A mate with Nait 5i / Keilidhs is looking to upgrade both. Main source is non-Naim streamer but that’s off the table right now despite my advise to do that first.
I’ve heard the XS3 is a step in the right direction and a bit more foot tapping. He’s keen to home dem one.
Any floor standing speaker recommendations? Budget is up to £3k but the closer to £2k the better.
Solid floor and wall behind. My guess is the room is about 6 x 4m with the speakers against a 4m wide wall (no scope for change there). Needs to be something that the XS can drive with relative ease.
Russell K 120s (£2,700) was one idea but not heard them myself.
He’s agreed to do the amp upgrade in isolation (and once he’s found a dealer, he will ask their advise too) so this is just forward planning at the moment to get some ideas.
I would suggest first of all listening to loads of speakers at HiFi dealers to work down to a shortlist of between 2 and 4 pairs, then trying to get home demos of speakers, driving them with the Nait 5i.
Speakers that work with their personal preferences for music presentation and work well with their room when driven by the 5i, will be even better when driven by an XS3.
Of all HiFi components, speakers have the most variability, both in personal preferences and in room integration.
There are so many speaker models out there on the market (within budget) that I was hoping for more comments from members about what they found did (or didn’t) work well. Maybe the XS3 is too new.
OK, thanks. I’ll see what I can find in old threads.
There must be a few dozen speakers available in this price range. Surely listening to the experience of other Naim owners to create a shortlist is a sensible way forward.
Also, I know my friend well enough to say he will not be the slightest bit interested in doing lots of dems. I need to whittle this down to 3-4 models at the very most. He is not a hifi enthusiast in any way.
I was hoping to find a dealer that stocks a couple of the more popular models but perhaps we’ll just go for convenience and use one of the local dealerships. Hopefully one of them will sell Kudos.
I have a Nait XS-2 which I use with ProAc D1 on Atacama HMS stands. Not a floor stander but they give good bass and decent volumes. Perhaps it might be worth considering the latest ProAc DB1 on Atacama HMS 1.1 stands
Then you’ll have to find out in what range of music he’s interested and if he has a particular preferences (such as detail or loud [aka excessive] bass [and in that case either take this into account or preferably talk him out of it in favour of a more neutral presentation]. You’ll also need to take into account the dimensions of his listening room.
He’s only into pop/rock. He likes his bass - they have a sub with the Sonos/TV setup and he likes that. He wanted a sub with the Nait 5i/Keilidhs but I kinda put him off the idea.
I use one with a NAP300DR and Spendor SP2s. The trick is to use a DSP (such as a DSpeaker Anti-Mode 8033 Automatic Subwoofer Equalizer) to reduce the volume at the room resonant frequencies.
I’d put ProAc Response DT8’s on the list. I have the now discountinued Studio 140 Mk2’s with similar downward firing bass port, that seems to do bass well and work nicely with XS2 that I’ve tested them with and sound great with the SN2 I’ve just bought.
I’m currently playing through my collection re-discovering basslines…