Finally Active Ovator 800

You are correct Chris. I was genuinely delighted to finally hear a pair of Ovators I really enjoyed the sound of. As I stated; I've never liked the 600's (active or passive).

It's a huge cost differential between the 600's and 800's of course. I guess Naim would liked to have been able to achieve this level of performance for less, but when one hears the 800's, the cost differential makes sense.

I think the 600's in the context of Gary's 3 x 500 active system, were simply not good enough to do justice to the electronics. I was struck by a beautifully balanced and musically cohesive and immersive sound from the 800's which let one really hear what Naim's top flight (and DR'd) active kit is all about.

John.

Nice speaker. I heard this active setup at HK HiFi show last year. Quite good in overall but less spark on the high frequency. Enjoy the music.

I think toe-in is whooly a matter of personal taste and room/system matching.

System 'image' is a strange beast. It's arguably artificial in many cases, but a lot of us seem to like the immersive 3D effect it can deliver.

All the traditional boundary placement Naim loudspeakers sound quite two dimensional to me now - and that includes my beloved SBL's.

Good listening y'all.

John.

You also need to take account of what you hear at shows is not always a system at its best. Sometimes you are lucky, but always need to hear them in an environment where they have had the time to set them up without all the pressures and logistics of a big event.

The comments on HF I understand but as I find many speakers sound unnaturally bright and a little too 'HiFi' in the HF for my taste, I very much like the way these speakers manage their HF performance - it is just a smooth and seamless continuation from the mid-frequences upwards.

All personal taste with speakers - which is why there are so many interesting variations to suit all.

DB.

i suspect the following snippet from Norman @ UHES may actually mean that Ovators now sound quite different from the way we heard them 1st time around.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...95#29443242102188495

enjoy

ken

DB, congrats on the new S800s.  Have you seen pix of my room?  (see profile) Do you think I could get away with them set 15" away from my glass doors?  I love my S600s but miss the natural ease of my old DBLs. S800s could be the cure, but will they work?  

Congratulations DB.

Great read as always and a real interesting and addition to an already informative thread.

As with your 600's install did you many to get any installation pictures? I would imagine those boxes are like mini caravans!!!!

Your attention to detail is incredible, and for people like me a real "audio education".

Keep up the excellent work.

Chris, I suspect even dustbins would look fab in that wonderful room of yours 

Mine are 27" away - they will work well at 15" or even closer, but what you find is that too close to the wall they gradually begin to lose their clarity.  Probably the range 20-30" is the ideal range.

To put it into context - they will work better than the S600 at 15". As good as the S600 is, these are in such a different league that even needing to run them a little closer to the wall they will fully-eclipse in every musical department what you have now. They are also, strangely, even easier to drive than the S600 - which is pretty easy; so you get access to cleaner dynamic range and the 'ease' you mention.

The only down-side is the cost. I retired recently and had some money sitting earning less than inflation that I decided to enjoy rather than help rebuild bank losses. If you can genuinely afford them then they will work and you won't regret it IMO - but purchases at this level need careful consideration. I never intended to spend this much - but the demo showed that these are not just bigger S600 speakers (which is what they look like) but a totally different and superior speaker - is it five times better? probably yes.

DB.

But what if the wall behind was glass, and glass at one side too?

Chris_M

There is no substitute for a home demo - that is what I did, as I was not sure they would work in my room. That is probably difficult to arrange, as my Dealer worked closely with Naim to arrange for a show demo pair to briefly visit my home on the way back from HiFi show to Naim HQ.

Speakers strongly interact with walls, so you do need to confirm - but if you have S600 working well, then the S800 will stand a good chance of being OK too.  Difficult and probably unwise to justify a purchase blind though.

DB.

DB, can you see my post?

Pictures of install? No afraid not this time. I think the guys were looking so serious lugging these huge boxes that I thought my photographing them may not have been wise.

Into run-in mode now - they do change, dull then harsh...etc...but expected something like this. JN got the window when they were 'new' and not yet run-in and sounding very good then.

DB.

So downhill from then? 

No.

The 800's need a much bigger room (and free space) than I have. They have some great qualities, but the top end of the BMR is not to my taste - as I stated.

I have visited Gary on several occasions when he had the Ovator 600's, and have always been delighted to get back to my own system. A pertinent 'marker' of the change to the Ovator 800's was that I could hear my system sounding obviously inferior in some ways upon my return to it.

That doesn't mean I don't like it any more. It means that the Ovator 800's do some things better - and they make the benefits of a 'three 500's' active system very obvious indeed. The 600's by comparison, sounded like a bottleneck to the excellent electronics feeding them.

John.

Thank you for your comprehensive reply.

Piotr

Thank you DB. No probs, glad to "soak up" your posts...which you are so ruddy good at