Upgrade - NAP500 or NAP135 & NBL's

Chris Bell
CDS2/LP12/ARO/TROIKA/LINGO/52/500/DBLL

500 into SBL's makes them sound like you never heard them before, but is akin to forcing fast moving water in an 8 inch pipe to exit through a four inch pipe, congested and quite frankly a waste of the 500's superb capabilities.

500 into NBL's,superb......fast, lucid, cohesive and above all wonderfully musical. What more can I say?

135's into NBL's, no contest; they give a very creditable performance and the speakers allow them to show just what they are capable of, but compared with the 500 they are lacking in all respects.This combination I found to be better than the 500 into SBL's.

I would buy second hand 135's, new NBL's and save hard to buy that 500 as soon as possible. Buying the 135's second hand leaves money in the pot to start off the 500 fund!

Regards,
John.

I did this test myself at Naim and you can find the result in my report. Conclusion was to get the 500 as soon as possible.

Regards,

Nigel

How about 500 into Isobariks?

Dev

regards
DB/Mullet Audio
Now featuring LP12/Lingo/Aro and soon Isobariks for your listening pleasure.

As for getting a 500 AND Isobariks well the budget dictates that if I get the 500 then there is nothing left for investment in speakers (well at least for a very long time).

Norman

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As for getting a 500 AND Isobariks well the budget dictates that if I get the 500 then there is nothing left for investment in speakers (well at least for a very long time).

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Norman,

I would still recommend getting late model Isobariks, you can get a very decent pair for £1000, just negotiate a discount with your dealer on the NAP500, or buy his ex-dem one. Isobariks have a lot more scale than SBL's and I suspect a NAP500 will really make them come alive.

Although, SBL's are great, my feeling is that they do not show you all of the NAP500's full potential (by full potential, I mean loudness ability, low bass and scale)

regards

Dev

I have to say that it has taken a full 10 days of solid use for the NAP500 to really start to stand out in a musical sense from the NAP250. Some may think this an odd thing to say and as such I should qualify it.

Basically the NAP500 had more bass, more midrange, and more high range (is that what you call it ?). Essentially more of everything, but strangely it was not nearly as involving and the music lacked anything like the emotion of my dear old NAP250.

However, after the tenth day it raised all the obvious elements (bass, midrange, definition, clarity etc) up several more notches and threw in a whole heap of emotion and a inescapable sense of involvement. It sounds very good indeed.

My dealer says that some cards were replaced in it around four weeks previous to the demo so I have to suspect it may still be running in as opposed to just warming up.

Still it appears the NAP500 has finally "turned up" and it is pretty impressive. Would it be true to say that the SBL's will improve their performance over time once run by the NAP500 for a while ? As in the point below (to Dev)about speakers being extended or moulded by what is passed to them and thereby through them.

Any ideas anyone ?

Norman

PS It may now be very apparent that I haven't got much of a clue about the finer points of Hi-Fi from a technical perspective so bear that in mind with any responses. Basically I only know what I like to hear.

Any clarification or guidance appreciated.

Dev

you just love those Isobariks don't you !!!

I have to confess I have very limited listening experience in the area of speakers. Never heard Isobariks.

Interesting point to note is that my dealer is quite adamant that with a NAP500 installed I will be on a path of slowly unfolding what the SBL's are really capable of.

When he said it I didn't really think to ask at the time why it would not become immediately apparent given the fact that my speakers are well run in.

Does this mean that with a higher quality amplifier a speaker slowly becomes remoulded and is extended to put out frequencies it was not previously being remitted ? I shall endeavour to find out.

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Interesting point to note is that my dealer is quite adamant that with a NAP500 installed I will be on a path of slowly unfolding what the SBL's are really capable of.

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After further discussion with my dealer I have discovered what he meant was that as the amplifier stabilised and increased performance it would then open the door for the SBL to display its best wares in tandem with the improving output from the amplifier. So the speaker will not unilaterally improve.

Sorry about that misrepresentation in the previous post.

Norman

My old dealer (the great Robert Ritchie - Montrose. Big Up to the North East Scotland MASSIVE - Colin L, Calum, Sean!) lent me his NAP500 for two weeks, although he knew that I am not really in a position to buy it.

Anyway, I digress, the NAP500 replaced passive 135's in my system. My speakers are SBL.

With the 500 the becomes, smoother, powerful, louder and you hear more detail. It is like a source or preamp upgrade.

It also allows the SBL to play louder and you realise that high volume distortion was really the 135's sounding 'hard' (basically coming to the end of their useable volume). I previously thought the 'hard sound' was the SBL at the edge of its performance envelope. Not true, with the 500, SBL's can play at 11'o clock at teh end of the NAC52 on CD with no problems (although every CD recording level is different).

However, Isobariks do things very differently to SBL's, they have more dynamic freedom (if you listen to Kans and then SBL's, you will understand this concept), and are fast, however, the bass is not as precise as SBL's (although subjectively lower). My feeling is that a good pair of Isobariks are certainly worth considering, and would be a worthwhile cost effective upgrade.

The other thing to consider is the room, every speaker behaves differently aand you need to be a reasonable distance away from Isobariks and SBL's for the bass to integrate properly with the rest of the sound (ie it wil sound too bass light).

As for your comments about musicality, I didn't find the 500 to be lacking in this regard and thought it to be supremely musical. However, there is a question of adjusting to a new sound and if you are used to the sound of a 32.5/Hicap/250 combo, for example, a change to a 52/SCap/500 would require some adjustment to get used to the new character.

best regards,

Dev

All the things you said (particularly about being able to play the music louder) have become evident.

A point I have noticed about the SBL's is that the overall sound becomes much more open the further away you sit but the bass (although remaining substantial) sounds a lot less tight.

I prefer to sit further away personally even though I think sitting closer actually presents far tighter bass definition and more detail in general. It's strange but sitting right at the back of my room (about 20 feet from the speakers) just makes the music sound very "real" despite degrading certain aspects like the tighter bass. You can track a bassline far more readily if you sit say 10 feet away. However, the sound starts to become more artificial to my ears.

Maybe something my dealer said is true in some cases i.e. "sometimes less is more and more is less".

Your comparison with the NAP135's was most useful.

Thanks again Dev.

Norman

Its funny you should say that its taken 10 days for the NAP500 to start to show a clean pair of heels to the NAP250. It was at the 10 day mark that I could honestly say that my 500 was obviously more musical than my 135s.

It takes a long time to really run-in a 500. More than three months I would guess. I've had mine now for about three months and in all that time a week hasn't gone by when I havn't said to my-self something along the lines of "F*** Me !!! I've never heard the system sound this good before". Something about the sound just continues to peel away and reveal more and more of the music. I'm quite convinced that no dealer could cobble together a dem system that would reveal the full capability of a CDS2/52/500 system. This is something that can only be experienced by living with it in your own home. To achieve this requires prolonged burn-in, allowing the system to settle and lashings of regular use.

Allan

Thanks for that Allan.

The NAP500 went back to the dealer last night and the NAP250 went back into the scheme of things. I still believe the NAP250 gives a very good sound but it is when you go back to it from the NAP500 that you really notice the difference between the two.

Norman