passive 135s vs. active 250 demo report...
Posted by: ken c on 18 January 2001
the following is a brief report on my demo of 2x250 active vs 2x135 passive at grahams hifi london, england, today.
i carried my own 1982 vintage silver line nap250 to make the active 250’s pair . the other 250 was grahams second hand unit, of a more “recent” vintage – i believe 1992 or so. source was a cdsii, on its own QS stand, 52 on its own QS stand, and the power supplies and amps on another QS. curiously, the QS’s were linked, and like mine, quite rigidly tightened. (as an aside, I had planned to loosen mine to “finger tight” as (apparently) recommended by QS, but that’s all academic now, read on...).
last night, i was somewhat stuck thinking of what records to carry for the demo. an initial trawl through my collection yielded about 8 cd’s. too many, i thought. so, after hmmm and ahhhh… ing, i settled for the following 3:
Van Morrison – Avalon Sunset – i wanted to check for 2 aspects, on the last track; improvements on the clarity of the bass line at the beginning, and whether the stunning backing vocals towards the end of the record would reveal more layers of music.
Thomas Mapfumo – “Hondo” (which means war) – the third track has lots of subtle percussion effects and harmonising vocals – i wanted to see if i would be able to pick these up more easily.
Erib Beeb “Spirit and the Blues”, i wanted to see how the obvious acoustic would be presented and also how real the voice would be, especially in track 3; “needed time”.
i obviously also wanted to be sure that I was happy with improvements in rhythm and timing, tonal balance, etc, etc.
seconds out, round 1: 2x135. easy. simply confirmed how I remember them sounding at the tail end of a cdsii demo quite sometime ago – you may recall this is when my curiosity for 135’s was first ignited. listened for those things I set out to assess – yes there was more authoritative and more powerful bass at the beginning of “These are the Days”. yes, those little nuances in T Mapfumo’s “Buka Tiende” were even more subtle but more evident – contradiction?? (have you heard about a wedding master of ceremonies who spoke at length about brevity?)
and the acoustic had more poise in “needed time” –more sense of power and dominating control. Paul also played Hugh Masekela’s “Hope” which i thought i already had, but in fact i don’t – so i will pick this up next time i visit/raid a record shop.
enough about the 135’s. so what of the active 2x250 option? round 2:
oh, my, where does one begin??
Paul J played the same tracks, but this time, LIFO – which was a good idea for ease of comparison. first lets state the obvious. there was a difference, a big difference. i almost inserted an interesting superlative between "a" and "big" in the previous sentence, but i am in polite company here, so...
for me, the difference was so intoxicatingly pervasive that i thought Peter(?) may have put something in my coffee (which was horrible, by the way!!).
tried to use the same criteria that i had used successfully (so i thought) to assess passive 135’s, but failed dismally and quickly gave up. each of my selected tracks felt much, much shorter. before i could catch my breath and settle in to the sound, we had played all of them and the demo was finished!!!
what i do recall is that i was deeply engrossed in what was coming out of the SBL’s. i also recall some foot tapping - and i was doing it. on the Mapfumo track, i could picture how folks back home dance to this music – and i could smell the dust, honestly!!! and i was completely immersed in the emotion in “needed time” and other tracks on this album. i swear i saw little tear drops forming around the nap250 power switches! at the end of the demo, i felt as if i was coming out of some trance.
while driving back home, with my 250 on the passenger seat. i recall asking myself “what was the bass like on van the man?”. well, i dunno. frankly, i don’t give a damn. coming to think of it now, i can see it wouldn’t have mattered that much which recordings i had carried for the demo.
since my silver line 250 got on so well with grahams newer vintage, i have invited that to my home. the 2nd hand price was reasonable, i think –a new snaxo is on order - i already have a hicap to keep it entertained when it comes. the lp12 prefix will have to go straight to the nac52 now. sad.
most of my hifi is going to naim for updates (recaps etc); to the supercap, hicap, and for my 250 to be (sort of) aligned to the other 250. my 52 also.
while at grahams, i also met the isoblue table in the flesh; looks pretty. i chatted it up, and invited it to my home too, cherry finish, in exchange for divorce with my QS. it agreed.
when my wife asks what happened to the QS, i will simply say, “I can explain!!” that usually works.
while my system is away, i will try to coax my sbl’s to do a solo for me. mind you, i slightly regret getting a black finish when i bought them 6 years ago. i might simply paint them. (no!!!) sometime, i might consider swapping them... but that’s expensive, and not at all important.
so, ladies and gentlemen, for my ears, a 2x250/sbl active system is a different ball game, in a completely different league, on a different plane, etc etc..., to the passive 2x135’s.
i am back in my office now playing 1x250 – still very enjoyable. but I now know what my next fix is going to be... i can't wait...
enjoy...
ken
You almost make me want to get Active 250s, but no no, I shan't be led into temptation.
I'll eventually get a second pair of 135s and in the meantime not visit anyone who has Active 250s. 
Luckily the 135s are vastly superior on the SBLs than a single 250, so I'm choosing to stay in my experience of making a safe move.
Bob....
"Driven by a 500 the SBLs sound more like DBLs."
This is the kind of talk that makes us lose sleep. Today is a big day for lottery in Singapore. Wish me luck. Phil, you coming?
[This message was edited by Vik on SATURDAY 20 January 2001 at 03:28.]