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Shahinian Arcs - Ideas for amplification

Hi Per,

I've currently got the A30 (6550s) on home dem. It is proving to be quite a capable performer!

Lefty
 
gary yeowell said:
Lefty,

. I've just sold my Compass's, realising that the Shahinian presentation masks much of what i love in Naim, and my 2nd Nait2/IBL office system grooves much more than any Shahinian i've owned which includes Compass/Arc/Obelisk. Gary.
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What do you mean by that Gary as I'm considering getting a pair of Shahinians but the trouble is as I will be buying secondhand I won't know what they sound like in my system until they are in situ and paid for.
System LP12/Naim Nac52/Supercap/Nap135s and Dacmagic soon to be upgraded. Digital is the main source of listening.
 
Pete the Feet said:
What do you mean by that Gary as I'm considering getting a pair of Shahinians but the trouble is as I will be buying secondhand I won't know what they sound like in my system until they are in situ and paid for.
System LP12/Naim Nac52/Supercap/Nap135s and Dacmagic soon to be upgraded. Digital is the main source of listening.
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Pete I would suggest that you try and visit a PFMers pad who has some Shahinians.

I had a similar setup to you and eventually ended up with a non-Naim system. Shahinians are a very revealing speaker and will show up weakness in the rest of your chain. Knowing what I know now I would look to sell what you have keeping the vinyl spinner add to that what you expected to pay on top and with the dosh you may end up with something like I have.

I am on the SE coast and if you are in my area than you are welcome to a listen.

Cheers,

DV
 
Pete the Feet said:
What do you mean by that Gary as I'm considering getting a pair of Shahinians but the trouble is as I will be buying secondhand I won't know what they sound like in my system until they are in situ and paid for.
System LP12/Naim Nac52/Supercap/Nap135s and Dacmagic soon to be upgraded. Digital is the main source of listening.
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Offer extended (am in Brighton). I run Obelisks.
 
Hi Lefty,

What is your DAC now? Are we still in the same "group"?

The Supernait is the most "unmusical" amp of Naim IMHO. The XS is better, but not great with Arcs. The best Naim was 282/250.2/ with something CAP (sorry, I forgot) what I heard (that shocked me) but the sound was a bit thin to me. Some guys advising the 300 over 250.2 to Arcs on the Naim forum.

I would try some D Class amps or some beefy US heavy weight champion once.
I want to forget these artistic (hifisch) amps. I wantt min. 2x300W with a huge damping factor.
 
Darth Vader said:
I am on the SE coast and if you are in my area than you are welcome to a listen.
DV
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Simonms said:
Offer extended (am in Brighton). I run Obelisks.
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Many thanks thanks for the offer the both of you, unfortunately I am up in the frozen wastelands of the north [Rochdale].
I heard a pair of Obelisks in a dealers last week when trying out the Rega Dac they sounded lovely. They were running via a NAC282/Supercap/NAP200 and the Rega Dac and my DacMagic.
A chap off the Wam forum has offered to lend me a pair of Arcs which I will take him up on when I have the house sorted, he lives in Cheshire. I have just put all my better gear away and am in the process of setting up my 72/110/teddy as a stop gap. i can soon pack this away once the plastering starts and set it up again whilst it drys off prior to redecorating.
DV, are you using bridged Meridians and a Weiss?
Simon whats your set up?

Thanks once again.
 
Save up for a Weiss mate.

Honestly, unless you've heard one and didn't like it, a Zap 250 would be great with Arcs and not expensive either. It's a lot better than a stock Nap 250 as that's what I have before. Arc's are a much easier load to drive than Obs too.
 
"DV, are you using bridged Meridians and a Weiss?"

Thought you'd never ask. Seriously though I do use them and came across them quite by accident following a PFM thread. I previously used a pair of 135s and then had them upgraded by Avondale to stage 3 and that put them in the NAP300 arena.

However so very nice as they sounded I couldn't approach the dynamics nor volume of my upright piano played by my 16 yo daughter with those thin fingers. As I increased the volume the sound went 'thick' for want of a lazy word. The Obelisks are a 6 Ohm nominal load but hover around 2 Ohms in the important treble region and its that that gives the amps a hard time.

I was at the time looking for an HX1.2 but they are quite rare but after reading a PFM thread discussing different amp options for the Hawks I heard about these marvellous Meridian amps for the first time. I managed to find a Meridian 559 for sale the same day. Blimey what a difference the sound was completely transformed. So clear, dynamic and with real instrument timbre. I still go to live performances be it 'We will Rock you' utterly crap sound but your ears bleed from the huge dBs to jazz, opera, classical (small to large orchestrars), choirs or mostly anything and have always preferred the 'live' performance warts and all ever since I had my own band many many moons ago.

Anywho an HX1.2 then turned up on PFM but at the same time another 559 became available. Having heard what one did I had an itch that just had to be scratched. So yes I now have two in bridged mode.

So the line up now is:-

LP12/Ittok/Troika/ Mose/ Brinkmann phono
Thinkpad(soon to be Mac Mini)/ Weiss DAC 202

and these feed via a two way input expander to two Meridian 559s bridged into Shahinian Obelisks 2'

Cheers,

DV
 
Never heard a Weiss. Could be interesting, although for that sort of money I'd be inclined to go for another Akurate DS. Would I be getting the mist out of the Weiss by feeding it from my Sonos? (I don't like the idea of connecting my laptop directly to the DAC via USB/FireWire/Optical)

At the moment I am thinking to buy the Pure Sound, sell the Dynavector and pocket the change.

Lefty
 
Lefty said:
It's reassuring to hear of the Arcs being successfully partnered with such a diverse range of amplifiers.

The 30w Pure Sound A30 certainly seems to be taking the Arcs in its stride, driving them to decent levels without any stress.

Lefty
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Lefty this could be an option for me my local dealer has an a30 at £1200

it seems hard to believe that 30w can drive arcs, would you say they are

warm and fast and gets a grip on the music.
 
Hi Lefty,

cheers for replying.

Lefty said:
Perhaps I am expecting too much from high end audio? I just feel that when I spend that much money on a piece of kit, I want it to rock my world every single time I listen to it... without fail.
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diminishing returns defintely kicks in! But the L300 definitely rocks my world every time I hear it :D

Lefty said:
It was a very 'impressive' sounding bit of kit and is deserving of its reputation IMO. I found it very hard to criticise its sound on a technical level. However, the longer I listened, the more I found it left me cold. I just wasn't connecting with the music. It lacked what I would call the ability to communicate and involve. I do have a lot of respect for it though.
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it never left me cold, but I did frequently find myself listening to the sonic fireworks (amazing speed & dynamics, general sense of excitement) rather than the music itself. Also it's very enthusiastic nature made some crappy recorded material sound extra crappy, rather than making the most of the music itself.

have you thought about trying a classic Exposure pre with the DV power amp? I think that'd be well worth trying...

cheers
Matt
 
oceanobsession said:
it seems hard to believe that 30w can drive arcs, would you say they are

warm and fast and gets a grip on the music.
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It was hard for me to believe also, but the A30 seems to be taking the Arcs in its stride. It sounds confident, textured, grain free and involving.

Sure it doesn't have quite the punch and tautness of the L300/HX75 combo, but it still has pace and grip aplenty. This surprised me as I was fully expecting it to be soggy and vague in the bass. This is definitely NOT the case :)

This could well be the year I go thermionic :cool:

Lefty
 
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