Ovator s-400 Issues

Hi.

I had Allaes before I bought an ex-dem pair of S-400. In the beginning they sounded awful. Just the way you described. They just needed a lot more burn in to come alive. I put my HDX on repeat every time I was not at home. 

A couple of weeks later I loved the speakers. They are faster than Allaes, cleaner, have more detail and PRaT, but no bass boom. So they don't have the nice sounding colouration of Allaes. I would say, that S-400 are more life like. But careful placing is a must. They show the slightest changes very clearly. Also the changes in your hifi. But first they need to burn in. 

Very good suggestion IRT burn in. The previous owner could have just guessed the burn in time and been way off the mark.

Worth a punt to perhaps have them ticking over in another room for another 100 or so hours at  varying volume levels.

Just to be 100% sure it is not burn in related. Then you would have covered off on just about all possibilities.

Good points above - my Ovators needed around 150-200 hours to sound good. First 100 was just plain awful - flat and untiteresting. And then magic happened - they opened up  

dalmatian posted:

Christopher_M posted:

I so wanted these S400s to work for you. What about some of the Focals with the flax drivers that came out around the same time as the Unitys? I'd totally get it though, if you just wanted to stick with the Allaes.

I’ll have to sell the Ovators and then think about alternatives, the Focals are a possibility I heard the 926 once and liked them.

Nick

Yes, now you mention it these were the exact ones I had in mind.

Chris

Adam Zielinski posted:

Good points above - my Ovators needed around 150-200 hours to sound good. First 100 was just plain awful - flat and untiteresting. And then magic happened - they opened up  

The original owner said they had “approx 100hrs on them” I had them running all day yesterday and they were sounding better but still flat and lifeless.

Nick

jhs posted:

Hi.

I had Allaes before I bought an ex-dem pair of S-400. In the beginning they sounded awful. Just the way you described. They just needed a lot more burn in to come alive. I put my HDX on repeat every time I was not at home. 

A couple of weeks later I loved the speakers. They are faster than Allaes, cleaner, have more detail and PRaT, but no bass boom. So they don't have the nice sounding colouration of Allaes. I would say, that S-400 are more life like. But careful placing is a must. They show the slightest changes very clearly. Also the changes in your hifi. But first they need to burn in. 

 

How are yours placed within your listening room, how far from the wall etc?

Nick

dalmatian posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Good points above - my Ovators needed around 150-200 hours to sound good. First 100 was just plain awful - flat and untiteresting. And then magic happened - they opened up  

The original owner said they had “approx 100hrs on them” I had them running all day yesterday and they were sounding better but still flat and lifeless.

Nick

Nick - if possible, keep them running non-stop using a radio or a playlist. Run them in for another week and then see what happens. 

Mine took approximately 2 weeks of heavy burning in. But it was worth it!!!!  

Adam

Hi.  Thank goodness some people like the best Naim speaker range ever made, the bmr is a break through in design, I have always confused as to why Naim speakers over the years have generally not received the rewards they deserved,

ps I have a pair of sbls on my tv system which includes 52 250 with dvd5 the sbls are great speakers too.

I am a great fan of two way designs, my thinking is the less drive units the better, I think some of the American speakers with dozens of speaker units are silly, the power amp must have a nervous breakdown looking at such a low resistance.

Steve

Hi Nick!

Mine are about 1.6 m from the side walls and 20 cm from the back wall (non solid). But every room is different. So you have to find the best position by yourself.

But try to move your speakers away from the sideboard. If other things are too close, Ovators could sound two dimensional and dull. Mine need 40-50 cm from my hifi to become airy and more detailled. Voices sound more realistic. 

Hannes

I can’t change the position of the sideboard, the front of the speakers are ahead of the front of the sideboard and as the speakers are sealed with no porting I’m surprised it would cause the lack of detail I’m experiencing. Usually in my room the only thing affected by speaker positioning is bass boom, I’ve never had an issue with lack of or too much of any other frequency. I think/hope it may be the lack of burning in time, I’m going to give them a couple of weeks leaving them on as much as possible as JHS and Adam Lielinski have advised, I’m hoping the do “come alive” as the bass and treble are great it’s just the flatness and lack of detail.

Fingers crossed,

Nick

 My wife, who has no interest in my HiFi, had a little listen and said the Ovators sound like £300 speakers, she said they don’t sound terrible but have nothing about them.

Nick

dalmatian posted:

 My wife, who has no interest in my HiFi, had a little listen and said the Ovators sound like £300 speakers, she said they don’t sound terrible but have nothing about them.

Nick

Strange, are they faulty in some way?

I once had a pair of (non-Naim) speakers that I bought to try because the price was right. They sounded awful, and I thought they might have been faulty. I found a dealer, who suggested that I bring them in so that he could have a listen, and we compared them to his demo pair. They sounded bad there, too, but so did his demo pair! Anyway, he was happy to take them off me in part-ex for a different pair of speakers that I liked.  

The S-400s are a bit of a curate's egg as far as sound quality is concerned.  When I had them demoed, I absolutely hated them, yet some people seem to love them.

dalmatian posted:

 My wife, who has no interest in my HiFi, had a little listen and said the Ovators sound like £300 speakers, she said they don’t sound terrible but have nothing about them.

Nick

Hypothesis one: ask your wife to choose and buy speakers for you. I see many posters whose choices are decided by an entity defined with the ridicule and slightly annoying acronym SWMBO. That says all, in my opinion.

M.

dalmatian posted:

I’ll have to sell the Ovators and then think about alternatives, the Focals are a possibility I heard the 926 once and liked them.

 

Hypothesis two: a couple of posts above, you wrote that the Allaes were staying, now you're looking for alternatives. I'll play HH for a moment now, but you've bought important speakers without listening to them at home, now the forum has to solve your problem. Are you sure you have clear ideas about what you want? In case, I suggest hypothesis one.

M.

And just to be clear, I have owned/listened Ovator S-400s three times. Twice I owned them, one time I only demoed my dealer's pair here. His were so and so, my first brand new pair sounded grim and disappointing out of the box and I did not have either the patience of the faith to wait for the 100 to 500 hours everyone suggested, so resold them.

Last pair was again bought at my dealer's but they were run-in already. I wouldn't want a pair of Allaes for free, but these last batch of S-400s were much better than a couple of years before, and properly paired and positioned are great speakers, don't lack anything and, most of all, my wife likes them, Thanks God! Otherwise, I'd have to bin them, like them or not....

M.

And one needs to learn to listen to Ovators. They do sound different, in the beginning I thought the lacked many things, but ultimately I came to understand that other loudspeakers are much more coloured than Ovators. Many other speakers sound to me like listening through a layer of dust nowadays.

I'm sure the OP's Ovators will be freed soon.

And @Max, does SWMBO stand for She Who Must Be Overruled?

Massimo Bertola posted:

dalmatian posted:

 My wife, who has no interest in my HiFi, had a little listen and said the Ovators sound like £300 speakers, she said they don’t sound terrible but have nothing about them.

Nick

Hypothesis one: ask your wife to choose and buy speakers for you. I see many posters whose choices are decided by an entity defined with the ridicule and slightly annoying acronym SWMBO. That says all, in my opinion.

M.

You missed the point of my post, my Wife doesn’t need to “choose and buy” my speakers for me, that is totally my decision. My wife doesn’t care what I buy, I was simply saying another pair of listening ears came to the same conclusion to mine.

Nick

Massimo Bertola posted:

dalmatian posted:

I’ll have to sell the Ovators and then think about alternatives, the Focals are a possibility I heard the 926 once and liked them.

 

Hypothesis two: a couple of posts above, you wrote that the Allaes were staying, now you're looking for alternatives. I'll play HH for a moment now, but you've bought important speakers without listening to them at home, now the forum has to solve your problem. Are you sure you have clear ideas about what you want? In case, I suggest hypothesis one.

M.

Answer two: The Allaes are fine speakers but the nature of our hobby we all want more, I didn’t appreciate how much I liked them until a comparison pair of speakers were listen to in my home environment. Sadly as I can only afford to buy pre owned a home trial is out of the question hence floating the ideas on this fine forum, not asking the form to “solve my problem” but getting the opinions of knowledgable people ( yourself being the exception).

I have clear ideas of what I want, but as we all know speakers are very room dependant and non of us have identical rooms.

Nick

Patience is a Virtue

I’d suggest that if you want more it’s not necessarily the speakers that will provide it. Upgrading electronics will usually achieve more. What is the ‘more’ that you really want? Do you just not like the Allaes because they are old and cheap? Do you want something big, covered in drivers and which look impressive? All the answers just saying ‘Focal’, ‘Dynaudio’, ‘ProAc’ or whatever achieve absolutely nothing - they are simply saying ‘I have some of these, so you should have some too’. What if you don’t like them? 

LOL @Allaes being 'old and cheap'

Oddly enough I was considering Allaes as replacements for my Credos but wasn't sure what to do.  If I bought Allaes at circa £600 quid would I be stuck with them for ages until I could sell them on if I didn't like them.  Buying s/h speakers can be a bit of a lottery;  sometimes you win and sometimes you dont. I bought my Credo's 15 years ago for £330 and sold them for £250 so I did ok there   

In the end I just bit the bullet and went to my local dealer to audition a couple of new pairs.  I left with Spendor A7s; they were stunning in the dem room and likewise at home.  Everything the Credos did, the A7s did better by a huge margin.  Plus I had the reassurance that I'd have help if there were any issues.  Both me and my missus were over the moon with them.  Another pair of critical ears are reassuring when spending this amount of money.

Just my experience really. And yes, 3k spend on speakers wasn't a casual consideration.

dalmatian posted:

 My wife, who has no interest in my HiFi, had a little listen and said the Ovators sound like £300 speakers, she said they don’t sound terrible but have nothing about them.

Nick

Women have better hearing than men, so you better listen to her 

hungryhalibut posted:

I’d suggest that if you want more it’s not necessarily the speakers that will provide it. Upgrading electronics will usually achieve more. What is the ‘more’ that you really want? Do you just not like the Allaes because they are old and cheap? Do you want something big, covered in drivers and which look impressive? All the answers just saying ‘Focal’, ‘Dynaudio’, ‘ProAc’ or whatever achieve absolutely nothing - they are simply saying ‘I have some of these, so you should have some too’. What if you don’t like them? 

I’m not shallow not to like speakers just because they are “old and cheap”, Allaes look fantastic are in mint condition and sound great. I’ve recently upgraded from a Superuniti to a Nova and the speakers have responded brilliantly, what I’d like to improve on is a more impactful, truer bass response and an overall lift in performance assuming a newer design speaker will have progressed from the “old and cheap” Allaes as the the Superuniti to Nova did.

I like Naim speakers having owned Arivas and Allaes so I thought the Ovators were a natural progression/upgrade. I apologise that I am unable to afford new £3000/£4000 speakers and have a home trial, unfortunately I am not in that financial position instead I will take an educated punt and buy pre owned speakers and hope for the best. I like this forum and to a greater extent the people who offer advise are great, there are always negative people on every form which is sad. I do appreciate the feedback I have received and the experiences of fellow enthusiasts in this Naim hifi community.

Nick