Spendor and NVA no way, far too complicated. Musical fog. If you want to know about NVA you have to give it a pair of speakers that don't get in its way. Now Dave may like his NVA with his Spendors and it probably is better than his other amps with it. BUT that doesn't tell you what the NVA is trying to do, masked by the musical fog of BBC design.
Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote:Spendor and NVA no way, far too complicated. Musical fog. If you want to know about NVA you have to give it a pair of speakers that don't get in its way. Now Dave may like his NVA with his Spendors and it probably is better than his other amps with it. BUT that doesn't tell you what the NVA is trying to do, masked by the musical fog of BBC design.
Doc Mods might sort them out
Out of interest, what's your view of older Ruarks and NVA? There's a pair of Crusaders for sale elsewhere and I've always had a soft spot for them since I mistakenly sold my Talismans years ago. The single worst hifi decision I ever made.
Not my cup of tea, WAF, ported (and a farty one not like Royd), over complicated, ribbon tweeter, difficult load (down well below 4 ohms at some parts of the frequency range). In their favour they don't claim any BBC ancestry.
Honestly get what you like, but you should realise what I think, and what is best for NVA, I talk about it enough, even help people create it with Doc Mods. It = quality and simplicity. To find a modern speaker like that is hard unless you go the Cube route, which of course would be my rec.
The Talisman was a lot simpler and easier to drive but still WAF and a bit farty. But the Rega are the epitome of WAF so what do I know. I hate to say but I like proper speakers with a proper (wide) cabinet like Marco does but not Tannoy
brit-pop wrote:
Out of interest, what's your view of older Ruarks and NVA? There's a pair of Crusaders for sale elsewhere and I've always had a soft spot for them since I mistakenly sold my Talismans years ago.
I have a very good set of Talismans that might be going up for sale soon, I have not yet tried them on the NVA.
I used to have a Planar 2 turntable with Super Bias cartridge and liked it pretty well. Straightforward and nothing annoying about it. Good value. A little sensitive to placement, perhaps, and I can add that I do not have perfect pitch.
Then I bought a Rega Elex integrated amp, because I happened to audition it alongside a very bleached-sounding NAD integrated. Frustratingly closed-in sound from the Rega, with exaggerated warmth. Fortunately, there was something wrong with its balance, and I got a brand-new version of the Elex as a replacement (their last version before Mira or whatever that replaced it). Much better! A different amp, although it bore the same name. More engaging and open -- in comparison. Good on timbral detail. Still, in the long run, I thought this one, too, had a too obvious Rega-electronics sound, particularly in that it was too slow (trying hard to sound "groovy" instead of just effortlessly taking you from A to B in the music?), although speaker matching could had played a role, too. I also thought there was an impurity to the sound, a kind of grainy warmth, perhaps as if the amp was trying to sound natural, but failing and sounding artificial instead. Rich-sounding all right, but still tweaked.
I also got the original Planet CD player, which was pretty good. But while my old NAD 5440 (sibling of 5000) proved outdated, I liked the straightforward, forward-moving type of sound from that one better (but its low "resolution" was simply not acceptable). The Planet could not be used in combination with the Elex (way too slow), but I had them for different systems. I concluded that the Planet had the same family sound as the Elex, good on timbral detail, but ultimately not "invisible" enough. I kept hearing the sound of Rega electronics instead of just the music. I said to myself that I'll never have any Rega electronics again, although they had their good aspects. (I do see the post above indicating that later generations have a different tonal character.)
Rega, Exposure (I had the Super XV for a number of years) and Roksan all lie kind of in the land between Naim (at least I suppose so, from hearsay) and NVA, each diverting in they own way from neutrality, with their tailored sound signatures. I clearly like Exposore the best of those three, pretty good on detail and openness, perhaps sounding bigger-than-life ("PA like"). A warmth which doesn't sound too unnatural and can fool me into thinking of it as neutral. Very good on homogeneity. The Roksan Caspian integrated is more measured, but with its own signature sound, where a peculiar, but fascinating bass sound (often commented on in reviews), being a central feature. Which also makes the Roksan less homogeneous than Exposure. I personally like the Roksan sound better than Rega's, actually, but can easily understand people rating Rega higher. No one would have called a Roksan amp "endearing" -- "overpriced" is admittedly a more natural choice of word.
Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote:Spendor and NVA no way, far too complicated. Musical fog. If you want to know about NVA you have to give it a pair of speakers that don't get in its way. Now Dave may like his NVA with his Spendors and it probably is better than his other amps with it. BUT that doesn't tell you what the NVA is trying to do, masked by the musical fog of BBC design.
Doc Mods might sort them out
FFS Doc, Spendors TODAY bear no resemblance at all to their thin-wall forebears of the Hughes father and son era!!!!!!!!!!! Polyprop main drivers apart, the tonal balance is now up-tilted rather than down, crossovers are extremely simple in them, using poly caps and decent wiring and despite the current range looking cheap in pictures, the boxes are tough as old boots and quite heavy, as my back tells me when I put the LS5/9's back into the system earlier on (great to have some bass back).
I really don't want to start another spat, but at least I do get to hear modern speakers, albeit a limited range. I've heard recent Neats, Kudos, Sonus Faber Venere, Spendor A & D and Harbeth (neither brand sound like each other now ), PMC 20 series and Rega RS's, together with a motley selection of old vintage speakers. OK, you might think they're ALL rubbish, but that's your opinion and do please remember, I STILL haven't yet heard your current take on the Cubes!!!!!!!!!!!
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...The time has gone, The song is over, Thought I'd something more to say...
I am a cantankerous old bastard and I am not going to change now, so there
I hate ferkin Spendor for the crap they made in the 70's and 80's and the BBC they were involved in. I heard some new pair of other at a customers house about 5 years a go and they sounded like musical fog even with an NVA amp and cable on them - so I am taring them all with the same brush as is my cantankerous want
no way, far too complicated. Musical fog. If you want to know about NVA you have to give it a pair of speakers that don't get in its way. Now Dave may like his NVA with his Spendors and it probably is better than his other amps with it. BUT that doesn't tell you what the NVA is trying to do, masked by the musical fog of BBC design.
but not Tannoy 
you should start a shop.
), PMC 20 series and Rega RS's, together with a motley selection of old vintage speakers. OK, you might think they're ALL rubbish, but that's your opinion and do please remember, I STILL haven't yet heard your current take on the Cubes!!!!!!!!!!!
they were involved in. I heard some new pair of other at a customers house about 5 years a go and they sounded like musical fog even with an NVA amp and cable on them - so I am taring them all with the same brush as is my cantankerous want 