SL2s of course. They would match really well with your stuff.
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SBLs are probably easier to get hold of though. Tom Tom often has them in stock.
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With your 135âs SBLâs are the cheaper and more readily available option next SL2âs which are a lot rarer and 4 or 5 times the cost of SBLâs but if your going to eventually go 500 series then itâs got to be DBLâs.
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I see it as a symptom of the inequality of wealth, and the âgreed is goodâ dogma; something for which we will all pay in due course.
Thanks @Bobthebuilder. I donât fancy the SBLs. DBLs are monstrous in size!
Iâm happy with what I have for the time being. Would be looking at upgrading the Focal Aria 936s for something better later on down the line.
I like the idea of the SL2s as they fit close to the wall and look rather lovely.
I would consider other speaker brands.
What has everyone got against Focals? Lol. To me they are decent speakers and better than my Linn Kelidhs!
I would ask what do you have against SBLs? Ugly? Possibly. But you can probably get them for a few hundred quid and find they canât be improved on for less than 5k. Apologies if I sound pushy which is not my intention but these things are brilliant vfm these days.
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I want to like Focal speakers, given their connection with Naim. Iâve heard the Sopra 1 and the Utopia Evo 3 at length and they were both ear splittingly bright and very unnatural. They are totally unlike my SL2s, which just sit there and the music flows. No whizz bang look at me hifi pyrotechnics. Which many like of course. Each to their own. Yours may of course not be like the two Iâve heard.
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I researched them quite a bit and was concerned about the set up which doesnât seem straight forward.
Transportation and possible damage was also a concern. The research I did made me feel that they could be difficult in these respects.
The SL2s seem more modern and look more attractive.
Maybe you can twist my arm. What is so good about the SBLs vs other speakers?
The Focal Aria 936s sound very different from the Linn Kelidhs I had before. They were more natural sounding. The Focals are brighter, more defined and have more power and bass. Sound clearer and more dynamic. But not more natural! The Kelidhs were more classic.
I listen to alot of rock and dance music and the Focalâs offered more power and I got a good deal on them.
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Hi Dan, I would say nothing in particular. They are boundary dependent by design and present music in a certain way certainly. Times have moved on in the last 25 years in speaker technology as with everything else. Both SL2s and SBLs run out of puff playing the long way into a 6-8 meter listening space and start to sound lean, if you start playing them loud. Iâm sure HHs speakers sound great in his room firing across, but I have come to prefer â crash, bang , wallopâ as once described by HH ( âŚand then there is the SBL seal 
). Horses for courses as usual. ATB Peter
I canât see why you should need to almost apologise for liking Focal speakers, which I find have come on leaps and bounds over the last decade. 
Alot of it is banter TBF. Nothing wrong with my speakers! I know that. Focals get a right bashing on this forum!
When I bought the Focal speakers I bought them for some oomph and had a 250CB. They do sound great, but I have spent alot on the rest of my system since then.
If I chose different speakers I would want something with even more oomph and quality.
Wondering what a set of ÂŁ8000 used speakers would bring to the table?
Would consider any make. Thoughts and suggestions welcome!
Maybe presumptuous of me but I canât help wondering if some hold a (subconscious?) grudge vs Focal for diminishing the splendid isolation of Naim as a company and for the demise of Naim as a speaker manufacturer.
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My search for my perfect speaker eventually led me away from Naim so if you are attached to Naim electronics and could never see yourself trying another brand then Naim speakers are a safe bet but as good as they are like all speakers they do have limitations also donât forget Ovators they too have their fans.
Itâs strange that Naim and Focal havenât really got together and produced a speaker that is designed to be used together.
Not sure I want to twist your arm Dan! Both the SL2 and SBL do certain things very well. They are fast, have agile and detailed bass, reproduce vocals very naturally and simply play music that engages you. They donât image particularly well but do separate things out to make musical strands easy to follow and understand.
Both require a little understanding and research to set them up properly. SBLs are certainly not hard to set up, just care and attention. I have not set up the SL2. I certainly donât subscribe to the view that speaker design has moved on either. By all means discount them, but you might miss out on a little Naim historyâŚ
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I am biased but Dynaudio do make some great speakers that have lots of fans on the forum and though eventually I felt I had to move away from Naim to get the best out of my Contour s3.4âs Iâd still encourage you to demo some high end Dynaudio speakers as Rock and EDM sound fantastic through my Dyns and or the sums you are talking ÂŁ8,000 for a used speaker you could almost certainly improve on SL2âs.
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Yes well the Keilidhs were superb. I had a pair and gave them up sort of unwillingly. I think if the clock had turned back, partnering Naim with Keilidhs are Kabers would have been my choice. I was never fond of any Naim speaker. SBL had some grudging respect but it was no Kaber for sure.
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Maybe you could find some Magicos? I think if you like Focal youâd love the Magico sound.Maybe Dynaudioâs, Marteen, Wilsons.
Second the Ovators - not heard the 400, but the 600 are excellent, and the 800 are superb. Iâd love to hear the 800 vs the DBLs - it is possible that the DBLs may beat the 800, at least in terms of bass. It would be interesting to swap the IBL part of the DBLs with the BMR of the 800. Or, as I have often thought, swap out the IBL for SBL (or possibly SL2)
The Dynaudio Contour and Confidence ranges would definitely be worth checking out (but I guess I am biased as well !) Plenty of âoomphâ but they need a bit of free space.
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Strange thing speakersâŚat Audio show east a few years back many of us preferred the Naim room with NDX2/SN2 and Focal Kanta 2 or 3 to the larger Naim systems. The Kantaâs did seem to have been designed around a Naim front end. Sometime later i spoke to my dealer and he said he stopped stocking themâŚthey just did not sell, strange.