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Shahinian Obelisk Mk1 vs Mk2

K

Ken C

pfm Member
Can anyone with direct experience of the key sonic differences between these 2 incarnations please. A link to a thread discussing this specific issue would be gratefully received.

enjoy/ken
 
From when I had mine 10 years ago (where has that time gone?):-

"Overall i'd say obs2 are quite a different speaker from the 1's. More open, more exciting, more real, more detailed, a much much better treble, a touch brighter, a bit faster etc.. much closer to the music. More kind of SBL-ish compared to obs 1. but still effortlessly natural and musical."

Cheers,

DV
 
I would say the 2’s have a smoother top end than the 1's and seem more tolerant of lower powered amps. The 1’s needed amplifiers capable of dealing with very low impedance, the 2’s seem less fussy in this respect although still benefit from some grunt.
 
Darth Vader said:
From when I had mine 10 years ago (where has that time gone?):-

"Overall i'd say obs2 are quite a different speaker from the 1's. More open, more exciting, more real, more detailed, a much much better treble, a touch brighter, a bit faster etc.. much closer to the music. More kind of SBL-ish compared to obs 1. but still effortlessly natural and musical."

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...
DV, many thanks
enjoy/ken
 
Snufkin said:
I would say the 2’s have a smoother top end than the 1's and seem more tolerant of lower powered amps. The 1’s needed amplifiers capable of dealing with very low impedance, the 2’s seem less fussy in this respect although still benefit from some grunt.
Click to expand...
seems to be a consistent assessment -- thanks snufkin!
enjoy/ken
 
Darth Vader said:
From when I had mine 10 years ago (where has that time gone?):-

"Overall i'd say obs2 are quite a different speaker from the 1's. More open, more exciting, more real, more detailed, a much much better treble, a touch brighter, a bit faster etc.. much closer to the music. More kind of SBL-ish compared to obs 1. but still effortlessly natural and musical."

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...

Having had both, I agree with this assessment. However that does not mean you will like the 2s more. They are more impressive but personally I preferred listening to the 1s. Very much a subjective choice and down to the sound I was looking for . From my experience, all the 2 variant Shahinians are more forward and articulate, but for me have slightly lost what made the earlier ones magical . Still fantastic speakers though and I’m talking very much personal preference . I regret having had to dispose of mine , my late model series 1s were the best speakers I ever lived with but my new domestic environment made them unviable . Now running Larcs .
 
Thanks Deserter(!)
I have owned Ob Mk1s since about a week ago. I have installed them in my smallish office --prior speakers were SL2s.
My experience so far is that they are somewhat clearer than previous SL2s -- i am hearing extra musical lines that i have never heard before from some of my recordings.
But its not all beer and skittles. Its early days yet, but its been a challenge to balance LF and HF and this balance is very sensitive to position relative to room boundaries. As i moved the speakers further from back wall (minimum 1ft) the bass boom reduced but the HF response became a little tiresomely dominant and splashy. (This is why the " ... a much better treble ..." from DV piqued my interest.)

I will continue experimenting with positioning to try to balance and optimise the performance.

Nevertheless, a fascinating, if iconic speaker...

More later...

enjoy/ken
 
Hi Ken, I never found the treble splashy. What are you driving them with ?

Not the easiest speakers to run in a small room either
 
deserter said:
Hi Ken, I never found the treble splashy. What are you driving them with ?

Not the easiest speakers to run in a small room either
Click to expand...
Neither did I with an amp that could drive them properly. The very first thing that I noticed with the older pre obs2 and a beefy amp was the clarity of a triangle - it sparkled like the real thing and the bass deeeep and tight. Initially I used a pair of NAP135s and the result was not in the same league and you'd think you had a different and lesser speaker. I think thats why some on pfm sometimes say that they preferred the Arc over the Obs as their amps couldn't cope with the demands of the latter.

The Obs hover around 2 Ohm in the treble region and some amps struggle with such a low load. Then add to this its where the ear is at its most sensitive so any distortion here will be noticeable.

One other thing there were multiple iterations over the decades of the Obs pre Ob2 so peoples observations will differ depending on the configuration of earlier Obs.

Cheers,

DV
 
I’ve been using mk1 obs for about a year now with a Naim set up.
I am using a CB 250 to drive them

I was a bit disappointed at first,just seemed to be no sparkle compared to the sbls I had previously.
Although it was a fuller sound and better imaging ,something was missing.
however after a few little changes
Things improved a lot
(A bit of cable dressing ,screened cable on power block,amp in wall socket)
I think they show up any limitations
In your system

I’ve been thinking about a 250 Dr to drive them.
Hopefully it will give a bit more detail in high frequency

Below is an extract from a review I read about the power increase in a DR amp

It was interesting in the difference in dynamic power into 2ohm.

(Naim increase its power specification by just 10W from 70W to 80W/8ohm, a minor change relected in the performance of the amplifier’s themselves – the original NAP 250 offered 2x80W/8ohm and 2x140W/4ohm while the NAP 250 DR offers 2x92W/8ohm and 2x160W/4ohm. The +2.4dB increase in output from 8 to 4ohm reflects the very tight regulation of Naim’s PSU, as does the limited headroom under dynamic conditions. However, while the original amp offered 80W, 135W, 140W and just 62W into 8, 4, 2 and 1ohm loads, the modern-day version delivers a more load-tolerant 93W, 163W, 265W and 345W, respectively)

Just my experience so far with them

Graham
 
Slightly off on a tangent, but partially relevant. I had a supernait 2 driving my Compasses. Was excellent. Hooked up a new NAP250DR (and a hicap dr), even better by some margin!
Then got a Dynavector HX75, different class altogether, really make the Compasses sing!
 
johnacurtis said:
Slightly off on a tangent, but partially relevant. I had a supernait 2 driving my Compasses. Was excellent. Hooked up a new NAP250DR (and a hicap dr), even better by some margin!
Then got a Dynavector HX75, different class altogether, really make the Compasses sing!
Click to expand...

As i recall, the Dynavector HX75 was Dick's recommended amp to drive his Shahinian speakers -- could have been a specific model -- cant recall now...
 
At the risk of upsetting some , there is no doubt that Shahinian speakers work better with Dynavector Amps, than with Naim. The HX75 is a truly under rated amp and now seems not to fetch silly money second hand
 
I wanted to try the HX100. I've had my name down with a dealer for 4 years to buy a pair. Given up now. If they are that difficult to buy how good will any future service be? Last I heard they were going to build an HX101 - that was 3 years ago. Guess the UK market is of little interest to DV.

I first started looking for a DV HX100 in 2014 when I got a price via John Burns of £5k each. I also tried to obtain the specifications but they weren't available not even to Pear Audio the importers.

Cheers,

DV
 
Darth Vader said:
I wanted to try the HX100. I've had my name down with a dealer for 4 years to buy a pair. Given up now. If they are that difficult to buy how good will any future service be? Last I heard they were going to build an HX101 - that was 3 years ago. Guess the UK market is of little interest to DV.

I first started looking for a DV HX100 in 2014 when I got a price via John Burns of £5k each. I also tried to obtain the specifications but they weren't available not even to Pear Audio the importers.

Cheers,

DV
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Hi, I have one (not for sale sadly). The service backup is top class through Pear Audio , the whole batch of mine were recalled for a modification. Along with the accompanying L300 it seems just bulletproof. I did manage to make it shut down when I had Obs but that was me being silly . There is apparently a new model in the offing but that usually means a few years,
 
rogerredhat said:
I was a bit disappointed at first,just seemed to be no sparkle compared to the sbls I had previously.
Although it was a fuller sound and better imaging ,something was missing.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem (but worse?) a few years ago using Olive NAP250 with Obs 1s.

Turned out the regulator boards in the 250 were "protecting" the amps by limiting current delivery into low impedances at high frequencies, since Obs are about 2 ohms throughout the treble above the crossover point the regulator boards were, in my case (probably an extreme case of incompatibility between amp & speakers) preventing any dynamic signals reaching the tweeters!.
An NAP180 with unregulated power supply coped much better. Be wary of replacing a 250 with a 250DR unless you get to audition it first.
See John Curtis's post 13 above.

Some of the comments from a thread on this subject 3 years ago\;-

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/shahinian-obelisks-with-naim-amps.204027/page-3
 
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