Hi all, I am new to the Naim world and have been going through the hoops upgrading my old receiver/monitor setup. My room is 5m x 9m and I sit about 2.5-3 meters away, speakers firing long ways into the room. I have been able to get speakers 80cm out from the back wall, but past that and I will encounter problems with room layout.
So far, I have quickly moved from an Atom to a Nova powering AE509’s with a couple of T9x subs added along the way (run very on very low gain ~9o’clock, which is still lots). Excellent setup for vocals to my ear, but misses something on faster heavier music.
This past week, I have had the privilege of home demoing a pair of Dynaudio Evoke 30’s which added much to drums, strums and mids, but lost out a feel of airiness(?) on vocals. Back to back listening was night and day between the two. The Dyns improved with the addition of some Naim Speaker cables (up from old Chord Classic), which may have further weakened the lower-mids and impact of the Ae509’s.
My audio store (who have been excellent) has just sent me some Twenty5.26i to demo, on brief listen these have it all over the Dyns and AE. But at the price that’s no wonder. My question is if my budget can’t stretch to the PMC 25.26 is there something else i should be looking?
When i demoed my Nova i listened to Kudos, Russell K, Focal……the PMC 25.26 grabbed me. If you like them it will be difficult to mimic that sound with a non transmission line speaker?
My evoke 10’s took an absolute age to open up and sound airy. They were quite rolled of for many weeks then all of a sudden went crisper and more holographic so it could be the pair you listened to were not there yet
Also possible, I am in my study up the other end of the house at the moment, and they are playing away in the lounge, seem well driven. Fills the room and probably 3 more. Lots of bass at this distance (~15 meters). These won’t be remotely run in either I imagine.
Perhaps 23’s or 22’s (Bookshelves I know) would be more suitable.
Focal. I have the Chora 816s with my Nova, also began with an Atom, and I’d love to have your impressions. Or the Aria 936 floorstanders. I’m pretty impressed with the combination of Naim and Focal.
Nova and 25.23 is a great combo. I use the Nova with the 25.21 and they work beautifully. My room is smaller than yours so in your position I would definitely home dem the 25.23’s. You will be amazed at what a small pair of speakers can do
Get secondhand or ex-dem - always best in my view to maximise buying power with speakers. And the preceeding version, twenty26 goes for quite a bit less than the twentyfive26. Essentially similar though you’d have to hear for yourself to know if the refinements of the current version are worth the extra.
You have a large room , you like the sound of the PMC 25.26i and can position them with plenty of room. As a bonus you can possibly do away with your subs.
So why look elsewhere.
As Gazza said you will find it hard to equal them especially with their transmission line and dedicated mid driver.
If they are pushing the budget try looking for some ex dem or the previous 25.26 version s/h .
When I was last searching I ended up buying the older EB1i, which was noticeably better sounding than the Twenty26. (But I regret not stretching to the MB2SE that a dealer was offering ex-dem for only(!) £4k more, the best speaker I’ve ever auditioned. (I’ve since modified things to get close to the MB2, but still not the same.)
I think that is wise, and if the opportunity is there for a 25.24, that may be an option too. The 23’s will allow you to hear the capability of the nova and the speakers themselves, are not room fussy, and can be placed relatively close to a back wall. If you do head down an up grade path in the future, will be able to handle other options for power. Incidentally, there is a 20 year warranty for pmc products.
If cost is a major factor worth considering the previous 25.26, If you are in the UK/England a certain large PMC dealer has some new old stock pmc twenty5 26 for £4995, which I think is a great deal.