Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment Because I normally use Naim electronics, I already had access to and was familiar and comfortable with the "manufacturer-approved" driving system for the NBLs. But because I still haven't managed to get my mitts on a Naim NAP500, I did most of my listening using a Naim NAC52 preamplifier and Naim NAP135 monoblock power amplifiers. Other amplification included Mana Stealth MA-1 monoblocks and a Bryston BP25/2X7B pre-/power combination.
Prime sources were Naim CDS II and Audio Note CDT-Zero/DAC 5 CD players. Vinyl replay was mostly via a Linn LP12…
Sidebar 3: Measurements The Naim NBL's specified sensitivity is very high at 92dB/W/m, though this will be boosted 3dB by the speaker's 4 ohm nominal impedance. (That "W" in the specification is therefore actually equivalent to 2W). I measured approximately 89.8dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is still high. Fig.1 plots the Naim's impedance magnitude and phase against frequency. The former varies little, staying within 4 and 6 ohms over most of the audioband, with only a moderate phase angle. A good 4 ohm-rated amplifier will have no problems driving this speaker. A couple of small wrinkles can be…
Fig.4 shows the NBL's response on the tweeter axis, averaged across a 30 degree horizontal window to minimize the effect of position-dependent, and hence irrelevant, interference effects. Though it is very even, the entire treble is shelved-up compared with the lower midrange and bass, which is why PM commented on the speaker's bright, forward balance. As I've said, the NBL's low bass will be boosted by the Allison Effect, but this will leave the region between 300Hz and 600Hz depressed in comparison with the regions above and below. In addition, as PM found in his in-room measurements, the…
Vertically (fig.7), the tweeter's top octave gets hotter both above and below the tweeter axis, which is 34" from the floor, though a significant crossover-region suckout will be audible to standing listeners. But, as always, don't pass judgment on a speaker's balance unless you're sitting down.
Fig.7 Naim NBL, vertical response family at 50", normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back to front: differences in response 15 degrees-5 degrees above axis, reference response, differences in response 5 degrees-10 degrees below axis.
The Naim's step response on the…
February 2000—We are now comfortably past all the millennial hype, which, by New Year's Eve, really had risen to a nauseating fever pitch. But it's hard not to look back to the times, the places, and, most of all, to the faces and personalities that populated the last hundred years. Johnny Thunders, Chesty Morgan, Bill Wyman, Wilt Chamberlain (tie), Jimmy Stewart, Leroy Neiman, Pol Pot, Jackie O, Winston Churchill, Alf Landon, Spike Jones, Ratso Rizzo, Wendy O. Williams, Ed Norton, Blaze Starr, Fred Garven (male prostitute), the clever and now-rich person who invented the CD opener, and…
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SCHUBERT: String Quintet
Alban Berg Quartet; Heinrich Schiff, cello
EMI 66942 2 (CD). 1983/1998. Gerd Berg, prod.; Johann Nikolaus Matthes, eng. DDD. TT: 47:33 As I look back over the 75 or so new CDs I've heard this year, I see that reissues account for about half—and the more interesting half, at that. When this performance was first issued some 15 years ago, I thought it as fine as any I would ever hear. The balance between drama and lyricism was superbly struck, and the playing was beyond criticism. The performance overall is unrushed and deeply moving,…
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FAIRPORT CONVENTION: Babbacombe Lee
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1999 was a bad year for the arts in general. Many things threatened the very foundations of creative endeavor: left-wing deconstructionists, right-wing religionists, and, of course, Thomas Kinkade, The Painter of Light®. Despite this, and the more serious threat posed by competing media and… Daniel Buckley
DON CHERRY: Brown Rice
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NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
EMI America CDPB 7 46589 2 (2 CDs). 1972. William E. McEuen, prod.; Rick Horton, Rex Collier, engs. AAD. TT: 119:30 When I was a high school student back in the late '70s, one of my part-time jobs was as a Saturday-night deejay at a country radio station in rural Missouri. Country's Top 40 was utter dreck then, as it pretty much is now, so every week I'd dig into the station's archives for a few things to play that would make it seem worthwhile coming in for another week. I was delighted when I discovered Will the…
