Naxo 3-6 or Snaxo 362

Hi Gus:

I'm an Active fan, who also is in the process of activating my Briks.

Tons of post on the Forum discussing the merits of going Super Naim Audio XO vs Naim Audio XO.

Just checked out a post by GusI, Perth Australia, who happened to own Briks also.

In any event, the theme, basically:

"A three way Naxo designed for Briks should obiously already have the correct slopes and crossover frequencies etc. No modification should be required. 

Another difference between Naxos and Snaxos are that SNAXOs will accept SNAXO burndies (which are thick cables like those used in 52/Supercap and CDSII/XPS arrangements). The SNAXO burndy will enable you to take full advantage of the multiple power rails provided by a Supercap. ""

Many will refer to the Isobariks as Barbarics, but if you enjoy your Briks in Passive mode, they will really open up after taking the XO out of the equation.

 This I know, Former Linn System:

Karin/Linn XO/ Dirak PS/3 x LK 280's/Briks

Enjoy your journey!

Allante93! 

I never enjoyed active operation until the 242 and 362 were released. That's when it made sense to me. Before that, passive operation was always my preference. I can't recommend the later crossover strongly enough.

Frank.

I went from a Snaxo 3-6 to the 362 while using active DBLs with 6x135. Both were used with Burndy/Supercap. The older Snaxo had more of an intrusive sonic footprint being thinner and leaner sounding, a little gritty or glary at the top end and lacking the spatial characteristics that the 362 enjoys. It was a very similar difference to that between the original XPS and the later XPS2, although for different reasons. 

I wonder how much longer Naim will continue making Snaxos, as currently they are not making speakers and the chasm between Linn and Naim is wider than ever. 

Ron Toolsie posted:

I went from a Snaxo 3-6 to the 362 while using active DBLs with 6x135. Both were used with Burndy/Supercap.......

I wonder how much longer Naim will continue making Snaxos, as currently they are not making speakers and the chasm between Linn and Naim is wider than ever. 

I wonder also, At least Linn is reaching out to Speaker Manufacturers, with their Digital Exakt Box. The last time I checked, Titans, JBL, PMC, B&W, and KEF are producing speakers that work hand and hand, with Linn Digital in Aktiv Exalt Technologies.

Talked with a friend, who explained the differences between Naim's Analog In Active Snaxo Technology, and Linn's Exakt technologies, and he preferred the former. 

Linn's idea,  is to preserve the digital in signal to the tail end, where it is converted to analog.

I can see  it's merits when used with the i- phone generation, but one would think A High End analog in, analog out Snaxo would out perform Linn's Exakt technologies.

But the real question, what Does Focal/Naim have up their sleeves!

Allante93!

Gus it's easy enough to reconfigure the wiring on a naxo or snaxo 3-6. I did it once for your exact reasons to allow a better choice or combination of amps. The only issue is ( and I can't remember it's a while ago) but certain wires may not reach, I extended I think rather than tamper with board cable interface. 

You only have to swap the mid off one din socket and the bass off another.Its not massive. Treble channel 1 and 2 are on one socket anyway. 

The other way is to get cables made to use all six naxo snaxo 3-6  sockets ( which is what I do)  into 3 stereo amps ( lk280)

All easily doable.

In saying all that, I did move from a snaxo 3-6 to a 362 and it does sound markedly better.

I've recently built up another active system but due to finances have settled on an olive 3-6 and am very happy.

Allante93 posted:

I wonder also, At least Linn is reaching out to Speaker Manufacturers, with their Digital Exakt Box. The last time I checked, Titans, JBL, PMC, B&W, and KEF are producing speakers that work hand and hand, with Linn Digital in Aktiv Exalt Technologies.

Talked with a friend, who explained the differences between Naim's Analog In Active Snaxo Technology, and Linn's Exakt technologies, and he preferred the former. 

Linn's idea,  is to preserve the digital in signal to the tail end, where it is converted to analog.

I can see  it's merits when used with the i- phone generation, but one would think A High End analog in, analog out Snaxo would out perform Linn's Exakt technologies.

 

 

IIRC the Linn system is a form of DSP but still single amp and passive speakers ( or do they do acrive as well?

Regardless, active crossover in the digital domain, which can readily accomodate additional DSP if desired, I believe has the potential to give better SQ than analog crossover filters between pre and power amps, but only if - and its a big if - each channel has a DAC of adequate quality: So for a given DAC preference you'd need 6 Of them for a tri-amped system, and then only if they are capable of feeding the 6 power amps directly (volume control would need to be in the digital domain). Probably not many takers, but maybe food for thought for anyone with the resources to build the ultimate system. The more common implementation of digital crossovers put between pre and power are inherently flawed, having their own output DAC stages, which potentially could undo all the wonderful work done by a decent DAC in the CD or streamer path.

Thankyou All for your help.

As the snaxo 362  is already setup for how i want to connect the amps and is a better improvement than the 3-6.

Just thinking, because i want to keep the chrome thing how easy would it be to put the innards of a 362 into a chrome bumper box. 

Gus60 posted:

Just thinking, because i want to keep the chrome thing how easy would it be to put the innards of a 362 into a chrome bumper box. 

I very much doubt whether Naim would do this.  As to whether anyone else would, any such discussion falls foul of forum rules.  

My deepest apologies.

Frank F posted:

I have a 3-6 that has been set for parallel operation i.e. feeding separate power amps for each of Bass, Mid and Treble.  Several Naim dealers are capable of rewiring the out puts from the 3-6 to achieve this.

FF

That's good news Frank.

Nearly got the proverbial slap on the hand for thinking out of the box.

Please excuse the pun.

Can you point me to and dealers who can do this successfully.

Regards,

Gus

Gus, you will probably find that the factory can do a "horizontal" rewire for you.

Hi Richard,

Already spoke to they're customer service and they were not interested.

Told me the Snaxo 362 was more suitable.

OK, thanks Gus, noted.

Frank F posted:

I have a 3-6 that has been set for parallel operation i.e. feeding separate power amps for each of Bass, Mid and Treble.  Several Naim dealers are capable of rewiring the out puts from the 3-6 to achieve this.

FF

Not to get off topic, But Frank Just Curios. 

Are you familiar with the Linn Exakt box ?

Just trying to clarify some ideas floating around in my head. 

1st- I thought the Exakt Box was basically an external crossover, that would allow one to go active, if there speakers were up to the task! 

2nd- Linn has reached out to Kudos, JBL, B&W, PMC, and KEF,  Hence if one has these Speakers along with Linn own in-house speakers they can disable the XO, within there speakers and go Active, With External Amps.

3rd- The major Difference between Linn's Exakt and Naim's Snaxo, is Snaxo is Analog in and Analog out, vs Linn's Exakt, which is Digital in and analog out.  Which means the Exakt has the task of converting the digital signal in to the analog out. 

Is that about right? 

Thanks in Advance!