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Shahinian/Dynavector amp

Well I drive my Obs Mk1 with a pair of olive 135s which are standard Naim specification and they sound sublime ! I've never had an issue at all !

Also I really do object to comments like 'upgraded my 135's to Avondale stage x' .... this should read 'changed my 135s to Avondale stage x'. I hate the sound of Avondale modified Naim amps, which is of course reflected in the re-sale value on the 2nd hand market. Standard Naim stuff will always go for more then fettled stuff.
And I would say from experience that you have no idea how good and realistic a performance that the Obs can produce.

I suppose it also depends on expectation. My wife and I still attend several live and diverse music performances a year and its that 'live' experience that we like to create at home. Whilst others may prefer a studio type presentation.

The Avondale modifications were (to my ears) a definite upgrade for the 135s and it was reversible at the time if required. Once advertised they sold immediately.

Cheers,

DV
 
The second iteration of the obelisk is generally regarded as an easier load than the earlier one but they still need some welly to really sing.

That’s true, and the 250 has also gone through it’s fair share of iterations, which is why I was careful to be precise in both cases.
 
Since two months I run my Shahinian Obelisks with a small swedish class D amplifier called XTZ Edge A300-2 (costed <500£) and it sounds excellent. Before I had a pair of 135 which were very good too. However, the Edge (2x300 W) seems to give more punch and bass control. Kept the 135s and now run with them exclusively the Audio Physics Avanti 5’s.

McN
 
DV - please remind me : is it you who now uses big Meridian power amps &, if so, with what preamp ?
Yes 2 off 559 each configured in bridged mode one 42Kg amp per channel. I sold my pre-amps as I discovered that taking them out of circuit gave a big improvement in performance very much to my surprise. However both my phono stage (Brinkmann Fein) and DAC (Weiss 202) have their own volume control stages.

Oh thats just reminded me I have forgotten to send a PM.

Cheers,

DV
 
I recall this speaker manufacturer recommending Bedini amp as they could cover 1-2ohms at the woofer end .
Yes, that's right, although I think it's the HF where the impedance dips. The ABR on the back does require an amp with a high damping factor for good bass control though. Dick Shahinian used to use Plinius but DV is designed very much with Shahinian in mind. I've never heard the Meridian 559 but I do remember the 557 being very good.
 
Not my Obelisk Mk1s with my old (olive) NAP250, they produced NO treble from the tweeters

So I used Arcs with an olive 250 for over a decade and they were lovely. I then moved up to some Mk. 1 obs and they were...lovely as well.
I had plenty of treble. Lovely, 3D, tangible, mellifluous treble. And the rest.

But...I had read on PFM that I could get so much more out of my Obs if I had an amp with more grip, grunt etc. So I bought a Devialet with a damping factor of one million etc. I lived with it for a week before I sold it. It was very nice but nowhere near a paradigm shift, just a rather different presentation. Given it cost a lot more £££ than the 250, I kept the 250. Either would have been more than fine IMHO.

The worst speaker/amp combination I've ever heard. I even sent the amps to John Burns to be checked if they were broken. He said they weren't. Taught me not to trust forum opinion.

Quite. Personal experience trumps all, as evidenced by the multitude of different opinions here.
We all have different internal thresholds for what works for us vs. how much we're prepared to pay for that nth little bit extra.
Ultimately I had to pay x4 the (used) price of my 250/obs to significantly better the great job they did at making music.
 
I used Arcs for over a decade with a Naim 250 and various preamps from 52 to 72.
I wanted to scratch the same itch as you and when a mate bought a HX1.2, I dropped it into my system.
It was very good but not the paradigm shift some would have you believe.
At the time the HX was twice the price of the Naim and, ultimately, I decided the money was better spent elsewhere.
No idea what the latest offerings sound like.
Strange as I felt the HX1.2 was certainly better than the NAP500
 


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