the forum...busy month!

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Darke Bear

They are nice.

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Julian H

Oh my!

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Darke Bear

Before and after:

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Darke Bear

Mine are Rosewood standard finish.

What continues to surprise me is just how easy they are to drive! A seamless and beautifully textured portrayal of my old favorite disks. The speaker has such a linear dynamic range - there is no hint of any compression artefact on even the most complex recordings played at volumes I should not really tempt!

I hope Patrik does not mind me making a contribution to his thread.

DB.

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Michael

Congratulations on your purchase DB. Look forward to hearing them.

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by ken c

OMG! Congratulations DB! They look beautiful!

did you install yourself, knowing how much care you take doing this?

i assume they are new, so there is some run-in to go through?

but seems like you are enjoying them already, which is great!

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by hungryhalibut

Remember, Ken, that they are the size of a fridge-freezer. Unless you have a massive room, put them out of your mind.......

Posted on: 27 September 2013 by Darke Bear

Originally Posted by ken c:

...did you install yourself, knowing how much care you take doing this?

i assume they are new, so there is some run-in to go through?

but seems like you are enjoying them already, which is great!

I owe a lot of thanks to the Signals team of Alastair and Andy for their assisatnce - and to Mark from Naim who drove all the way to assist in the logistics of getting them installed:

One hour of heaving, cursing and decrying to the Gods of Naim why the delivery boxes were so large - but the low-loader seemed to make all possible.

One hour of installing, levelling, tightening, moviny back-forward, left-right, toe-in/out...until we got a good balence of fullness in female vocals, timing and image quality.

Then we played a lot of music and decided to leave them to run-in as the team departed.

That was yesterday. Today they started to sound a little bright, but I expected some run-in effects, so no problem.

I played with the tightness of the spikes, as I was told that the designer at Naim had been getting improved performance by not having them done-up super-tight. Loosening a tad and then tightening just to be firm did make a large improvement in terms of a fuller, more relaxed and easier detailed presentation.

I've also re-levelled the speakers a tad more and that seemed to remove some brightness that had crept-in - they are sounding great now - but I expect some changes over the next week or so as they bed-in. The previous S600 changed a great deal - I remember bright, then dull, then back to good again...so I shall see.

Since Patrik is farther along with running-in his pair I'd be interested on his findings.

Whenever you make this kind of purchase you always have to ensure that it is right. I demoed at home first to make sure they would 'work' in my room - and found out where I needed to rework my flooring - which I did. My old S600 even sounded better after I'd further strengthened the floor to allow them farther into the room. The S800s are about 70cm from the wall presently and sound happy there.

DB.