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Naim SBL lack of HF

G

guy

pfm Member
Today I listen with a my dear friend the Kans and the SBLs. He noticed (I had the suspect) that the SBLs lack of HF respect to the Kans.

I bought my SBL in 2011, they are mk1 (1991) with mk2 bass driver, passive mode, my question is do the tweeters work correctly? Are they degraded? The tweeters and the crossover are the same in mk1 and mk2?

A tweeter replacement is a good solution?

Many thanks.

Guido.
 
Kans, particularly older ones, can sound ridiculously bright.

The chances are that there's actually nothing wrong with your SBL's, though new tweeters are available relatively cheaply.

The tweeters and XO's are the same in all versions of SBL's as far as I know.
 
^^^ Beat me to it!!

OP you can also get a matched pair from Naim at about four times the price. They also have a little brass damping plate glued to the rear but you could pry off your existing ones. Naim also seal the solder joint with hot glue, a basic glue gun will do the trick. The tweeters will be sealed into the baffle and can be suborn to get out.

I changed tweeters in a pair of MKI SBLs, the difference was remarkable.

It is also worth noting the MKI Kan uses the same tweeter.
 
Mk2 have better HF.And if you have a closer look there is slight diferenes in material of HF units.This is same model of scanspeak,but they are not the same.I had them both at same time,and still use mk2.Mk 2 i better speakers,not only in LF.Sell them,and find mk2's from last year or two of production,you would't be dissapointed.
Edit: you will have then 8-9 years newer crossover which also degrades by time
 
A clever solution Colasblue, I'll try :D

Many thanks.

G.

colasblue said:
Scanspeak D2008/801100

http://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/scanspeak-d2008-851100-tweeter-classic-range.html

A trick you can do to establish whether you really need them or not (since early kans have more or less the same tweeter) is to replace the SBL top boxes with the Kans hooked up to the SBL XO's HF output.

If you get more or less the same balance with the Kans as you do with the top boxes then your tweeters are fine.
Click to expand...
 
If You are buying new hf units for sbls you need to be sure the new ones are not ferrofluid cooled.
Although the the units are the same spec the new ones have a different dome material and do sound and look better.
They are unsuitable for mk1 or 2 kans.
 
Thanks, the tw D2008/8511 is no ferrofluid, (mounted in my SBLs), the D2008/8512 is ferrofluid version. :cool:




hp1 said:
If You are buying new hf units for sbls you need to be sure the new ones are not ferrofluid cooled.
Although the the units are the same spec the new ones have a different dome material and do sound and look better.
They are unsuitable for mk1 or 2 kans.
Click to expand...
 
The mk2's have a much sweeter hf than the m1's as well as having the benefit of much younger crossovers, since I replaced my damaged tweeter with a balanced pair, there was a noticeable improvement.
 
the x overs can go dull with age, i moved back to passive with a 500 amp, after 15 or so years of storing the x overs in the loft, the sbl's sounded dull. i replaced them with new and the life was back again. not so easy now as i gather naim don't service or replace them.
 
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