I have been running various bits of naim gear since the 90s but although I have read a lot of this form and the old one I have never joined or posted. Until now.
I am looking for some advice on choosing a pair of appropriate front left and right speakers for a 2 channel mini home cinema / stereo set up and also a tv and driving system to go with it.
My initial thoughts are a second hand uniti - possibly a Nova or Atom as the hub and probably a set of substantial three way speakers to provide clear midrange for dialogue and decent bass for movie impact, probably tucked in close to the screen.
The family will want to stream music from Spotify or such like so the system can’t be too revealing of source quality limitations but still needs to be fun to listen and dance to - praty in other words. Yeh fun fi more than serious hi fi is probably the objective here.
I also thought maybe a second hand pair of Shahninain ARCs would get the sound out and about in the room too.
TV screen I think would be 75” but that’s as far as I have considered. My eyesight is going so quality is not the utmost - again it will probably be used for Netflix rather than disc.
I don’t really want to spend more than 8K getting it up and running.
I would prefer not to have to use a sub if I can avoid that but willing to look at successful applications others have had.
I am also willing to build speakers if anyone knows of ones specifically for this purpose.
Any thoughts or suggestions - sensible or wild would be welcomed.
Some of the best speakers I’d tried for universal use, including AV, that give great bass and are also forgiving enough for just about any type of source material, were the Naim Arivas. If you can find a pair they won’t be that expensive either. The best bit is that they match with Naim amps perfectly.
Also consider the Neat Motive 2 - a great fun speaker that works brilliantly with Naim of all levels.
Thanks Richard, I actually bought a pair of Arrivas some time ago for this purpose and despite the fact the lower bass units on both were not working thought they were good. They are probably excellent in full working order as you point out. I decided to return them to the seller because they were not fully functional and haven’t seen another pair for sale since - but you have rekindled my interest. Thanks for the pointer. I will keep an eye out.
Shahinian Arcs are great speakers, and probably a good option if you want to do bass well without a sub. They need a bit of power though. I used mine with a 250DR for a while. You might just get away with a Nova, but an Atom will be out of its depth.
Of course for AV use you will not get the .1 channel bass into a stereo pair of speakers but you need to consider how you will integrate whatever AV equipment you choose with the stereo system.
I’m using Rega Elas for L&R channels, and Rega Kytes for rears, and the Rega R-VOX for centre channel. Nam friendly, easy to drive and work very well indeed. Elas & Kytes can be bought cheaply on the secondhand market, as well as most older Rega speakers for that matter. The only hard one to source would be the R-VOX centre speaker, or the earlier Rega Senta, that is if a centre channel is essential.
Thanks for your advice on the ARCs I didn’t appreciate they needs so much power to get going. I had the impression they worked ok with a nap 150x or a 180 but perhaps the “ok” was simply that - ok not great. The smart tv itself is going to be the source.
Thanks for your advice. I have heard the Elas and thought they were good for the money. They were nice and toe tapping and kept the groove. I will take a look at these. I will not be able to have rear speakers and to remain naim based I think I will forgo the centre channel. Thanks again for your input.
Ela’s are nice speakers, as are Royd Apex which is the design that Rega used for them. Quite easy to drive too, but they are old now and replacement drivers can be very hard to find.
Not sure if Naim amplification is a must but I have a separate AV system using a mid tier Yamaha AV Receiver, any good AV receiver should work well, Klipsch 600M, front speakers, Klipsch 504C and Klipsch subwoofer. The reason for this is that, I feel, a center channel in an AV audio system is the most important speaker. It provides a clear, clean presentation that I’ve never been able to duplicate in a two speaker AV environment, unless you want to spend a lot of money. The reason I chose Klipsch is their high sensitivity rating. The front and center Klipsch I use are 96-97 db rated. Easy to drive for the less powerful AV receivers. Also have some small slightly angled stands for the 600Ms located tight to the rack. The AV system also sounds pretty darn good for streaming music. Here are a couple pictures. The TV is 75".
That looks like a nice set up SRO. I would prefer to have a centre channel and surrounds for movie watching but I can’t have rear speakers for a number of reasons plus it needs to play two channel music really well. For this reason I decided to compromise on the centre speaker and get the best I can without. I have been playing around a bit with some old gear and found if I put the speakers right up against the edge of the screen and toe in a bit I can get a pretty good result. I think some of the sound is reflecting off the screen and giving a bit of a “ centre fill”. I haven’t had trouble hearing the dialogue. It would be better with a centre I am sure but I am trying to avoid getting into receiver territory. The Klipsch speakers sound like a good idea. I notice that sensitive speakers do add some tension and drama proceedings - music or movies. Thanks for your advice.
