It is obvious that I don’t listen constantly at 12 o’clock.
I only noticed that around 12 o’clock the Proacs seem to be almost at the limit and all the sound goes towards flattening.
That may happen with the Sopras as well!
I’m afraid to try.
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You say in your opening post that the system sounds lovely at normal levels and that problems start when you play really, really loud. The answer seems to be to play at normal volumes and just enjoy it. If you try to play the system at very high levels for prolonged periods you will damage your hearing.
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Wise words hear (pun intended)
Look team, the man wants to buy new speakers. All other advice is irrelevant.
Bruce
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Ah, that’s really helpful.
If everything is sounding like it’s beyond the limit when the volume is at 12 o’clock, this is because it is.
However, it is not the D48R that is flat out. It’s the NAP300DR. The 300 is giving you everything that it has to give.
So, to options.
First, if you usually listen at “normal” volumes with the volume knob in the range of 8 o’clock to 10 o’clock, then keep the NAP300 & D48R and just enjoy them. This is what everyone else does!
Second, if you are brave enough to listen regularly with the volume knob at 12 o’clock, then try a more powerful power amplifier. I would start with a Chord Ultima 6 but there are many alternatives out there. Or …
Third, if you are brave enough to listen regularly with the volume knob at 12 o’clock and want to keep the NAP300DR, then you need a speaker with bigger bass drivers than those in the D48R. It is normally the area of the bass drivers that determines speaker efficiency & capacity to “drive the room”. @Richard.Dane knows of one in particular that he finds works well with Naim amplifiers when music needs to be played at disco/club/party levels. It has an efficiency of something like 96dB/W.
Hope this helps, BF
I took measurements from my listening point.
I used the Tools Pneuma song.
At 1:36 minutes the bass at volume 12 are reproduced with difficulty and the Proacs are at the limit.
The measurement was between 80-82 db with peaks of 86.
Mind you, I like Proacs and they are great speakers.
I just wanted to try and think about upgrading and identifying which model could be better, perhaps with speakers with a larger diameter of 16.5cm to help make a better impact.
I get this at 9-10 o’ clock and 2.5m from speakers, but always difficult to compare different phones and apps and rooms
Exactly I think loudspeakers with larger drivers than my current 16.5 maybe could give better results in my case.
Which model are you talking about? Can Richard give any advice?
This…
The cable from my snaxo (crossover) to the power amp. It was a normal snaic 4-4 before, and replaced by a different Naim cable. This is to a certain level relevant, since you have no active crossover. The point is that if there is something wrong with a cable all sorts of things can happen and in my case it was screechy highs.
I feel that you are either overloading the room, or there is a cabling issue. Another thing to check is that the power leads are away of any signal cable.
That is not extremely loud. I got that kind of level with same listening position as you with the volume at 9 oclock. With 3 different speakers,KEF RDM 3,AudioPhysic Virgo V and now SF Olympica 3. I am not familiar with ProAc but I think they are either very inefficient or something is wrong indeed.
If you like the ProAc brand why not ask your dealer to drop by with a pair of K6 or K8 speakers to compare with your D40R speakers. There are a few members with the K series speakers on the forum. Use the search function on the forum and you will find the threads to read. Perhaps you can look at the members profiles and see what amplifiers they are using to drive their K series speakers?
Good luck finding a resolution to your issue.
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80-82dBA with the volume knob at 12 o’clock seems very quiet indeed.
The speakers should be producing 90dBA (at only 1 metre distance though) from 1 Watt, which should be with the volume knob at or around 9 o’clock, not 12 o’clock.
Something seems to be eating circa 25+dBA of volume. That is a LOT. You may be well advised to talk to your dealer, as something seems to be wrong. Are you using a line level source (as opposed to a turntable) and is the output set to fixed line level output, or is there an adjustable output from your source which is turned down?
I think Richard’s preferred party speakers were made by JBL.
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I would very much agree with BFs observation, that something is wrong. Also your room is big for being filled with music, in other words a bit of an ask for a 300. I’ve put your room dimensions into the Amroc Room mode calculator for your perusal. You have a very strong destructive mode at around 60-70Hz, and I do wonder if this is exacerbated by a Nap 300 driving a 4 ohm speaker at a high listening level resulting in simply loosing control of the speakers bass drivers. So many variables as always… Good luck Peter 
The PMC Fact 8’s were the main suggestion …
You could try adding subs, that will give more scale and relieve some load from the main speakers and amp.
How did you feel with the Sonus Faber Olimpica 3 compared to the Proacs?
Remember that I made the measurements at my listening point, which is about 3 meters from the loudspeakers
I did read somewhere that 12 o’clock on the volume control is pretty much maximum, i.e. that it’s not linear.
The value that I have detected, however, is at a distance of about 3 meters (sitting on the sofa) and not at a distance of 1 meter.