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SBL to Credos, backward step?

snaphappybob

snaphappybob

pfm Member
I've seen a nice cherry finish pair of Credos on fleabay.
My black SBLs work perfectly despite the bass driver centre's being detached.
If they don't go for silly money I could swap the drivers if they're not in the same league as the SBLs.
Thoughts?
 
Interesting discussion. I currently have Allaes, SBLs and SL2s and there are some things I love about the Allaes despite the accepted wisdom being that out of those three they should be the least preferable. The Allaes were sort of the successor to the Credos and I had Credos for many years prior to my first set of Alles. While I feel the Allaes were a step up the Credos are a lot of speaker for the money. I also think the room construction and layout affects the SBLs and SL2s much more than Alles and Credos which are pretty good in most rooms.

If you can afford the time why not pick up the Credos and try them, if you don't like them you will get what you paid for them on resale. They are much much easier to move around too :D
 
I fear I am being swayed by the finish of the Credos.
Aesthetically given the wood finish they float my boat more than the black ash of the sbls.
Ideally I'd like SBLs in beech or walnut but they're like rocking horse shit.
 
The only Credos I can see on ebay are rosewood, my favourite finish!

Just a thought but if your "bass driver centres" are detached I imagine your SBLs are mark 1 models (the phase plugs on the mark 2 drivers are bolted in place rather than just glued onto the pole piece of the drive unit so, unless you mean the outer part of the central plug has come loose from the inner part).
The naim built mark 2 units are generally considered an improvement on the original mark 1s so it might not be such a retrograde step (and yes, I know the credo units were budget versions of those used in the SBLs).
 
I had a really nice pair of cherry SBLs, traded them in to Audio Images in Sheffield. They may still have them?
 
Bring me up to speed, please.
Intros and Credos were Naim’s ‘starter speakers’ then ?

When a friend worked in audio retail he spoke quite highly of these speakers.
I never did hear a pair.
 
SBLs all the way. When I heard some Credos I thought they were flat and boring in comparison, although they were in a system that I wasn't familiar with.

I thought that there was a replacement kit available for the centres? If you do get them done then please post what happened on here, it's only a matter of time before it happens to my SL2s :(
 
Intros
Martyn Miles said:
Bring me up to speed, please.
Intros and Credos were Naim’s ‘starter speakers’ then ?

When a friend worked in audio retail he spoke quite highly of these speakers.
I never did hear a pair.
Click to expand...
Intros were black ash only, Credos came in a wood finish I believe they had better drivers. They are very easy to set up compared to SBLs & have that fast naim sound. A long timem since I heard either.
 
I had a phase plug come loose on Mk2 SBL woofer, all that fixed it was a ring of double sided tape around a wooded dowel. Could be superglued but I didn't fancy dripping it onto the cone.
 
When Mordaunt Short stopped producing the 8 inch chassis bass/mid unit they'd used in many of their models and which Naim used, with their own modifications, in the SBL, Naim designed an imroved version to replace it and enable them to keep producing the SBL.

The new version had a nice cast alloy chassis, which didn't need as much damping treatment as the old pressed steel chassis MS sourced unit, and it had a 2 piece phase plug in the centre, the inner part of which was held by a brass bolt though the rear of the magnet to cure the old problem of the original single piece phase plug falling out (it was only held by a blob of araldite).
The 2 piece phase plug consisted of the inner section bolted in place with an outer section held in place, as mentiond above, with a small diy style wall plug. The joint between the 2 sections was around the front of the voice coil former, just about level with the centre of the cone.
Naim used to sell a "repair kit" containing 2 wall plugs and 2 rings of double sided sticky tape for about £30!

The new driver was considered such an improvement over the old that it was offered as a dealer fit upgrade to previous models at a cost of, if I remember correctly, £300 a pair (in 1996).

With the new driver available Naim introduced 2 new speakers, the entry level Intro and the visually identical Credo.
In 1997 the SBL cost £1830 a pair (plus £140 for the passive crossovers!), whilst the Intro & Credo were £660 & £1060 respectively.

The Intro & Credo abandoned the steel sub frame that the SBL was assembled onto in favour of more conventional looking boxes which were easier to move around (and no doubt manufacture) but which still used a simplified form of "separate box" operation with the SBLs gaskets replaced by small spacers which kept the 2 boxes separated by a small air gap.

I gather that the Credo was more carefully built than the Intro, with selected components used, whilst the best and most closely matched drive units were reserved for the SBLs.

In due course the new drive unit was also used in the Allae and later in the SBL replacement, the SL2.
 
Although the same in basic design, the credos were much better than the intros. So much so that I'd say, to my experience, I couldn't live with Intros but I could happily with Credos. I found the intros to be incoherent, nasty at the top, and boomy. I think the cabinet was less well produced and the crossover wasn't sufficient like the credo one.

SBL's were a step up over credos to be certain, but they demanded better electronics. I wouldn't pair them with anything less than an olive 180 or 250 and today I guess a 202/hc/200 as a minimum. Perhaps a Supernait 3 with a HC but.....I'm not well versed enough. They really come alive when driven active. The naim Snaxo 2-4 was really well designed for sbl's.

I'd say Allae's were better than SBL's in most regards but I could understand someone preferring SBL's.

Personally I'd stay away from intros. The model I never heard and always had a bit of a crush on were the Arivas. They struck me as more modernized, smarter IBL's that would be a little easier to drive and dig deeper. When they come up used, they don't last long.
 
I've had Credos and now have SBLs, both driven active.

When I had both pairs in the same room powered with the same front end the difference was obvious, even when driven passively, that the SBLs were more detailed but were also more revealing of poor mastering et al - I think that's typical when you start climbing the tree. Certainly the Credos were easier to set up and didn't look shabby so I wouldn't hesitate to buy another pair for a 2nd system at some point.

snaphappybob said:
Ideally I'd like SBLs in beech or walnut but they're like rocking horse shit.
Click to expand...

I'm looking at beech rocking horse shit right now then ! I read on the old Naim forum that the beech finish was hard to get consistent due to material variability and so few pairs were made but I have seen a couple of pairs for sale in the past few years.

CHE
 
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