I took a quick look around known 2nd hand sites, or using HiFi Shark, and counted at least 25 pairs of 2nd hand Ovators, S-400s or S-600s, for sale.
I have just bought mine – undoubtedly an afterthought, having bought and resold my first pair 5 years ago in one week –and am very glad I did. They are beautiful (every female who has entered in our home has praised them on visual grounds), sound fine, haven't great amp requirements, are lively and domestic and don't need stands. I like them a lot, and know that to look for something better to match CDX2 and SN would be a silly and infinite quest – I have done just that for years.
Yet, people want to get rid of them. Why? To buy Focals or Titans? I've listened to every Harbeth model inside out, I can't believe that anyone could really prefer those to Ovators. Audio people follow fashion and trends infinitely more than they themselves think; so what's the new speaker to go with Naim? I don't understand. At a recent audio show I finally heard a pair of ATCs and couldn't believe that someone could listen to music on those knife blades. That is not definition, it's plain cruelty, or else they are designed for people over 85 and below 6kHz per ear.
Why do people sell their Ovators? I sold mine, but then bought them again. As I did with a few Naim things I really like: the Sats, the CDX2, the SN. But why get rid of such beautiful, cleverly thought and executed things forever?
Just evening musings after an afternoon of rain.
M
Posted on: 13 May 2017 by Paul Davies
I wonder if for some people, long-term serviceability is a concern. If Naim does not make Ovators (or CDS CD players) any more maybe spares to repair them won't be available in the future.
Let's scotch this one. Naim's CDS3 is servicable. I realise I may be over-reacting, Paul, if you meant the CDS cd player).
I meant the original CDS and CDS II, both of which I own, both of which sound wonderful, and both of which become expensive boat anchors the instant their transports fail.
The same fate awaits your CDS3. It's only a matter of time.
So yes, you are overreacting,
Posted on: 13 May 2017 by Paul Davies
I think people follow fashions - if Naim does not make the Ovators anymore, than there must be something wrong with them. Better sell them now... At least that's what I could imagine people thinking...
I wonder if for some people, long-term serviceability is a concern. If Naim does not make Ovators (or CDS CD players) any more maybe spares to repair them won't be available in the future.
I just wonder what one would have to do to the speakers for them to require specialist servicing from Naim...
The materials in some drive units can just degrade with age. The foam grilles of the SBL, DBL, and SL2, which are an essential feature of the design, crumble with age. I'm on my second set of grilles for my 23-year-old SBLs, thanks only to those wonderful folks at Tom Tom Audio, who took on the business of manufacturing them after Naim ceased prediction of the SBL.
Posted on: 14 May 2017 by Christopher_M
I wonder if for some people, long-term serviceability is a concern. If Naim does not make Ovators (or CDS CD players) any more maybe spares to repair them won't be available in the future.
Let's scotch this one. Naim's CDS3 is servicable. I realise I may be over-reacting, Paul, if you meant the CDS cd player).
I meant the original CDS and CDS II......
Best to specify those models in that case. My CDS3 was serviced by Naim last year. The service included a new transport of which Naim have stocks.
This matters because very good sound can still be had from Naim CD players, many of which can be serviced.
Now back to Massimo's thread.
Posted on: 14 May 2017 by Massimo Bertola
Thanks Chris,
but my thread wasn't really a thread but rather, as I wrote, musings on a strange evening.
I also would have answered IB's question, but his last remark sounded like a sort of provocation to me so I left it alone.
Anyway, just to put the lid on my contributions to this thread (other members are obviously free to continue and take it to the topic of desert mouses or scotch whisky), it is not why I sold my first pair, rather why I bought my second one. This would have been an intelligent question, but the member was too distracted by his itch to ironize on my use of the word female.
About this, though, I have already recently written ad nauseam. So let's him wonder if it was cats or dogs praising my loudspeakers.
M
Posted on: 14 May 2017 by Innocent Bystander
Not intended to be provocation at all, just my attempt, obviously ia failed one, at a lighthearted humourous aside picking up on your use of the term female when you evidently meant human, but didn't say women.
Posted on: 14 May 2017 by Massimo Bertola
Ok, so Lost in Translation. It must have been my suspiciousness..
Then: I sold my first pair of S-400 because out of the box, in this room that doesn't favour brilliance or width of scene, they sounded demoralizing – chesty, shut in, opaque. But people on this forum immediately proceeded to reassure me telling that with more or less 300 to 500 hours of run-in they would flourish. Now, I listen to music for more or less 3/4 hours per week, so a simple count told me that it would take at least 18 months to hear them properly. Now I'm joking of course, there was the trick of letting them play 24/7 at low volume for just 3 or 4 months, but it seemed to me like buying a new custom made pair of shoes and ask my butler to please walk uninterruptedly around my house 24/7 to make them more comfortable.
I gave up. Then, a year or so my dealer brought this pair of S-400 and they sounded different, definitely and certainly different, out of the box (unless they were a very quick return and he told me they were new, who can tell with vendors?). So I changed my mind. I have written about why the S-400s. I hadn't specified that it also was because of these S-400s.
M
Posted on: 14 May 2017 by steve95775
When SBL's first hit the scene, there was a tremendous amount of negativity from clients. And from a lot of die hard Naim flat eather's. Even I was cool to them... And we had the benefit of the esteemed Mr V demonstrating them to us.
They were polarizing to say the least. And here in Perth with mad keen sales staff, who loved Naim and even owned them, they didn't sell well.
I have S400s. Over the two and a half years that they have sat in my room, I have been continually surprised as I wind my way through my music collection. I think that it takes a while to really know what you are getting in a speaker.
Particularly if it's a revealing, fast and ferocious design. Naim have never sold that many speakers. I understand why they have given it away. But that doesn't actually reflect upon the merits of their designs.
Posted on: 15 May 2017 by Antonio1
Great that you like your Ovators. I really like my ATC SCM 11s. Why, very engaging and musical and works well with my system in my room and I have very good hearing. As they say, each to their own ��
Ops, sorry. I could have thought that there was some happy ATC owner. Mine was more a boutade: the only pair I've heard were really, really treble-y and not my kind at all. Nothing personal.
Hi max,
Pretty sure you re not mentioning the latest Milan hiend show, are you?
As there were two passive ATCs set-up and both received nothing but a lot of praise from pretty much anybody. I especially liked the Goldmund /20s .One of the most organic ,fatigue- free expressive of the show in spite of the reduced bass if one craves for it.
Though,in all honesty never liked much 19's with SN2!
