Ovators and SuperLumina in da hauzz...

Adam,

It sounds like I'm going to have the same fun as you if I decide to go for S400's as the speakers in my new system!

Hmmmm...

Don't despair for the first 2-3 months. NAIMs take a loooooooong time to break in. And than 1 day - whoooa!

S400s do take a while to come on song, so don't despair, and when they do the sound staging and imaging improves significantly. Vocals will soar, music lives and breathes in the room with you, all very velvety when flowing well.

Adam, any comment on the Super Lumina yet?

I have not run a direct comparison between my old cables and the SuperLumina. Simply installed them together with the Ovators and started the burn in process. I do realise this is a bit against the principle of testing. 

How do they sound regardless? Very open and neutral. I feel there is an immediate connection between the music being played and my speakers.

When I get back from the business trip I will, just for the heck of it, compare them with my old cables (I used MIT) and will report the findings.

I would certainly be interested - I have been reading the experiences of others and they are mostly very positive, but good to get first impressions.

Update 2:

Ovators continue to improve! Vocals are really fantastic now 

Managed to run a direct comparison between my old speaker cables (MIT) and SuperLumina.

MITs have a tendency to boost lower and higher ends of the spectrum. Very good cables, but for a different system.

SuperLumina on the other hand, in an all-Naim system, make perfect sense. Their characteristic appears to be geared towards being completetly neutral, letting the other components shine. 

What may appear as a slight lack of bass for instance, is actually 'caused' by lower mid range opening up, with guitars and vocals now properly placed in a mix. It's like setting a multi-slider EQ at 'flat'.

I suspect in other systems their obvious neutrality may cause imballances to be show even more clearly.

Overall - would I buy them again if I had to chose speaker cables for my Naims? Absolutely!

Hi Adam,

Any more thoughts on the SL since the last update?  Since the last post, I have added the SL IC and SNAXO cables and have been very impressed.  I am now pondering my next move....

Gavin

Hi Gavin

Ovatros S-400 - they have settled in very nicely. Fantastic speakers. 
I like them so much, I will be auditioning S-600s for my livign room system.

SuperLumina speaker cable - fantastic cable! I will probably upgrade my DIN-DIN interconnect from HiLine to SuperLumina at some stage (once the streamer is changed from NDX to NDS).

Given your system I think you will see a clear and audible improvement with SL speaker cables. Just test them.

Adam

Well the interconnect was a great upgrade.  I have read the speaker cable reviews, these have been almost unanimously positive, so I have no doubt these will be an equally big improvement. I was just wondering if you had the chance to hear the din/xlr as views seem a bit more mixed?

No - not yet. Saving that one for later. For now the upgrade sequence will be: 555PS (testing it now), NDS / new speakers. SuperLumina DIN will probably be the icing on the cake