I have Focal Sopra No 2 loudspeakers (orange), but due to an unexpected change in circumstances. I need to replace them with something much more modestly priced. Ideally under £1500, in fact I really must stick to that budget. Probably floor standing but I’m open to considering stand-mounted.
Large high-ceilinged living room, plenty of space.
Source is a Naim Uniti Nova.
I may have to consider pre-owned.
On the shortlist: Focal (again), PMC, Dynaudio, Quad, B&W, KEF and of course Naim.
Ideas welcome
I would add ATC to that list and even explore an atom HE with active speakers (ATC / PMC)
Room and speaker matching is always tricky and the usual advice is do the demos, dealer and at home.
I use atc11’s with an atom and get good results but if you have a big space floor standers are probably the way to go.
You can get more value in the used / ex demo market and a chat with your dealer may unearth some ex demo opportunities. Just google ex demo and insert the brands you are interested and you get a nice list of dealers with ex demo stock.
Gary
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I have Focal Aria 926 and they sound fantastic with my SuperNait3 driving them
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Be crazy not to.
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If you are in the UK, you can see an online hifi retailer selling ‘new old stock’ PMC Prodigy 5 floorstanders at £1499. I used PMC’s with my Nova and they are a great match
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Thanks, I’ll check that out 
Yes I definitely have a liking for Focal
Thank you, I’ll look into this
There’s a lot of options.
Why not go out listen for yourself - loudspeakers are mostly a personal taste.
FX Neat or Kudos are much better than Sopra’s IMO.
Older Naim speakers often a bargain.
If your room is small to medium, maybe even a pair Stirling LS3/5aV2 could satisfy.
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@Mynaimisjack Your’s is not the first thread on the subject. Have you done a search?
Good question, noting your circumstances.
Yes as jaybar suggests this has been asked before.
Always worth inidcoating your location - many, but by no means peps all certainly, are uk centric. So answers, particularly for used kit will depend on local markets.
Nova is good kit, but needs to be respected for what it can and can’t drive - two here.
Add to your possibles, Pro-ac and Spendor. Both play nicely with Nova, I’ve used both, recently bought used, pair of Pro-ac Tab 10 sigs - see other threads. Nova will likely excel with stand mounts, less so with bigger floor mounts. Good luck.
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I second that. Nova and PMCs are a great match.
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I literally cannot go out and listen for myself because I am currently 7000 miles away in the Far East. I have a home here and another in the UK. But I need to buy a pair of speakers in the next few days, and make a choice without seeing or hearing them. That’s nothing unusual for me; only two months ago I bought a property in Britain without seeing it. Most people won’t operate like this but I’m comfortable with it.
The room is very large and with a high ceiling; it’s a Grade 2 listed property.
I’m also considering a pair of Naim Ovators, by a coincidence they’re being sold by the same dealer as the Quad Z3s
I had the Nova/S400 and Nova/25.21i and tried both with and without a 250.
PMCs were clearly the better combo, much more revealing and incisive. I sold the Ovators and kept the PMC’s. But at the end of the day, it’s all down to preference and your ears.
Best of luck, whatever you decide.
Hi @Mynaimisjack, since you like the Focal sound and since I have had my Nova with a couple of models of Focal speaker, I thought I’d provide you with my ideas, based on my listening experience through ownership and demos:
- Focal Aria 906 (owned). Solid choice, nothing special but were pretty transparent, easy to listen to but perhaps lacking in bass. They don’t have the beryllium tweeter as per Kanta and Sopra so I suspect you would find the Aria too much of a step down.
- Focal Kanta 2 (owned). Excellent speaker, perhaps too much for the Nova (which is why I put mine with the SN3). Very musical, excellent tweeter, ample controlled bass.
- ATC SCM11 (home demo). Very very good speaker but in my room the presentation appeared “dry” and not surprisingly, studio monitor-like.
- PMC25.23 (dealer demo). Another really good one - I didn’t get a chance to demo these at home, otherwise they may well have been the speaker I purchased. As others have said of PMC above, a good match with the Nova.
- ProAc Tab 10 Signature (home demo). There are glowing reviews about this speaker and lots of good things said here on the forum, but for me it just didn’t happen. I found them shouty and fatiguing.
- Neat Iota Alpha (owned). Nearly my overall favourite of the lot (that does to the Kantas) and, for me, by far the best match with the Nova from the above list. Very musical, very fun, surprising amount of bass and size of soundstage. Easy to position too. Highly recommended.
Hope that helps.
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I used a pair of Dynaudio 1.3SE’s with my Nova and they were outstanding. I eventually switched to a pair of Totem Fire monitors which I thought improved on the 25 year old Dynaudios, but not by a lot.
I also auditioned Spendor A4’s (good, but lacking in resolution compared to the monitors), and the A7’s, which I thought were dramatically better than the A4 and got very close to the Totems in terms of speed and resolution. As a side note, the A4 & A7 allegedly use the same drivers but in different enclosures. To my years, I have a hard time believing that with the gap in performance. The difference was large enough that I would recommend the A7 easily, but don’t bother with the A4.
As a wildcard, I would also consider the JBL Classic L100. I auditioned these with the Atom before I bought my Nova and really liked the combination: big, fun, dynamic, maybe not the most detailed, but very easy to live with in terms of sound quality, if not sheer size. The sensitivity of the JBL’s seemed to work well with the lower power amp.
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Interesting observation re Iota Alpha vs ATC, in my case the SCM11. These were my demo choices when I recently changed speakers in my second system. I generally agree with your description, but for me the Iota was a bit unbalanced with a surprising bass but one lacking real quality and the very sweet ribbon tweeter at the other end. Enjoyment was quite music/track dependent with voices in the mid range not a strength to my ears. I was suprised how well they filled the room though. The ATC are a little ‘dry’ in comparison but more accurate and sophisticated to my ears. Needed a bit of volume to get going but then I though they were more musical and less HiFi of that makes any sense. Enjoyed them most.
Hope that helps the OP regarding their personal tastes since they aren’t able to dem. The ATC is within their budget too.
Bruce
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Yes I think that’s a fair comment
If you are buying blind, appreciate your situation, so Spendor work well. Pro-Ac as James suggests, not for everyone, I like then with Nova.
Nova and Ovator, if you are lucky to have a listening room which is relatively benign, worht a try, I like them. However in one room, very difficult acoustically, in my case more power was needed and now enjoy NSC222 + NC250. Nova + NAP250 is a very tricky combo; personally I don’t think it works, because the NAP is better than the Nova.
Hope that helps.
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Fascinating how we all like different things. I found the alphas lacked a level of detail and insight so I moved them on. I now have ATC11’s and they work a treat.
Gary
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