Ovators 400 or 600 advice

Have you tried the 400 against the SL2 at home yet? I've always felt that the latter was a much better speaker, albeit perhaps more ruthless. Could that be why you think the 400 might be easier to live with - because it's not as resolving?

HI Nigel,

Yes may be, however this pair of S400, unlike in the past at Milan Top Audio and 3 years ago at another dealer,

they showed a more open. clear and vibrant presentation but also preserving their beautiful seamless

character. I don' t still know, probably it's a room issue, but with the 552 arrival, the SL2, with some records

seem more disjointed.

Regards

Roberto

Are you thinking of an NAP change too as well as possible change to Ovators? If so this seems incredibly complicated to me, amp from one dealer, speakers from another, variables of dem rooms and the vagaries of your own.

It seems like it could be a hell of a lot of money to throw into the unknown but it's all relative.

Hope you can sort it, Roberto.

One thing I'm curious about (and it may help you in deciding if the SL2s are not for you, although perhaps you have already made that decision) is, that given the received panacea reputation of the NAC552 here, how would the Rega record player and Stageline sound through it? You could give it a few sides of LPs with a coffee on a sunny Spring morning. What a pleasure! I ask because I have a gut feeling that many of the SL2 acolytes here are vinylistas. [citation unavailable]. So if it turns out you find your Rega more approachable than your CD555 in your existing rig, it seems to me this is telling you something potentially valuable about your SL2s.

Best,

C.

What seems odd about all this is that I used to have a CDS3 with 552 and SL2s and it was fantastic. The only other SL2 system I heard was active with a 555 at the front, and that was excellent too, with none of the issues Roberto identifies. My current SL2s are slumming it with 'just' a 272 upfront, but the system is incredibly easy to listen to with everything nicely integrated, and again none of the issues Roberto identifies. 

The acid test of course is to borrow the 400s and use them at home - if it is a room matching thing then this is the only way to tell. 

Alternatively, borrow a NAP200 or a NAP300 and try either of them at home with the iconic SL2s.

C.

Dear Roberto, as far I could understand from your posts I suggest to consider a check on the acoustic of your room before doing more upgrades. An acoustical analysis, properly done by experts, will save you from a lot of trouble and usually has limited cost. Done that, you will decide for an acoustic treatment or not.
Your equipments should deserve such of investment.
And seems you have a dedicated room to listening music that can tolerate the impact of such upgrades.
Happy Easter to all!

Basically the problem arise with less than ideal and compressed recordings.

Again, talking about  "All My Faith Lost" cd,  on this track, I struggle to understand what she says (it's my native language btw)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TElnBGlidVY

There is a sort of smearing halo around it.

Regards

Roberto

Ok,

I just pulled the trigger for a used pair Black Zebrano S600 on sale @ Tom Tom Audio

For the moment i 'm keeping my SL2 but my Italian dealer offered me a pair of 2012 Rosewood S400 , if i' ll

eventually get these too, the SL2 will have to go.

Regards

Roberto

Pity you are not getting rid of the SL2s. I think I was going to buy them!

Hi Bruce,

Never say never, I should receive the 600s over the next 30/40 days.

James told me that he had to order a replacement leaf spring for the BMR being one slightly distorted.

In the meantime i might try my dealer's 400s. either into main and second system, if these were to stay

SL2s will be offered for sale.

Regards

Roberto

The dealer had a couple of possible leads so it mat not have been yours anyway!

Difficult things to find secondhand, but I am in no rush for a good pair.

Bruce

rsch posted:

Basically the problem arise with less than ideal and compressed recordings.

Again, talking about  "All My Faith Lost" cd,  on this track, I struggle to understand what she says (it's my native language btw)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TElnBGlidVY

There is a sort of smearing halo around it.

Regards

Roberto

I don't give a monkey's what she's saying, she's saying so beautifully 

But for the fact they want upwards of £15 for this CD on Amazon, I'd have bought it on the strength of this track alone.

Roger

Massimo Bertola posted

 

(Anyway, my humble opinion is that in the home you can pursue essentially three types of reproduction: lifelikeness – which means large spaces, huge and hugely costly systems and unpredictable results, none of them more interesting than reality itself; a sort of expanded background listening – where you are more distant (physically or mentally) from the system than you'd want – and a few variations of near field listening. And that as far as HiFi is concerned, the last type is more or less the greatest fun.)

M.

I bet you would of loved getting an Ovator S200 stand mount in your room to try !

Zebrano 600s finally landed a few hours ago, Sats are embarassing small. and even SL2 were tiny in comparison.

Following Tom Tom Audio advice, i will start with a distance of 15/20 cm from rear wall.

Regards

Roberto

Enjoy your Ovators. It looks like you have a nice room volume to allow them to sing.

G

rsch posted:

With the official announcement of Ovators farewell i feel forced to get a pair of them like alternative for either the SL2's on the main system or nSats on my second system. The former are placed in a smalli-ish room3,60m x 4,50m. The Sats are on our  much bigger L shaped bedroom suite.

The choice would be between a pair of ex demo Ovator 400 of very recent vintage that according to a friend,  showed a more open and clear presentation than ealier one. 

The other opportunity is pair of 600s of ealier vintage (probably 2010/2011)

My question is,  since the 600s have a floating tweeter enclosure, bass extension aside, are them better than 400s on mid/high frequencies reproduction ? bearing in mind that with 600s, there is the opportunity at a later stage to go active if desidered.

 

Regards

Roberto

 

 

New to the Naim forum and equipment to be honest, but I have been on a speaker quest for 2 years now.  I auditioned the 400's at my local dealer a year or so ago. Initially really liked them, both looks and sound but unfortunately I then compared them to a set of Spendors which were a lot more detailed and more to my taste.  I can remember the dealer switched around cables etc and massive difference when using the Naim cables.  Spenders still a lot more detailed.     I have eventually settled on Sopra 2's BTW. (at double the price though).

J

Final position

Right Speaker BMR spring

Left BMR spring

For the moment, final adjustment  see a distance of 35cm from rear wall, 63 cm from side walls, i reduced toe in at 5mm from 10mm but honestly  didn' t notice a difference. What's your experience about this ?                         The biggest difference however was  when i moved the sofa 10-15 closer to the loudspeakers, mitigating so some bass rumble.

Well, these Ovators compared with every Louspeakers i owned so far, are totally different beasts, they sports a much bigger scale filling the room with a sort of more sophisticated and unstrefull presentation even at low_ish volume (8,30-9 ' o clock) On the other hand  with some recordings  with electric bass and especially synth bass i have some rumble in the room. (The worst of all was D.Mode Delta Machine.) For the rest,  voices, either singing or speech are very smooth and refined.

However it seems that they getting day by day they are getting better, yesterday  i raised pushing the volume a little further (around 10 o' clock) without stress.

Two little problems i noticed, The leaf spring on the RH speaker is not flush with the cabinet like the LH one (as pictured above) the other is, being the plate so low, with the Naca firing down, these push, stressing  the socket.

Regards

Roberto

There is an easy fix for the speaker lead strain - get some Super Lumina....

Alternatively, heat the naca5 with a hair dryer and put a bend in it. You don't want it stressing the pins of the plug.

Congratulations Roberto,

Great pics and read. It's good to see another pair of Ovators in situ. They have had a bad press over the years and now my system is "singing" my 600's bring me such much musical joy. System set up is paramount and this is true with any speaker/room not just Ovators.

I wonder if in years to come the Ovators will be the "unsung heroes"!!!!

Enjoy.

Roberto,  I  hope you enjoy your 600s as much as I do my 400s.. On the question of toe in I have played endlessly with toe in and have found that very small movements from firing straight on works best, however, to much toe and the "fantastic" sound stage becomes compressed  and disappears.

Good luck Graham.

No toe-in required with the S400 ime. I did have to footer around with the S600 more when I had them.

G

Fine, thank you for your tips

Regards

Roberto

Oh my, I think those speakers at least deserve a 300DR, more money in the near future?

badlands posted:

Oh my, I think those speakers at least deserve a 300DR, more money in the near future?

Oh, it's quite a sound advice my darlin' unfortunately this future won't be so near because of  this year upgrades ( 552, 400, 600) which pretty much emptied my pockets. 

However my friendly dealer is already tempting me saying - look ! if you ever want to to try i have a Snaxo BMR, a 250 and back plate kit at my disposal...

Regards

Roberto