SL Active

your experience of the SL IC and the snaxo 4-4 SL mirrors mine, although my snaxo4-4 took a while to clear its throat.  but i after installing sl snaxo cable -- i just felt that i 'needed' to go the whole way to full loom (4xXLR + 4xspeaker lengths) -- unfortunately my bank manager doesnt agree 

you must be in audio nirvana with active DBLs and SL cables -- i doubt you will want to return them !

enjoy

ken

Excellent news Gavin.
Did you try the SL speaker cable?

ken c posted:

.... unfortunately my bank manager doesn't agree 

Tell me about it!
Yes the full SL loom Active is wonderful.
It is always surprising how much more you have with existing black boxes that wasn't getting to the speakers.
The 4-pin SL lead did a lot of good for voice and upper-bass - made the music more interesting and attention-catching in a good way for me.

DB.

Darke Bear posted:

ken c posted:

.... unfortunately my bank manager doesn't agree 

Tell me about it!
Yes the full SL loom Active is wonderful.
It is always surprising how much more you have with existing black boxes that wasn't getting to the speakers.
The 4-pin SL lead did a lot of good for voice and upper-bass - made the music more interesting and attention-catching in a good way for me.

DB.

its great you have already done it Gary -- i amalmost envious :-)

there is now of course the small matter of the 500DR upgrade -- x 3 for you, x 2 for me -- but lets ot go there!

enjoy

ken

Gavin L posted:

Wow.

I have just added the SL IC ans SL 4-pin SNAXO cable to my 500/300/500 and I am somewhat speechless.  So much more from the mid range (probably across the range, but this is what stands out to me).  Not an upgrade that subtly improves the soundstage, depths of bass and general poise (which is how I am finding the effects of the SC DR), but something that really brings out that "active" excitement.

I think the IC has a few hours on it already, but the 4-pin is new.  Only on loan for now, but I can't see them going back...

 

Similar thing here, the difference was almost laughably so.  Which makes me think that while the SL cable is much better, the original lavender one equally couldn't have been that good.  No surprising I guess, given it wasn't even hiline spec.

ken c posted:

your experience of the SL IC and the snaxo 4-4 SL mirrors mine, although my snaxo4-4 took a while to clear its throat.  but i after installing sl snaxo cable -- i just felt that i 'needed' to go the whole way to full loom (4xXLR + 4xspeaker lengths) -- unfortunately my bank manager doesnt agree 

you must be in audio nirvana with active DBLs and SL cables -- i doubt you will want to return them !

enjoy

ken

Any one think we should start a sweepstake as to whether Ken will have a full SL loom by the end of 2016?

My vote is "yes"!

The thing is, with an active system it's all rather costly. Luckily I only needed three wires. Two months in, the sound is transformed from how it was when I installed the din to xlr, and I thought it was good to start with. The do go awfully well with the DR power amps. Perhaps Ken could get an evening job to help him save up. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

The thing is, with an active system it's all rather costly. Luckily I only needed three wires. Two months in, the sound is transformed from how it was when I installed the din to xlr, and I thought it was good to start with. The do go awfully well with the DR power amps. Perhaps Ken could get an evening job to help him save up. 

Too right.  3 runs of 7.5m of SL speaker cable, 6 DIN-XLR cables, 1 SNAXO cable, 2 SL IC.  Bank manager hates me, Naim accountants love me (err, I hope!)

But as a positive (apart from SQ), hopefully I'll never need to buy another cable again.

Until the Mega Lumina comes out at prices to equal Chord's new cable, which of course has got be be better than SL.

Hungryhalibut posted:

The thing is, with an active system it's all rather costly. Luckily I only needed three wires. Two months in, the sound is transformed from how it was when I installed the din to xlr, and I thought it was good to start with. The do go awfully well with the DR power amps. Perhaps Ken could get an evening job to help him save up. 

ha ha  ... evening job!! i work long hours already as it is... but good thought!!

another way of rsolving this is to be happy with what i have 

enjoy

ken

Graham Clarke posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

The thing is, with an active system it's all rather costly. Luckily I only needed three wires. Two months in, the sound is transformed from how it was when I installed the din to xlr, and I thought it was good to start with. The do go awfully well with the DR power amps. Perhaps Ken could get an evening job to help him save up. 

Too right.  3 runs of 7.5m of SL speaker cable, 6 DIN-XLR cables, 1 SNAXO cable, 2 SL IC.  Bank manager hates me, Naim accountants love me (err, I hope!)

But as a positive (apart from SQ), hopefully I'll never need to buy another cable again.

...unless Naim produce a Super SL??? 

enjoy

ken

Graham Clarke posted:

Any one think we should start a sweepstake as to whether Ken will have a full SL loom by the end of 2016?

My vote is "yes"!

i got excited when i misread this first time as "Any one think we should start a contribution fun to help  Ken buy to full SL loom by the end of 2016?"

ah well...

enjoy

ken

Martin.L posted:

Excellent news Gavin.
Did you try the SL speaker cable?

No, but it does get you thinking.  Is it better to try the speaker cable (3 runs of 3m) than DR the 555, 552, 500's...?

My gut feeling is yes - for the pure excitement of hearing much more.  Even if it lacks the extra control DR brings.

I thought I would give an update in my SL journey.  I have decided to take the full SL plunge.  Two large boxes containing XLR and speaker cables have now arrived.

With much anticipation I decided to first try the SL XLR, leaving the speaker cables for tomorrow.  Not easy to put the cables into the back of the SNAXO and find some reasonable run without too many cables touching.  After much tweaking, I sat back to listen to the result - absolutely nothing! 

OK, I made the rookie mistake of getting my left and right cables mixes up .  And after a few nervous moments, a bit if head scratching, realising what I had done and even more shuffling behind the back of the system, I was ready to listen again!

Well, given everything is completely new, and also remembering the experiences of others, I was very pleasantly surprised.  A lot more bass, very full, mellow sound (particulaly because the IC had been a big effect on bringing out the vocals).  In fact a couple of tracks really surprised me - it was as if the bass player had just set up in my room (where as before I hadn't really paid too much attention to him).  I am very pleased to hear how the sound is much more balanced, with more detail throughout the audio spectrum .

A few more tracks to listen to this evening, before installing the SL speaker cable tomorrow!

following this with interest Gavin as the SL is definitely on my radar, though i ill probably go for just the speaker cables t start with because i cannot afford both XLR and speaket leads, let alone 2x500DR upgrades

well, to be honest with you, not sure whether i can afford even the speaker leads on their own -- but hey -- i once swore i would never afford to buy a 552!!

sounds like in your case -- runin issues are not immediately apparent -- but i guess this is not that surprising -- runin reports on SL seem to vary across systems, so perhaps there are sample variations, dunno...

the important thing is that this seems a positive upgrade from early signs -- and it can only get better with time.

Look fwd to hearing what the speaker leads bring (how long??) -- 

enjoy...

ken

Hi Ken,

XLR cables still continuing to perform and have really filled out the sound - no longer an over emphasis on vocals, but bringing the bass up to match.

Speaker cables are now in place and I spent a few hours listening today.  Immediate impressions - they bring a crispness to the percussion.  Certain details I had not really appreciated before are now clear in the mix. (Eg, I am now a lot more conscious in exactly how the drums are being struck, and with what type of stick).  Sounds stage is opened out further.  The sound seems even more relaxed and flowing.

I was lucky enough to need only 3m of speaker cable (although 3 runs...).  I really thought long and hard about the XLR.  6 cables is a considerable investment.  I am conscious that there is still a lot of run in to go, but this is how I found it:

IC+SNAXO = tremendous detail, exciting BUT over emphasis on vocals

XLR = seems to work on lower frequencies, bring great balance to the system

SPEAKER = a crispness, a bit more detail (hopefully more to expect here) and more separation

As exciting as the IC is, it needed more balance and I don't know if the speaker cable alone would do it.  Not sure if you hear the same thing in your setup, but it is probably saying that the XLR does need to be upgraded, even if it is a more cost effective option than SL.

I will report back once things have bedded in.

Gavin

thanks for the update Gavin. sounds like things are settling in very nicely for you -- which is great!

the main impact of IC+snaxo for me, when it eventually settled down, is a rather worrying realisation of how much music i was missing from my recordings.

what i need to be sure of if i ever go for the SL speker wire only, is how much of the full loom effect i will miss. 

enjoy

ken

cant recall now -- can the SL speaker wire be terminated in the Naim plugs that we know and love for speakers such as SL2s?

enjoy

ken

Glad things are settling in Gavin!

I 'm not Active yet, perhaps this fall, if all goes well.

But in the process of Tri Amping my Briks I inquired from Naim, was it ok to mix amps.

Steve Hopkins informed me it was ok to mix Naim Amps, Since that all had the same gain.

When I posted this information, Darke Bear correctly noted that all Naim Amp don't have the same gain. 

Excluding the Statement, all Naim amps do have the same gain with the exception of the 500.

Just food for thought, assuming you have your 300 on your vocal drivers, the Midrange!

Perhaps you already made the adjustments, if any were necessary.

Enjoy your System!

Allante93!