"easy to drive" speakers

Body builders with lots of muscles are not necessarily good movers, I was told. They might be able to “show off” at the beach, but they might be pretty useless when moving heavy furniture for an entire working day. I guess muscles can be in the “wrong place” – and this might be the same with amps…

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:wink:

Again,thanks to all for the responses. So despite the caveats which “easy to drive” speakers would you consider for a 500 based system in a 17X25 foot room. I live in the US if that may matter.

@jsaudio there was an earlier thread where 500 series owners were surveyed on what speakers they owned. Try and find it, you will see what others have done. I personally went through sopra 3’s, B&W 802’s and finally Focal Maestro Utopia’s. I believe the most popular speaker was the Kudos 808. If the US dealer is the one out of suburban Chicago, he is the guy who put together my system and will take trade in on speakers at a fair price. There are lots of good choices, as evidenced by the earlier poll. Good luck and enjoy the ride.

In fact the 500 Is unusual among the Naim power amps in claiming 30dB gain not 29.

As you note its maximum power capability is 40% more than that of the 300, while it rated continuous power at 140w is also a step up on the 300´s 90w. As a bridged amp I would not be surprised if it was less happy into lower impedances, however both claim a minimum impedance of 2 ohm.

In terms of the description “muscle amp”, I, too, would have thought the 500 would be regarded as one, But then it is an odd term: wth cars a “muscle car” often seems to be used to denote a car with high power engine - but maybe not refined, and maybe not even capable of coldi g the road other than in a straight line…

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If you’re in the US then Brooklyn-made, DeVore Fidelity’s Gibbon range of speakers are very easy to drive. I imagine a 300 would sound amazing.

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Could be, obviously where that muscle matters.
So many have their own opinions of what makes the most impact.
Going with the bodybuilder analogue - most of those intent of building the best muscle seem to lack somewhat in the procreative signature muscle - thus creating their own demise.

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Odd question. As said, power is a sliding scale and while it isn’t as powerful as some monsters, it is more powerful than a lot of amps. The speakers it can drive easily aren’t necessarily easy to drive. You can drive more with the 500 than you can’t. Speakers that need more than a 500 exist, but they are in the minority. You probably have to go out of your way to hunt them out.

I’d go as far as to say, the 500 is the amp for people with difficult ti drive speakers. Just not maybe the last 1% of real difficult buggers.

Although this is said without personal experience, given that the 500 is Naim’s top model bar the Statement, and is capable of 140w continuous and 5x that peak, I doubt there are many speakers it cannot drive well, an obvious exception perhaps being the Apogee Scintilla with an impedance of just 1 ohm.

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