System Synergy.

Willy posted:

Using DBLs passive at the moment. Even passive with a single 250 they sound "blimey" though the amp runs out of steam past 11:00 on the volume dial. 

Picking up a new snaxo 362 on Friday.

Merry Christmas. ????

Willy.

Good stuff Willy! You're in for a real treat. Best wishes!

dave4jazz posted:

stuart.ashen posted:

Agreed Nigel, personal taste is the major factor with ‘speakers. But for people to say that Naim did not make great speakers is a rather ignorant position. Fine if you don’t like them but....

A mildly agrivated Stu.

But it does beg the question why Naim stopped making speakers and teamed-up with Focal.

Dave

I don't think Naim had a choice, to be honest.

tonym posted:

Willy posted:

Using DBLs passive at the moment. Even passive with a single 250 they sound "blimey" though the amp runs out of steam past 11:00 on the volume dial. 

Picking up a new snaxo 362 on Friday.

Merry Christmas. ????

Willy.

Good stuff Willy! You're in for a real treat. Best wishes!

Thanks Tony. The past months, as the rebuilt bass drivers have run in, has been a revelation. Really looking forward to activation. Only potential spanner in the works is when I spoke to my dealer today he'd run out of NACA5. Hopefully he can rustle up 20m for Friday.

Willy.

I think you can spread yourself a bit thin as a company and designing source, amplifier and speakers as well as cables and racks is stretching the whole synergy thing a bit far.  Many have tried it in the past normally the lower end products and had great success Technics, Panasonic, Denon etc have built hifi empires  using this model.

But it is specialist manufacturing that IMO produces the best products Dynaudio make great speakers, Chord great Dacs etc, etc.. yes of course these companies do branch out but it is their core products that remain special and for me Naim Audio make fantastic amps and ordinary sources, cables and speakers.

tonym posted:

cat345 posted:

IMHO, I have always considered Naim speakers as a mandatory tool to attain maximum potential from their amplifiers in an active system. Driven passively Naim speakers have never been really competitive with any of the big names that specialize in loudspeaker making.  

I've heard many pairs of passive Naim speakers sounding excellent, and I've used my previous SBLs, SL2s, and my current DBLs passive for a short time. However, these speakers were all designed to be actively driven, and activation totally transforms them all. Those who dislike Naim speakers really need to hear them active before passing final judgement. 

Like it have been said elsewhere, it is a question of personal taste. I heard IBL's and SBL's when they came out years ago with 140, 180 and 250 amps but they only started to impress when driven actively. At the time all other loudspeaker specialists like Rogers, Spendor, Kef, B&W and many more did offer speakers that were way better for the price. The exception could be the DBL with that awesome ATC woofer...

In a way, it is a good thing for Naim that a very successful and long time driver specialist such as Focal came to the rescue and put a end to that waste of resources.  To each his own specialty.

When Naim were making speakers they took up 25% of the factory yet delivered only 3% of the profit, or something like that. So clearing the speaker decks to make more electronics made total sense. As to whether Focal were a great partner is another issue. And as to the choice between Sopras or my crappy old SL2s, there is no contest. 

Lol!