Good morning everyone. My name is Jacopo and I am happy to have signed up here. I live in Italy near Bologna. At the moment my Naim equipment consists of the following items: HiCap DR, Supernait 2. After years of constant switch-switch I have finally arrived at a fixed point in my system.
As for speakers, I’m still ‘playing’ … changing … listening … trying.
I hope to take inspiration from your experiences and advice to find peace of mind with a beautiful pair of speakers that can excite me for many years…
Good morning to you all.
Jack
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Good morning Jacopo and welcome this forum, many will have their own ideas , but some names will pop up over and over , Neat are tuned with Naim equipment - and that would be my first point.
By coincidence my dealer and I were chatting last week and he was very pleased with a pair of Sonus Faber he had just heard .
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Welcome to the forum Jack. I’ve translated your post into English so the majority of members can understand it - please use a translation service such as google translate before posting. Thanks.
A few questions: What is the source here? What is your budget? And do you listen mostly to a specific type of music, or a wide variety?
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Hello Jacopo and welcome. I have had Sonus Faber Venere 2, Totem Tribe towers and Harbeth C7 es3-XD with my Supernait 2.
I kept the Harbeths. They are a great match with the Supernait 2.
Regards
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Both have pros and cons, it would take a speaker that marries the characteristics of both.
I have something of an interest in the Totem Tribe Tower speakers, I’ve had the chance to hear them sporadically but not extensively. Aesthetically, I like them a lot, even if for the price at which they are offered here in Italy, the ‘support feet’ and rear ‘connections’ for power cables could have been treated better, that tray is used by very cheap speakers.
Soon these loudspeakers will return to my dealer and so I will take advantage of them for a meticulous listening … certainly € 6400.00 in the price list in Italy is not a little (at least for my pockets)
We need a good promo due to the ‘release of the price list’ which can offer them as Totem Sky monitors with a 30% discount… Well, my other alternative for the moment is Totem Sky monitors.
In the past I also had ProAc DT8, very good, but I sold them.
Take your time . . . I look around. . . .
Hi Jack and welcome,
Speakers are a very personal thing and can completely change the tonal balance of your system. In addition they are very room dependent so getting a demonstration preferably at home is vital. Then of course you need to set a budget. The good news is is that the SN is very flexible and will drive anything up to Kudos 606 or Focal Sopra 2.
So amongst the usual suspects are Kudos, Neat, Focal, Dynaudio, Spendor….
Good luck and happy new year.
Lindsay
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Hello @VoX and welcome to the forum!
First of all it depends on what you prefer, choice is very subjective and personal and it does depend on what you like to listen to.
By the way I tried the Supernait 3 + HiCap DR with 3 set of speaker: Kanta n. 2, Totem Forest and Neat Momentum SX5i (if I’m not mistaken) and Harbeth 30.2 XD. All those speakers are interesting, but I felt the Kantas to be underpowered and without much character, the Neat were nice and punchy but details were not precise enough for me. I liked the Harbeths a lot but the bass was too thin for me. In my personal view and the Forests sounded the best.
Some told me that the Tribe Towers lack of bass compared to the Forests, however I haven’t tried them and can’t compare the two. Also it’s important to keep in mind that they have a similar price tag.
Why not the Sky Towers instead of the Sky monitors? I have the Sky Towers, they sound great with many genres.
@VoX Welcome to the forum! As others have said speakers are a matter of personal taste and includes other factors such as your room. I have the same set up (SN2 with HCDR) and after cycling through several sets I landed on the Neat SX5I’s with matching feet. Neat and Naim go well together. The MD of Neat, Bob, used the SN2 as one of the reference amps in designing the speaker. As another member said it’s not the last word on detail but it’s a speaker that is not fatiguing and draws you in like few others. While it’s a long distance away there is a set for sale at a dealer in Canada called Ayreborn Audio for a steal of a price ($3,000 Canadian which is about 60% off list). Shipping wouldn’t be cheap but at that price you can’t lose. The model is discontinued not with the replacement, the Orkestra, having a ribbon tweeter. I imagine it’s a little more revealing with the ribbon. One thing for sure I would not buy a speaker until I at least tried Neat. Proac is another great option.
My preference is ProAc speakers. If you type in 'ProAc and SuperNait’ into the search feature you will find 50+ threads with comments.
I have used ProAc D2D speakers, Naim Ovator S-400 speakers and my current ProAc D30RS speakers with a SuperNait 2 before upgrading to my current system.
Lots of great speakers can be matched with the SuperNait 2.
Best and only way to truly know is demo at dealer and at home. Only with your ears in your room with your system will you know for sure what works best and sounds best for you.
Good luck and have fun on the road to discovery…
Guys, thank you all for your interest and advice. In the coming months I will definitely go and listen to the speakers that intrigue me the most. unfortunately here in Italy not all retailers give you the opportunity to listen calmly, at home … The Totem Skylights have been discontinued, the importer no longer has a single pair available. on the other hand, however good Tribe Tower may play, in my opinion they are out of price … I will go and listen to them and if love is born I could let myself be ‘touched’…
If you are interested in Totem speakers, you should also consider that the new Bison series is coming out with 3 new models… the Bison monitor, Bison Tower and Bison Twin Tower. They will all cost less than the Tribe Towers and Forests.
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I took a look at the new Bison series. I think Totem intends it as an evolution of the Sky series. Certainly with a presentation of 2500 Canadian dollars in Italy will not be cheap. The sky monitor here has a list price of 2500 euros. I heard that the last 10 units of the sky monitor are available with a discount of around 30%…I’m seriously thinking about it. I also listened to them and really liked them, they sound like a much bigger speaker than their actual size. (I’ve heard them played with a 200 wpc Spectral power amp)
I would use my Music tools Classic Stands, purchased specifically for the harbeth p3esr (which I’ve owned for a couple of years in the past)
I believe so as well.
Do you really want monitors? If not, you could consider the Sky Towers, the price difference isn’t that big, around 4-500€ in Italy. Maybe you could find a discount and you’d end up with a more complete speaker. However nothing bad to say about the Sky monitors, they are great but the lack of bass extension is noticeable (but it depends on the music you listen to). In case you want monitors, you should also listen to the Dreamcatchers, they are great as well, similar to the Sky monitors, and they will be surely cheaper given that they are older models. Totem speakers do sound big for their size.
I was able to listen to both the Sky monitors and the older Sky Tower sisters. I liked the low range of the monitors better…certainly less deep but definitely more informative. the bottom of the Sky Tower in that listening room was very ‘muddy’. If I could buy the skys with a great discount considering that they will no longer be produced they would be really happy. My dealer said he’ll keep me updated. . . . let’s hope so…
Both speakers are great, you have to choose which one you like the most.
If I may say, the bass could have been “muddy” because of a bad placement. Recently I moved my Hi-Fi to a different room and it took me a while to get a clean and articulated response in the low range. At the beginning mids and high frequencies seemed to melt and the bass was awful.
Another speaker you might want to consider (if you prefer monitors) is the Model-1, there are second hand ones in Italy.
I was going to suggest the Totem Forest Signature, but they are beyond your budget. The Totem Hawks have just been discontinued, so you should be able to get a good deal on them, and they are better than the Tribe Towers in my view and will match perfectly with a SN2. I have Hawks on a Nova and my Forests have gone from a Nova, SN2, 252/250 and now enjoy a 552/300 
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@Mike_S Really? Are the Hawks discontinued? I didn’t know that, I hope the new Bison series is a choice for the better. Totem doesn’t usually disappoint. Your Signatures should sound majestic with a 552/300.
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The Forest Signatures are absolutely out of my league. In Italy, over 9,000 euros are listed. At the moment the only Totem speakers worth buying at the right price are the Sky monitors. The last 6 or 7 pairs that I could have with a 30% discount are left with the importer. My dealer will confirm this price shortly. (1750 euros, therefore from the 2500 price list) My dream at the moment is the Tribe Towers. I really like them aesthetically and I’ve always heard good things about them. I will listen to them carefully as soon as they are available from my dealer. For the moment I taste my Tablette 10 Mr. !
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