5-20 received yesterday and revived toady

[Nakman]

Thanks Ali

Its most agreeable learning the new info about passive pre's and long connects etc.

I have a problem that I expect someone will be able to sort out easily. There are 4,8,16 ohm outputs on the back of the 4-20.
Problem is I dont know which is which, can anyone tell me ...can u extrapolate from later models

It seems the late issue 'bricks I have are 4ohm and I cant tell by ear which is the right one to use. Safe to say its not the middle of the 3.

My wife and i drove the forklift into my den and reversed it back into the lounge with the bariks on ...... one myth about moving bariks is that they take ages to settle down .... cant think why

However I'm underwhelmed by the bariks and the bloks so far. Plenty loud if needed but not engaging ....... however maybe I have the leads in the wrong holes (not out of phase but I will re check that in the morning) and Im not using the naim cables just some ancient 79 strand from my misspent youth.

[Mark Wood]

If it's any help and assuming that the kit was the same as mine, the output transformers were tapped for 4, 6 and 8 ohm speakers and not 4,8 and 16.

I suspect that using them to drive Isobariks is a pretty ambitious task, rather akin to running an electric fire from an AA battery...

[pre65]

Originally Posted by Mark Wood

rather akin to running an electric fire from an AA battery...

I like that !

[Nakman]

Remote we may be but we arent so short of fuel we are burning bariks!

I take your point but as they are the main speaker in this house they had to be tried. Frankly they are just about loud enough but not exciting which is what those speakers are probably all about.
Remember this naim and linn habit is nearly 30 years old for me now albeit I had radford and Leak along the way too.

If I can now see my way to selling off most of these items then well and good.
As someone said if i wasnt so far away I could hear pre 3's etc.

I have always wanted to hear some Lowthers in an optimum setting .... church anyone? Selling bariks and getting something along those lines might be possible. Larger tannoys or even esl's wouldnt work in this old small roomed cottage.

[Mark Wood]

Apologies for the apparent sarcasm as I agree entirely with trying the Isobarik's just to see what happens. The original Hi-Fi World test of the "5-20" kit gave the power output as 35 watts (which I assume was a peak measurement?).

I used mine with some old Keesonic KRF speakers from the late 1970s - 3-way with Dalesford equivalent of Kef B200 and Peerless (I think) dome midrange and (certainly) tweeter. I don't know how efficient they were but they would go quite loud. They're now used with small(ish) Tannoy Revolution R2s on the 8-ohm tap and again, they will go loud!

[Nakman]

Absolutely no problem with the tease or fun sarcasm - I liked the joke. I was in a rush and just wanted to respond. I think its clearly not a remotely synergistic fit <ie bricks and these 'bulbs'>if that terminology is allowed here.

No one has yet replied to say which speaker out is the 4 ohm one .... which end does one count from .... furtherest away from the black neg or nearest? I realise you are sticklers for accuracy but best opinions are welcome

[Mark Wood]

Sadly, which sockets are which depends on the person who made the monoblocks. The instructions that came with the original kits don't give much of a clue as to how to do anything other than where to put the components onto the circuit boards - I remember I had to use the photographs of the prototypes in the magazine supplement to work out quite a few things. Mine are wired such that the sockets are closest together for 8 ohms and furthest apart for 4 but that's probably not much help.

[Nakman]

Ah ha ...... so is there an aural test I can do? For example - Would one sound louder than the other or would the volume control be less advanced?

Or some such informal test.

If you have the time that is

[Mark Wood]

Easy solution (and I was wrong, the lowest impedance tap is 2 ohms!), the attachment shows the underside of the output transformer. Obviously the terminal marked "common" will be attached to the black socket and it should then be possible to trace where the rest go. I hope that hasn't infringed any copyright on the 1993 article...

[Nakman]

So time to get in there. Thats very helpful of you Mark.

Thanks for taking so much time.

I will get in there but not till later in the week.

I'll report back - hope you are relatively snow free - like we are- or at least were today