Ovators S400 on Home Demo

ok, analog, you just grown up a few ranks in my views by saying this!

getting rid of B&W "magic" is simple: you just listen to a real speaker!

PS: i won't go any further with this B&W thing...i think i've made my point, so far.

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

GraemeH posted:

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

+1 Give the S400 (and yourself) some time!

nbpf posted:

GraemeH posted:

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

+1 Give the S400 (and yourself) some time!

 

As a former S600 owner...I know...I know.

G

GraemeH posted:

nbpf posted:

GraemeH posted:

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

+1 Give the S400 (and yourself) some time!

 

As a former S600 owner...I know...I know.

G

Former S400 owner another +1

GraemeH posted:

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

I'm intrigued, Graeme. I know you had the 600s  before moving to the PMCs. Have you finally realised that the 400s are actually better than both?

Current owner of the 400s. 

GraemeH posted:

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

Graeme really?

Correct me if I'm wrong you've gone back to NDAC and now Ovators. Is this correct & if so why?

Dustysox posted:

GraemeH posted:

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

Graeme really?

Correct me if I'm wrong you've gone back to NDAC and now Ovators. Is this correct & if so why?

An experiment as I got them very reasonably - and having changed back to an all naim front end curiosity got the better of me. I've always liked their design.

The NDAC:XPS is presenting a bigger soundstage than I'm used to which I'm wondering if the small PMC's are constraining a bit.

Should arrive Wednesday so I'll give my impressions.

All good fun.

G

GraemeH posted:

Dustysox posted:

GraemeH posted:

I'm experimenting with S400 over the festive break. Should arrive on Wednesday.

G

Graeme really?

Correct me if I'm wrong you've gone back to NDAC and now Ovators. Is this correct & if so why?

An experiment as I got them very reasonably - and having changed back to an all naim front end curiosity got the better of me. I've always liked their design.

The NDAC:XPS is presenting a bigger soundstage than I'm used to which I'm wondering if the small PMC's are constraining a bit.

Should arrive Wednesday so I'll give my impressions.

All good fun.

G

Have fun, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do mine.

Goodness me. You do realise of course that should you get the Ovators you'll have to ditch those TQBs. Where will it end? I have to say that I've always liked the look of the 400 but they are too big for my room. As it is I have managed to get something smaller, cheaper and far better. Another option maybe?

Thanks Slim68. 

Not treating it too seriously HH - An opportunity for an extended listen as a comparator to the .23. If it works out, all good but if not no great loss. 

Not sure I'd go for the 'Fat Controller' aesthetic of your recent acquisitions - A free space speaker is best for our living space.

G

I know Graeme, in your room I'd do the same. But my room is only 3.6m wide and the penguins (I do like the Fat Controller thing though!) are therefore ideal. It took a while to get over the fuller sound of the 23s, but ultimately the FCs are a way better speaker. They were much less good with TQB than the 23s though, so bear that in mind. 

Will do HH. If they pass the initial comparator test I'll consider final tweaks.

G

Darke Bear posted:

All speakers take a while to break-in and the Ovators have their teething problems for a while. When I had the S600 I found that they sounded great straight away, but were over-sensitive to set-up - with time and run-in that did seem to improve and after about 6-9 months the bass performance opened-out and became far better.

When I eventually upgraded to S800 I found them a lot easier to position in the room, even though they are huge compared to the S600 which looked like toys in comparison. Possibly the bass response being lower had less interaction with a room node and gave me more freedom to position. Again, after 6-9 months the bass completely transformed and became very solid and able to create the shapes of low frequency notes in a way I have not heard done by any speaker before - the DBL came close, but the S800 is far better at it.
A home demo is critical, as I hear also some other makes can sound unhappy in some rooms which is not obvious at all before trial.

Ovators have a seamless presentation I love and are especially good, for me, on female vocals, as they have no crossover transition in the vocal range. It can sound a bit strange at first when you hear them compared to traditional speakers, as you mentally search for the crossover effect to 'grab' onto and it isn't there - so it sounds wrong at first. Once you get used to the presentation then it is very hard to go back to traditional speakers - you get used to what people that prefer flat panel speakers love in the graceful presentation of easy to access spatial information and the gentle rendering of voice - but with decent bass.

Enjoy!

DB.

DB, you're absolutely right!

the lack of crossovers above 700 Hz translates into many things done better, including female vocals, and many acoustic instruments, which tend to sound really good indeed on the S400.

i am also sensitive to distortions like this, but i can tell you it takes a trained and experienced ear to detect that, or be annoyed by some aggressive crossover transitions, if driver integration is not done properly!

in a way they have the advantage of the electrostatics, but without the electrostatics (probably) single most issue: the lack of pinpoint precision in space of the sounds... and it is obvious, since the radiant surface of the electrostatics is way wider then for conventional drivers...this however does have a positive effect on microdetails and low level harmonics, since moving such a big surface even with the tiniest of currents, will have a better air moving flow than for a smaller surface driver.

the way i see the Ovators, is like the best of both worlds, the precision of a smaller driver speaker (like concentric drivers) and the lack of midrange distortions like in an electrostatic driver.

and there is another thing that betters the mid and high performance: the bass. being a closed and non-ported enclosure, the bass may not have the all present effect like a bass-refelx design, but the accuracy is way better, since the ports themselves have a un-avoidable coloration over bass sound, no matter if linear or circular flow is chosen, no matter if front, rear or down ported.

so yes, the ovators have a very good design indeed, and they sound like they do!

Nice summary DB & CATALINMETAL. Looking forward to my experiment!

G

In my room, S400 outperformed S600 and  easily outperformed 23's by a huge margin. Rooms are however a lottery, and never make any speaker a foregone conclusion in practice. Hope it works out Graemeh.

Cheers Gary.

G

My dealer dropped of his demo S400's a couple of weeks ago, set them up and I think it was fair to say that we all knew within 5 mins that they would not be going back. Anyway after a week of playing lot's of different music... Christmas tunes included it was decided by the boss that not only did they sound fantastic in our room but looked better than our old speakers, so money has changed hands and we are now the proud owners of a pair of ash 400's.

Must say a big thank you to my local dealer, Mick of Acoustic Streams for letting us have first refusal on them.

Enjoy them Graemeh, hope they work for you.

Graham

Thanks Graham. Fingers crossed.

Anyone use them without the grilles?

G

GraemeH posted:

Anyone use them without the grilles?

Without the grilles? Not next to the globe!

Very nice! You are all whetting my appetite!

G

Some speakers look way better with out the grills/Covers. Ovators look far worse, I would go so far as to say it cheapens them IMHO of course.

nbpf posted:

GraemeH posted:

Anyone use them without the grilles?

Without the grilles? Not next to the globe!

That is a stunning pic. Right up my alley :-) They do look gorgeous in white btw!

Magnus Hultstrand posted:

That is a stunning pic. Right up my alley :-) They do look gorgeous in white btw!

Thanks! I really like the S400 and they sound great to me. But, as HH pointed out, they are not exactly small. Ideally, I would like speakers in a living room to disappear. In my case, the white body does the trick, up to a certain extent. Another speaker that I think it would be worth considering if one likes the Ovators is the Manger p1. It is a sealed design and a single "transducer" takes care of frequencies in the 80 Hz – 40 kHz range. The Mangers are very well built and also look great: they are a little bit less conspicuous that the S400 and their cross section -- they are slightly wider than they are deep -- should allow to position them very near to the back wall. Best, nbpf

Ok, how does this work? I am listening to Roger Waters, In the Flesh Live, Perfect Sense parts 1&2. There is a voice in the background that says " I can feel it, I am afraid" and I would swear that he is behind me! How? Stereo speakers, not surround and right in front of me.