Kudos 707

Yes they look well engineered and rather lovely. Do they come with grilles as all the pictures i've seen show them naked ?

When do you pick them up ?

Ah, not sure about grills. I think they do. 

I need to decide on the colour, which I’ll confirm on Monday, but hope they won’t take too long to arrive. I hear Kudos are being kept pretty busy at the moment, though.

Good stuff - i'll follow your journey with interest 

Thanks, it’s the end game for me, so these last few bits are going to be very important. I’m looking forward to Naim releasing the active cross-over and then I’ll compare 300DR, 500DR, 2 x 250DR (no space for 2 x 300s) and Linn Exakt (oooh heresy!). It’ll be fun finding out.

Great news Dave that the 606's have ticked all of your boxes - I remember you expressing concerns about new speakers overly dominating your listening room when we met.  As they may be the end game (until the next time!), did you have any thoughts about borrowing Peter's demo set to try out in your room just to be certain that particularly the bass from the isobariks will work just as well at home as in the shop's listening room?  Appreciate that would be a bit of a faff, but maybe a sensible health check for a long term decision.

Peter

I fully understand your decision Dave  - in fact I agree with you completely. 

There are many facets to what makes a good music system but nothing is more fundamental to speaker/room integration.  Dave’s decision clearly has that first. 

Result

Thanks Dave. Great review You answered my questions. As I have a larger room the 707’s. Would probably work best for me. I believe they are actually slightly smaller than my S 600’s which I will replacing.

northpole posted:

Great news Dave that the 606's have ticked all of your boxes - I remember you expressing concerns about new speakers overly dominating your listening room when we met.  As they may be the end game (until the next time!), did you have any thoughts about borrowing Peter's demo set to try out in your room just to be certain that particularly the bass from the isobariks will work just as well at home as in the shop's listening room?  Appreciate that would be a bit of a faff, but maybe a sensible health check for a long term decision.

Peter

I would have thought a home dem.of both pairs is the way to go.Not trying to put doubts in your mind,the bigger brother might perform better to your liking in your room.

ayap1 posted:

northpole posted:

Great news Dave that the 606's have ticked all of your boxes - I remember you expressing concerns about new speakers overly dominating your listening room when we met.  As they may be the end game (until the next time!), did you have any thoughts about borrowing Peter's demo set to try out in your room just to be certain that particularly the bass from the isobariks will work just as well at home as in the shop's listening room?  Appreciate that would be a bit of a faff, but maybe a sensible health check for a long term decision.

Peter

I would have thought a home dem.of both pairs is the way to go.Not trying to put doubts in your mind,the bigger brother might perform better to your liking in your room.

Absolutely fair comments. Clearly I was taken by them and had heard the 707s a couple of times before, in different environments. I also had the opportunity to compare them with what I currently use, so have a decent view of what they may be like. I wouldn’t buy them from anyone else but Peter and I suspect that, if things don’t work out, it won’t be impossible to go to 707s.

BPW posted:

Thanks Dave. Great review You answered my questions. As I have a larger room the 707’s. Would probably work best for me. I believe they are actually slightly smaller than my S 600’s which I will replacing.

Totally agree, they’re fabulous. You should enjoy trying them out.

Dave, I gather that you didn’t get to hear them with Music speaker cables? I am replacing my SL speaker cables next week to Music cables. I already have Music ic and Din/XLR cables I my system.

Ah, in which case you’re in for a real treat. 

No, I didn’t hear them with Music speaker cables. I had considered taking mine with me but they wouldn’t have been long enough. Nevertheless, I’m really looking forward to hearing how much better they might sound with them in place.

Prices for 606, 707 and 808? Thanks 

I think it's £9k, £13k and £22k respectively.

£9,000, £13,000 and £21750

For comparison - Titan 606 on left, Super 20 on right  

Chris Dolan posted:

For comparison - Titan 606 on left, Super 20 on right  

i prefer the look of the 606 vs 707 - visting next Saturday when I take in my 300 for DR,  love the 606 Chris

luckly I have my better half with me otherwise.....................................................

How do they sound vs. Focal?

Chris Dolan posted:

For comparison - Titan 606 on left, Super 20 on right  

Tidy!!

S20 owners could almost get away with making the switch over below the radar.....!

Peter

I’d be curious to hear from any 707 or 606 owners who are in to Classical Music. The 707’s sounded superb at Audio Show East, but there was no Classical of any kind played in any of the sessions I attended and just wondering if their strength is predominantly with Modern genres or whether they also ‘do’ Piano, Chamber and Orchestral equally well?

I feel your pain. At the Acoustica show last year, where the 707 were demo’ed in an active configuaration, the music taste of the wider audience didn’t really correspond with mine. But the kind gent in charge of music selection, upon my request, played a fair bit of Sibelius’ No. 5 — it nearly cleared the room... But I enjoyed it hugely.  Great speakers with awesome bass.  The double basses in the second movement, for instance, sounded superb. Marvellous speakers I thought. Sadly they are out my reach — financially and also in terms of fitting into our lounge. 

I've listened to a number of Kudos speakers (C20,S20,T88,707) but each time they fail to connect musically. Can't fault the level of detail, bass extension or overall clarity which is initially impressive but to me they sound too "hifi" in comparison to for example Naim SBLs, SL2s,DBLs which have their faults but always seem to involve the listener.

Pity Naim lost their way with the Ovators.

Really? That’s odd, I’d say that involvement is the very thing that Kudos are best at, but as we know, speakers are so subjective.

Are there any other speakers that you’ve found involving or is it only everything made by Naim?

John missed out nibbles which also have their issues, but on their day can sound amazing!

It is a frequently recurring observation that speakers can be very subjective, so dependent upon what's feeding them and where they are situated, hence difficult to offer advice on.

Peter