Speakers for Naim gear??

Hello all.
I am the proud posessor of:
Naim CDX
Naim NAP180
Naim NAC 102
and soon.. a Naim HICAP

I'm hoping that this may be the right place to get some good advice about choice of speakers for this gear.

Here goes...
The room is not large and is more like two rooms knocked into one (in fact it is two rooms knocked into one). The end I mostly live in (i.e. half of it, the other half serves as a dining room) is about 4m x 4m (12.6" by 12.6"). It's furnished with carpets, big comfy sofas and thick curtains.

Most of all I like Psy-Ambient music which is heavily processed and effected modern electronic music with high production values (Ultimae label as favourite) and occasional deep, deep bass (which i love). For this music I like clarity, detail, precision and of course, bass.
However I listen to all sorts of music (rock, blues, jazz, ethnic, classical, nursery rhymes) and want this to sound good too....

I obviously don't have the space to fit in huge speakers. And I am going to have problem backing them onto a wall.. and also finding free space for them to sit in.. the most likely scenario is that they will sit two or three inches infront of deep shelves built into chimney wells (bummer). However I am trying to move house at the moment and the new house will have bigger and more flexible space.

I really don't want to spend more than 1,200 UK Pounds on speakers and would really rather spend a lot less (under £900 - may get second hand or ex-demo). I'm looking at floorstanding or stand mounted. I have ruled out bookshelf speakers for sonic reasons but could be wrong to do this.

These are the ones I am going to try out (as soon as i can get the chance):

PMC FB1's (i have heard these with Naim kit playing my sort of music and they sounded great)
B&W Nautilus 805 (although have my doubts about these)
Naim SBL (possibly a bit big, ugly and inconvenient)
Naim Allaes (I'd have to get a really good deal to afford these tho!)
Neat Critique (st) or Mystique 2 (fl)
Dynaudio Contour 1.3 MKII
Dynaudio 72 (or Dynaudio Audience 52SE perhaps)
Quad 12L
Mission 782

I understand that some speakers go better with Naim than others but am a bit ignorant.

Any pointers as to speakers i should try out would be really appreciated. As always, I will use my ears but in the confusing world of speakers pointers to ones worth trying out would be really helpful.

 

Try Epos speakers.

 

I think the mystiques are great little speakers. I'd be tempted to give them a go.

 

Dynaudio

 

hi modelcitizen,
i also run a naim system and enjoy the kind of music you listen to. i'd have a look and see if you can find a lightly used or ex-demo pair of b&w cdm7nt's or cdm9nt's. i currently use 7's but aparently 9's are tighter in the bass although i've yet to hear them with my kit.
you may also want to take a look at pro-ac speakers i've heard a pair of 1sc's on my kit and they were seriously good although i did miss the bass of my b&w's a little.
cheers


julian

 

Castle Conway 3

 

MC, do the try the meadowlark krestral hot rods, once run in, there are suprebly PRatty, dynamic and do proper TIGHT controlled timed bass, lovely upper freqencies too. Wm

 

Leak 2060 (s/h), should remove most of that horrible Naimness from the sound.



Cheers

 

Your room is a very difficult square shape, if any of the above sound too bassy and overhung, do try a secondhand pair of Linn Kans. A friend with a similar room found these were the only speaker he could get tight and fast sounding. Naim IBLs, again secondhand, would work equally well.

 

True, 'tis a small room. For bigger speakers than Kans, then Linn Kabers are worth a try.

Mine run in a room 9ft * 10ft and there's no bass overhang, but it's driven by a Densen Beat 100, not by Naim.

If you go for Kabers, don't pay to much money for them, I've seen even early ones asking for silly money recently.

Cheers

 

Good call Timpy,

I should have thought of Kabers too.

 

Dare I suggest a pair of small (sealed box) standmount speakers plus a small quality subwoofer (MJA Pro50 or similar)?

I know that implementing such a set up can be tricky but, in your smallish room, you might be able to get a better bass response with the flexibility of placement a small sub would offer than you would with a pair of hefty floorstanders.

Just some food for thought anyway.

Matt.

 

If you want bass, I'd definately consider the PMC FB1's. However, I would make sure you have an extended home demo. Many on the naim forum do not think they work well with olive kit. I have OB1's which did not work well with my chrome bumpered naim gear.

The Kabers also offer a reasonable bass extension and will work with a 180 however, they are very power hungry and do from my experience benefit from a 250.

An alternative might be to get smaller stans-mounters and a small rel or similar sub. Considered heresy by some, it could solve your space problem but still give you the bass you are after.

Rod

 

How puny are these Naim amps!!?? Whilst it's true that the Nait 3 barely managed anything other than a squawk out of the Kabers at anything above whispering levels, I assume that their dedicated power amps are equipped with something approaching a power supply?

Densen Beat 100 and Arcam Alpha 10 drive / drove the Kabers with no complaint, although the 10 got hotter than it did driving Keilidh's. As far as amps go, the Densen is ideal sonically and doesn't work up much of a sweat, even at high levels (which is what they often get ).

Cheers

 

The all-conquering NAP 250 pushes out a mighty 70 (Salisbury, natch) watts per channel. More than enough.

 

Not for 105DB.

 

Only a madman would play that loud, Paul.

 

tim,
if you want to be satisfied with the densen sound then fair enough but i've found naim owners to be more discerning hence their yearning for that pinnacle of amplification, the nap 250 .
cheers


julian

 

Couldn't have put it better myself Julian

 

Laugh!!! I nearly fell off my chair!!

Cheers