FINAL STATEMENT
The music lover here owns the world’s first system to use a bespoke bi-amped configuration of Naim Audio’s Statement amplifiers. Or he did, until it was decided to try tri-amping.
The first system in the world to biamp speakers using Naim Audio’s massive Statement amps is now the first to try tri-amping, by adding another.
It’s getting on for two years since we originally covered this hi-fi home in which Len Wallis Audio’s team had commissioned a unique version of Naim Audio’s Statement amplifier — one which doubled up on the twin power amplifiers of this already uber-high-end design. The result won a 2019 Sound+Image ‘Gold’ installation award. But recently LWA’s Charl du Plessis contacted us to let us know the installation has now been taken one step further, with another pair of power amplifiers added, thereby turning this into the tri-amped Statement system you see pictured above right, with one Naim Statement S1 pre-amp in the centre, flanked by no fewer than six S1 power amps.
The system is still using the Sound Lab Ultimate U1-PX loudspeakers and bespoke Sound Lab Ultimate subwoofers from the original installation. Those bespoke bass panels had been supplied by Sound Lab’s Roger West to operate from 800Hz down, with the main speakers handling upwards to 40kHz; Charl had been reticent to blend the fast main Sound Lab
panels with conventional cone-style subwoofers.
So where did the idea to tri-amp come from, and what’s the configuration exactly? Charl Du Plessis talked us through how the system has developed.
“So before those subwoofer panels were added, one Statement power amplifier was driving the mid and high frequencies, while the second was driving the bass — single speaker, bi-amped,” he says. “But with the subwoofer panels added, the second amplifier was then driving a double load — bass on the main speakers, and in addition the subwoofer panel. So it was my suggestion that we could go to the tri-amp configuration to even out the speaker load on the amplifiers, with a third pair of Statement power amplifiers dedicated to the bass panels.”
As with the previous dual-Statement system, Charl contacted Naim Audio regarding the Statement preamplifier, and how it would cope with a system beyond that it was designed for.
“My main concern in this tri-amp configuration was moving the additional load from the power amp to the pre amp,” says Charl. “Would this additional load affect the output of the pre-amp, and in what way? But Naim came back with confirmation that we could go ahead as planned. Nothing needed changing; we could quite simply add the additional two power amps.”
In addition to the extra pair of Statement power amps, additional cabling was required, including a pair of Audioquest WEL Signature XLR interconnects and additional spade-terminated speaker cables.
Triple the sound?
What differences did the upgrade bring, we asked Charl, and is the client now even happier with the result?
“The result of the amplifier upgrade was quite significant,” confirms Charl. “The sound quality improvements were easily discernible, from the lower bass area through to the mid and upper bass frequencies. It became easier to follow instruments, and even more importantly the tone and timing also improved in these areas. The soundstage became bigger — there was more depth, and the placement within it became almost three-dimensionally holographic.
“We played a track from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Tin Pan Alley, and Stevie was located out in front standing with good height in the huge soundstage, and the other instruments clear dimensionally with spacing to the left, right, and behind him. I could clearly locate, and follow each one of these.”
And, says Charl, the system just kept improving over the four or five hours he stayed to experience it.
“The consensus was that this is just amazing,” he concludes. And for now, he thinks, this should indeed now qualify as this lucky system owner’s ‘final Statement’.