NBL's

Posted by: Tristram on 26 August 2001

I had an opportunity to listen to a couple of sets of NBL's last week. One on a 250, the other on a 500. The sense of scale on detail were impressive, not to mention the effortless presentation.
I am aware that this subject has been discussed in various forms in the past. I would like to hear opinions from current owners, especially with regard to run in time, and how they perform with a 250.

Thanks. tw

Posted on: 26 August 2001 by Chris Bell

TW,

While I would hate to discourage anyone from a NBL purchase, a 250 may not be enough. I ran NBLs with a pair of 135s, active with a six pack, and finally with a 500. Each upgrade made the previous sound broken. Also the NBL deserves the very best source and preamp (cds2/LP12/52) as they are ruthlessly revealing. What is your source?

Never the less, you should demo at home and experiment with positioning. I found that passive they liked to be toed-in and active they worked best with no toe-in. Also, try them 6"-10" away from the wall. If you have hard wood floors, get a set of Target floor pucks--they did wonders for my DBLs.

NBLs can image like crazy making so-called "imaging" speakers sound like a joke.

Chris Bell
Less Hi, More Fi

Posted on: 08 November 2001 by Norman

Hi Chris,
I have a pair of brandnew NBL´s for two weeks now replacing my SBL´s. It took some days till they started to sing, but now...First I needed new speakercable, cause the SBL´s stood closer together. But that was no good setup for the NBL´s, they need more space in between each other. Now they stand 7 feet apart from each other directly in front of a solid wall. I feel, that the bass is more focused in that position as if they are slightly off the wall. Any advices?
Running in effects are quite obvious.

NBL´s play with CDS on Fraim, 135´s, 72(!).

BTW you can play NBL´s much louder than SBL´s, what´s relevant if you are listening to music with complex and high output sound structure(Madonna´s "Frozen" or orchestra stuff.

Cheers, Norman

[This message was edited by Norman on THURSDAY 08 November 2001 at 15:21.]

Posted on: 08 November 2001 by Chris Bell

Norman,

Glad to hear you are enjoying your new speakers. NBLs work best 6"-8" from the wall. Play with the toe-in. When I ran mine active they sounded best with no toe-in. Passive w/ a 500 NBLs sounded better toed-in (go figure?).

5'-8' is a good distance between speakers. Make sure there is nothing between your speakers (racks, furniture, ect) as they will seriously degrade the sound. Also, there should be a couple of feet+ between the speaker and the side wall. How long is your speaker cable? I prefer longer runs in the mid 20's.

I am curious, did you consider a preamp upgrade first? NBLs are very revealing of source, and may exceed the performance of your 72. Perhaps your next upgrade should be a supercap for your preamp. Then again, if it sounds good, go buy more records.

Chris Belll

Posted on: 09 November 2001 by Martin Payne

quote:
Originally posted by Chris Bell:
When I ran mine active they sounded best with no toe-in. Passive w/ a 500 NBLs sounded better toed-in (go figure?).

I believe that passive crossovers can have some effect on the directionality of the output of a speaker, so this does make a lot of sense.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 10 November 2001 by Derek Wright

Please will you tell me the name of the cable that was being used to connect the various amps to the NBLs

Thanks

Derek

Posted on: 11 November 2001 by Derek Wright

I have been able to try out a pair of NBLs this weekend.

My initial set up was using Chord speaker cable and Chord interconnect from the CDSii to the NAC 52.

The speakers sounded very shrill and there was no bass. Painfull is a word that came to mind.

As I could not reconcile the comments that I have heard and read about the 500NBL combo
I obtained from the dealer a set of NACA5 cable and installed them - the sound improved dramatically, I then replaced the CDSii to NAC 52 interconnect with the Naim supplied interconnect and the sound improved yet again.

After about another hour and 27 hours after installing the speakers, the sound quality improved dramatically in a very short period of time.

I now know what the 500+passive NBLs enthusiasm is about, they do sound good.

Sad to say that they have to go back tomorrow

Many thanks to the people who made the dem possible.

Derek

Posted on: 11 November 2001 by Bob Edwards

Tristram--

I've heard NBLs fairly extensively, driven by everything from a 250 to active 500s. I think the NBL is my favorite Naim speaker--it has a tremendous amount of presence, tunefulness, detail, effortlessness and verisimilitude. The NBL does not match the DBL for bass extension, weight or ultimate authority, but that does not trouble me.

I would personally take a 500/NBL over DBL/6 pack 135s--though not everyone here would agree. I just think the NBL has a certain "Je ne sais quoi" to it, when driven by a 500, that I think is simply terrific. That said, I would take a 500/SBL over 135x2/NBL--the 500 is an essential part of the equation. However, the NBL represents a rather grand leap in performance over the SBL.

Cheers and good luck!

Bob

Posted on: 14 November 2001 by Norman

yes, it is very clear that the 72 is the limiting part in my chain; already before the NBLs came across my way. But there was this NBL offer first...Would you prefer the supercap upgrade or the 82 upgrade first? The supercap way would be more suitable on the way to the 52, where all will end up someday...but supercaps are seldom on the s/h market!
My speaker cables are 20 feet long; should be O.K..

Norman

Posted on: 14 November 2001 by Tristram

Thanks Bob.

I have been pondering this route in recent months. At the dem. this summer, an owner descibed the NBL's as the single biggest upgrade he had made with the 500 being even more of the same. tw