A legendary loudspeaker from Salisbury company Naim, the SBL Mk1 has a number of interesting design features, including separate boxes for each driver, a sloped baffle, internal porting and an external passive crossover. This external crossover means that there are no physical changes required to use the SBL in a Linn Exakt active system, making this a straightforward option.
So we're very pleased to add this rather special classic speaker to the SpeakerFilters portfolio. Bringing the opportunity to apply Linn Exakt advantages to those who want to get the best out of their Naim speakers. The filters were developed using a Linn Exakt front end and classic Naim NAP250 power amplifiers - a great balance of the best from both companies. They're available to SBL users "off the shelf" right now in three flavours which are provided to every customer:
- Standard based on the original SNAXO crossover
- With an additional 1dB attenuation for the tweeter
- With an additional 1dB attenuation for the tweeter and a 1dB bass lift below 60Hz
Feedback from SpeakerFilters customer CG of Birmingham:
"From SNAXO to Exakt: I was running a Naim SNAXO /
SuperCap with my active SBLs - an improvement over passive - which gave
great PRaT but they still sounded a bit forward.
At a dealer demo evening I was listening to a Linn/Kudos Exakt active
system thinking this system sounds amazing and the transparency that the
Exakt technology brought, which performs the crossover in the digital domain, was breath-taking. If only Exakt was available for the Naim SBLs.
At
that same demo I learned about SpeakerFilters who design Exakt filters
for speakers not covered by Linn. I worked with SpeakerFilters on a
design for the SBLs and when these were loaded into my system it was
clear that this was an improvement with better definition & spatial
separation. The soundstage was more clearly defined & I was in
heaven. The slightly bright presentation was gone, bass weight was enhanced and all the strengths of musicality & PRaT that SBLs are renowned for were retained. Hi hats shimmered, room acoustics were tangible, the space around instruments & performers improved.
For those of you without Exakt, but with a Linn DS or DSM streamer, the work completed by SpeakerFilters allows you to enjoy the benefits of SPACE Optimisation with the SBL.
Get in touch! design@speakerfilters.com
Every SpeakerFilters set of filters comes with a no cost 2 week trial period.
