naim speaker "style"

Posted by: ken c on 17 April 2001

Posted on: 19 April 2001 by ken c
the nbl style appears to winning the day ... but 15 is too small a sample.

please, can i have some more votes... this is a HUGE forum.

enjoy...

ken

Posted on: 19 April 2001 by ken c
jonathan: many thanks. i perhaps should have added that option, but i guess it doesnt really matter in the longrun. the sample size has improved a little, but still 26 appears to indicate to me, so far, that this is NOT as important issue to naimologists as i perhaps at first thought. hmmm....

its "management" (i.e. wives) we have to worry about -- it helps if the thing you are upgrading to does look "nicer" in some sense -- hence the survey. so, come on everyone else, don't all vote at once now, you may bring the system down!!!

enjoy...

ken

Posted on: 20 April 2001 by Engelbert
What really counts is the finish (build quality) and Naim always excels here. Keep it up you folk in the factory!
Rob Bowie
Posted on: 20 April 2001 by ken c
hockman: many thanks. i have to say the first time i saw a 500 (at infidelity) i thought it looked very nice indeed -- i had imagined it to be big and "american", but in fact it is quite "dicrete" in a way. for me, the first time i saw the nbl's, i didnt like them at all. just goes to show how tastes differ so much and how as customers, we are so difficult to please, doesnt it?

listened to any good ornette c. recently?? i can imagine the 500 would do real justice to this man's art... of late, i have been navigating across a wide range of musical styles...

enjoy...

ken

Posted on: 20 April 2001 by ken c
omer s:

quote:
Although SBL's are a pain to setup and maintain, they are the my ideal for looks of speaker

i really like the sbl look myself, but i share your concerns about setup.

sometime ago, there was a violent thunderstorm where i live (i was away) -- my wife and sister-in-law dutifully unplugged the system. unfortunately, it rained so heavily that water was beginning to sip through into where the hifi system is. dutifully again, my wife and sister in law decided to move the sbl's to another safer room! fortunately the sbl's were too heavy for them to lift, and also fortunately the flood water didnt amount to much, although i had to change the carpet. when i asked them how they were going to move them, "well, we tried putting our fingers through the gap between the lower box and the upper box but we couldnt get enough purchase...!! " panic!!! as it happens, i dont they were strong enough to any damage and the speakers sounded OK.

as it happens, i have had these speakers for 6 years now and i have not had any problem. sometimes our worries are baseless -- there is really no call for moving them around often enough to cause problems. mine have been moved twice -- once from lounge to my office -- and sevond time when i was doing some diagnostics after the music had disappeared from my system. it turns out it was the electronics mainly anyway, not the sbl's.

i had the same "fears" about the ARO arm. now i am very comfortable with it, and i dont need an arm lift -- and i suspect not a lot of people do.

however, my wish is still for an sbl-like appearance, but nbl-style setup (transit screws, etc).

many thanks omer... what kind of music are you into??

enjoy...

ken

Posted on: 20 April 2001 by Andrew Randle
quote:
What sonic purpose is the NBL's curved top ?

The curved top is the best bit. Stops the wife/girlfriend from placing ornaments/plants on top.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

Posted on: 20 April 2001 by ken c
omer: hmm.. tough. the one i have been playing quite a bit of late is joe henderson's "stright, no chaser" - fabulous album. like you, for some reason, i have found myself playing partcular cd's over and over again -- and this joe henderson is one such. fortunately, my nephew has borrowed it, so i get to try other stuff. for example, cassidy and emylou harris.

i am a complete novice as far as classical music is concerned -- but from the little i now know -- i am a big fan of baroque - lots of bach, handel, purcell, blow, etc.. i have discovered i am also very partial to piano music -- i think i realised this after being smitten by keith jarrett "koln concert" and i reported this on the old forum a long time ago. since then, i have been playing stuff from the more contemporary noland and fred simon, to the (i guess) more classical chopin -- i am even beginning to recognsize certain pianists style of playing.

there is so much good music around isnt there??

jonathan: all good stuff there -- and i have all those albums -- you should also try "the trio". i have also ventured into new orleans jazz recently -- and have been pleasantly surprised.

thanks guys...

enjoy...

ken

Posted on: 20 April 2001 by ken c
omer:
i'll look out for Glenn Gould playing baroque/pre-bach, with pieces by byrd, sweelinck (sp?) and Gibbons on Sony Classical (Mid-Price) and let you know how i get on. i think i have a gibbons somewhere, ah yes, its orlando gibbons's "fantaisies royales" a trio with jordi savall, et al. i believe i got the recommendation from this forum a long long time ago. i love it. so thats a good sign with your other gibbons i guess (if its the same gibbons??)

enjoy...

ken

Posted on: 22 April 2001 by ken c
many thanks folks for responding to the "naim speaker style poll. as of last time i looked, there had been 50 responses ... this is definitely many more than last time i reviewed this. i am not sure how signficant the results are -- i was expecting at least 100 responses -- but fwiw, nbl stye wins, with sbl a close second and a very poor third for intro/credo styles.

many thanks for responding...

enjoy...

ken

Posted on: 22 April 2001 by Martin Payne
Ken,

quote:
its "management" (i.e. wives) we have to worry about

...Perhaps this was the question you should have asked in the first place!

I can tell you that mine isn't very keen on Isobariks (too big), and she'd probably moan about NBLs for the same reason. I still feel that they look the best of all Naim speakers, and this might mitigate the response.

Perhaps I should tell her in detail about the seven-foot tall, matt black, home-made speakers I heard last night, together with the 150-ish litre centre monitor, and 300 litre prototype sub in the same WAF-aware colour. Believe me, these things sitting in the middle of the room are impossible to ignore!

I wonder what the full-size, 8x18" driver, 1,800 litre sub will look like??? Woo-hoo!

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 22 April 2001 by ken c
hi martin:

yes, very tricky manouvering to get "management approval" on hifi upgrades. quite early in our marriage, she liked the kans so much she paid for them!! she loved the ibl's too and she was annoyed when i upgraded to the sbl's.

interestingly, recent purchases of projekt, then quadraspire, then isoblue -- havent triggered the inevitable and nerve-wrecking "how much did you pay for that!!!!?" interogation.

my wife also threatened (about 10 years ago) that either the isobariks go, or else... and i got the hint. nbl's are totally out the question for the same reason.

perhaps to wind me up, i have heard her comment every now and then that "all this messing about with your so called 'upgrades' hasnt produced a sound as good as the isobariks. arrrrgh!!! ". i dare not contest that one....

of late though, since i installed my active system, i have noted some renewed interest. i actually caught her red handed playing a dietrich fischer-dieskau schubert lieder cd while ironing...!!!

so, there is hope yet... and i am really looking fwd to the sbl replacement, whenever that arrives... meantime i have enough time to think of some more upgrade excuses...

enjoy...

ken