The pleasure of personally, manually caring for a thing of beauty (or, just don't be lazy about something you love)
Posted by: Massimo Bertola on 01 January 2016
Yesterday morning I decided to use the morning to finally rebuild my SBLs (mk2, cherry, 1997 vintage), bought from a German dealer in July 2014, my second pair in ten years. The left one opened up easily, like a mature clam, revealing an almost immaculate gasket; but the right one resisted, and I had to destroy the gasket to open it. Now, I proceeded to remove all traces of glue and rubber from the metal plate of the lower box, and this was by far the only boring part of the job. My advice to anyone doing this is to wet the stuff with alcohol, caring not to drop it inside the lower box, and use a spatula, with slow, 45° forward movements, to patiently remove them wiping the spatula's edge clean frequently.
Some pads had been pierced through to the wood, so I used a stick of wood repairing wax to fill the tiny scratches and holes; the pads themselves were occasional replacements, cut from a box of something I was not able to identify; the new ones, on the other hand, were original, brand new spare parts. While placing the new gaskets I could appreciate the complex construction of the lower box - the resonating chamber - and the 'filter' separating the two enclosures, the small radiator-like unit meant, I imagine, to 'break' and diffract the turbulence of the air emitted by the rear of the woofer, on the bottom of the middle box; and tried to imagine designing and producing something like this today.
With the silicone in place, I then carefully placed the middle box on the lower one, gently! pressing it down so that it came to rest on minimal, one-pointed cavities; and I immediately noticed how wider the new gap between lower and middle box now was. For sure, the trip from Stuttgart had caused the spikes to pierce the wood. Placing a circular spirit level on the top of the middle boxes, now in place, I saw that they were perfectly level. Adding the tweeter boxes is a child's play.
That SBLs, properly setup and sit, have a wonderful, balanced sound with a very natural presentation is a known fact; but I wanted to praise the thought behind them, the clever design, the smart use of the 'form follows function' principle. When you use your time, hands and patience to renovate a pair, you come to actually love them, and to want to have them in perfect conditions, always. Thanks, Mr Roy George, for these - and for the handful of other Naim designs you are a parent to, usually among the ones I like most (and thanks to Christopher, who stubbornly nailed it into my head to win laziness and finally do the job).
M.
That's something i have to do since years and that i keep on postponing!
When about 10 years ago i got and put together mine i got pleasantly hit by their construction. Albeit only one year before i helped my friend to set up his pair.
I always considered SBLs more like an analogue musical instrument more than a simple loudspeaker....
And yes Max! We now want the pics! 