System Pics 2015

They look like Linn Skeets.

Phil.... post a pic of those Titan's in the room!  

 Will these do...?

Phil

Glad to see TVR takes centre stage

Hi Phil

I thought you had DBL;s?

Do the Nsubs affect the 2 channel sound?

Regards

Trev

Phil, cockpit of which car is under the tv? 

So  Phil, what's the verdict on NBL's vs Titans, please, I godda know!!!

Just got active NBL's with 552 300 250 250 and they are really special, a very clever design!

Mario.

Yes would like to hear some comments here as well, if possible.

You place the Titans closest to the wall? 

Why no fraims in your homeplace  ? just curious.

Hi Trev,

Yes ... I have DBLs and as you can see there, NBLs and Titans. I am a bit of a speaker hoarder if all told - I have Alllae's, n-Sats and various other assorted bookshelf speakers along with some oddball dipole bipole designs from Polk and Definitive Technology that I've collected over the years.

I've got a reputation here at work for going out on shows and events and coming back with yet another pair of speakers or yet another pair of headphones. :-D

The DBLs are on 'my other system' which is an HDX / DAC / 555PS / 552 / 500 ...

The n-Subs are only used for AV duties - the thick shelf above the TV houses an electric projector screen which drops down in front of the TV and fills the area between the speakers and to the top of the centre channel speaker completely. It's not an ideal room by any means but it does sound *REALLY* good in there. 

*chuckle* That's the new dash that I have been making for the TVR ... it's cut from carbon fibre (not some 3M sticky backed plastic rubbish) and the new gauges are Smiths "Flight" ones which look lovely.

Of course as with most of my projects it's as yet unfinished as I need to make up a wiring loom and get all the new senders and sensors that I'll need to complete it.

Phil

Of course ... and you can just make out my Union Jack doggie passenger on the shelf above the TV too.

Phil

Such a hard question to answer ... I *LOVE* what the DBLs, NBLs and Allaes can do with music.

I've run the DBLs and NBLs active from my 3 x 300's and passive both from a single 300 or from my 500 and I've been an 'active' fan for many years (since my loony car-hifi days).

The DBLs *ARE* a pain to get set up right and are quite room dependent but when set up properly they can do things that take your breath away.

The NBLs are much less painful to get set up and working properly and certainly seem far less room dependent but they don't do the scale and dynamics of the DBLs.

I haven't tried 600's / 800's up there as I don't have any leeway depth wise to bring the speakers out into the room as the door into there is that end on the left (before anyone asks why I'm not using Ovators).

The Titans are so very different ... obviously I can't run them active (but that's a conversation that Derek and I have been having) and I have run them single amped and bi-amped. They just seem so much more 'fun' - they give much of the scale of the DBLs (definitely more than the NBLs) but just without being as fussy. It's impossible to say that one speaker sounds better than the other - all speakers have things that they do well and not so well and at that end of the spectrum then there's not a lot that they *DON'T* do well but the Titans simply bring in an additional layer of fun ... I don't have any pangs of slightly embarrassed guilt playing (and enjoying) Rammstein or whatever when otherwise I might be feeling that I should be enjoying something a little more highbrow.

At the end of the day I guess the proof of the pudding is I still have the DBLs, still have the Titans, still have the Allaes but the NBLs are residing in someone elses system - it was a real heartache to sell them but I couldn't justify keeping them ... Do I miss them? Yes - to an extent ... they are a very good speaker but there are a number of very good speakers out there and the NBLs, good as they are, do have competition out there.

I guess it just came down to the Titans doing more for me in that setup than the NBLs did - that's my 'everyday' setup and I just need it to be enjoyable and for that they just worked better. The Axent doesn't gel that well with the Titans - obviously it did with the NBLs / DBLs - but I've been talking with Derek at Kudos about getting a set of S10's to use as front centre and rear centre and S20's (both in the same Blonde Zebrano) to use as surrounds. (Yes, both Derek and I are aware that that's quite perverse but hey ... It's gonna be fun!)

Phil

...see my previous post.

Yup ... in that room they do work pretty close to the wall without getting boomy. It's the roof of an old Edwardian townhouse - used to be the old servants quarters - and it is incredibly solid, obviously there's the massively sloped ceilings as you're up in the roof and even then any flat surfaces aren't actually flat.

I really didn't think that they would work up there that close to the back wall (they're pretty much as close to the back wall as a hefty Edwardian skirting board and section of 100mm x 50mm conduit will allow) but they do... /me shrugs.

*chuckle* ... Two reasons .. Well, three...

1) I had some existing non-Fraim stands from before I joined Naim and I hate discarding stuff.

2) Because of the restricted vertical height and the easy / cheap availability of shelves for the stands that I do have then I can pick up additional shelves and get a friend to chop them down to custom heights for me.

3) Cost ... People think that we get given kit for free but no - it does cost us - and I just simply can't afford it at the moment.

Phil

What I really want to know Phil is how much did you get for product placement(cue can of soft drink)?

Hey - I did have a look round that photo this morning to make sure there was nothing incriminating there!

Phil

Thank you Phil ! 

Interestting to here about the Titans. Could you mention some words about the competitots for the Nbl ? Obviously theTitans heading rather DBL direction from your reading. 

I would love to hear your impressions of of how the Titans performed bi-amped.  It something i've thought of doing but 552 is next on the shopping list for me.

Bit difficult really as we don't get to 'play' that much with other manufacturers kit in our own personal systems ... remember that we work during the day and when we get home at nights there's 'real life' to do.

I mean that although the NBL is still a bloody good loudspeaker there are other good speakers out there and obviously it depends what you're after as to what suits ... for example I get to play with the Focal stuff (of course) and I like the Focal Electra Diablos but they don't work for me in the context of what I want from my home system.

Phil

Thanks Phil, appreciate your comments on all the speakers. I'm also happy that I now have a pair of "bloody good loudspeakers" in the NBL. Just have to figure out why one nested box wobbles more freely and longer than the other. I can see the how set up of the Titans must be a breeze in comparison to the legacy naim speakers. There has been talk of activating Titans before......

Cheers,

Mario.

Good plan! I went for Superuniti > Kudos X2, and no CD player. While you're at it, treat yourself to a decent rack if you can, your gear will sound better.

Not as much of a change as I thought there would be but then again I'm not really a bi-amping evangelist as you do still have the passive crossovers in the signal path...

Phil 

much appreciated.  I would LOVE to hear an active pair.  One day.....maybe.....

Having had my SBL's for 17 years, and fondly remembering my home dem that I'd arranged, they sounded truly amazing and in the context of my system at that time couldn't imagine any speaker sounding any better (so good that my father in law also ended up buying a pair!)

I'd heard the S600's and other speakers at the front end of Naim systems at my dealer & shows over recent years and was drawn towards hearing them with my system (despite comments on this forum and concerns that they wouldn't sound good in my room).

Well, the first impressions were fantastic and early tracks played made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. How do they compare? That's always the question I have difficulty in putting into words, however, the presence & scale of the performers take on a level of realism. For me it's now not like listening to a pair of speakers, they've disappeared.

Hello Mark,

I didn't try the 400's at home for two reasons.

Firstly, I had heard them at my dealers, albeit on a system nothing like my one, and they did not really make an impression at that time.(Not for any real reason that I can explain).

Secondly, I decided to try the 600's and really for me they sold themselves so the decision was made!