Ovator users

I have not heard any difference with them off on my 600s. As you say excellent speakers, I seriously thought of updating them a few months ago as I have had them longer than any other speaker, but I could  not find any that compared favourably up to £15k. Particularly disappointing for me, were the Titan 707s. which ahead of the demo I thought would offer improvement.

On in my experience 

On when I had 600 & 400.

G

On. For me - and that is cursing in the church of audiophiles - the build quality was more important than the sound quality. I had damaged loudspeakers before and they have to survive the 4 kids running around here.

And they sound fab too! (It took some experimenting)

Stevek posted:

The less volume you need to attain listening levels the better your system is set up correct or not

Yes, but it's the other way around too. I had issues to get my 600 working. High piano and sopranos could result in a unpleasant ringing sound even on low level. 

With help of the old topics on this forum I started to setup the gear again: cable dressing, active leads and floorchips so that they are standing rock solid. 

After that I've done a test: the volume was almost fully open whilst a serious Bach organ prelude and fugue piece was on. I could only see the lips of my wife moving when she was on a foot length distance.

Since then I was most happy with them.

All the final sign offs were with grille on as far as I remember and part of the design

I have a pair of Ovator S-400's with the grills on.

I have no opinion since they have always been on since the dealer installed the speakers and I have enjoyed the music.

I took the grills off mine once and it didn’t seem like they’re supposed to come off so I put them back on carefully and left them alone ever since

S600s here. On for us. But that's as much due to enthusiastic happy-whippet tails at driver-level than it is to do with sonics. I love that the grills are structurally substantial compared to many. One of ours actually needs a bit of "panel-beating" at the moment but it continues to an excellent job of protecting the driver.

 Certainly grills on for my S400s. Apart from being sonicically neutral they also protect the BMR and speaker comes from pet trauma to a certain degree. I witnessed a few months ago my cat climbing up the front of my Right speaker like it was the north face of the Matterhorn. For purchase she dug her claws into the grills and succeeded in flicking off the middle grill with one hind leg then with the other hind leg she slashed the speaker cone with her claws. Although it did not affect the sound I replaced the speaker cone and got the cones re torqued whilst I was at it. If the grills were not on I suspect speaker trauma would have been far greater.

Grills on my S800's. They were Set up professionally and taking the grills off was never discussed. One tip though, the feet spikes were tightened up fully then backed off a quarter turn. They sound spectacular as did my 400s then 600s!! Going active was a revelation and has to be heard. 

On. Always. Never felt the need to remove them.

On. The thought of removing them has never touched my mind. I have had five pairs of N-Sats (which, btw, I still think do certain things better than S-400s and SBLs) and have never removed the grilles once, neither for the mere curiosity to see if there actually were drivers inside. I think of people who used to take away the glued grilles of the first Linn Kans – which bore the alert not to remove the grills, which were glued – because of this stale, prehistoric idea that a thin, stretched veil of jersey cloth may filter the treble and spoil the image: and am very sad for them. Paranoia can be cured, though.

Hi. Thanks all yes I agree took mine off the music seems less cohesive and makes less sense, just thought would some other opinions.

Another question please, I see some speakers that cost $300.000 US, how much better are they than reasonably priced speakes

steve

Most definitely on.

On...

On my S400s for me too. About to purchase a torque wrench and do the "Tighten Up" so maybe off for a period of time whilst I play. Like others on this thread I have furry terrorists so there's always the valid point that it's so very convenient that they work better with the grilles on.

On for my S600s. Had these eight years now and still very happy with them.

Were torqued on delivery by dealer and recall it being a bit of a struggle to get grills back on so I have not touched since. Suspect they would benefit from tightening of screws but I do not want to risk not getting the grills back on.

I do check the torque on my S600s every 6 months or so, but have never found that they needed tightening.

Not: grills

It's: grilles

**ducks and hides**

On.

Re-torque using correct settings after a few years use and you will be impressed - they do over a long time need it.

Use a torque wrench and preferable set it slightly under the required setting (I found) for Bass drivers slightly loosen then re-torque - I found doing them in a loop rather than side to side worked best, as I think the 'side to side' method is when everything is new, but they only need a little tweak.

Be very careful with the BMRs - in fact I'd not touch them at all as you can get it bad wrong and they will shout and sound horrible - but do the sprung-housing bolts (front and rear of speaker) and that removes glare.

Also do the stands underneath - but only if you know what you are doing as you need to insert the BMR transit bolts (if you can find them) first and turn speakers on their side, so only do this with help - and it mainly impacts deep bass and reduction in coloration.

Best if your Dealer does it for you - or if they sound great leave them alone!

You do not need to keep re-torquing them. Once after purchase then after 18 months is what I found - then perhaps every several years re-check.

DB.

Have you got hearing like superman or something?

I have it on good authority DB can hear a fly tap dancing on his system......keep the tips coming DB.

Grilles off from my 600s. Unfortunately i  had to replace the BMR units a few times, since they produced a ringing noise with piano and electric guitar (Pat Metheny Watercolors)  However they have never been touched on the 400s.

Regards

Roberto

Drewy posted:

Have you got hearing like superman or something?

I think it is average hearing - whatever that is. I do listen to everything and try to learn, which does seem more unusual for reasons not comprehended fully by me.
I once over-tightened a drive unit a bit - then under-tightened and realised it could be critically-tightened and that it behaved exactly like a first-order mechanical damped system, which it is - so under-tightened it stores energy and sound over-dull and 'slow' and over-tight it rings and is shrill.

I obtained a torque-driver and played with different torques until I got a nice effect I liked. Slightly lower setting kept more note-decay on piano, for example. So rather than (on Bass units) 3n I used 2.925nm - yes I tried 2.90 too loose and 2.95 lost fine detail.

The BMR housing needs to be done by first slightly loosening then re-tighten in clockwise sequence - I liked 1.97n.

But Naim say 3 (bass) and 2 (BMR) which also is fine. Just don't over-tighten and use the right tools and do it right, or not at all is my advice.

DB.