I’ve been enjoying my new Nova for a couple of days now. What a piece of art. Love it! It works perfect and with none of the software issues that is mentioned in older posts.
Now to my point. I was about to sell my old ProAc Studio 140 as (I thought) my speaker upgrade Dynaudio Special Forty would be the perfect partner for the Nova. But man was I wrong. Nova makes my Proacs sing as they have never done before. Wonderful depth and width and with an imaging that is fantastic, S40 sounds more analytical and has IMHO a smaller soundstage. A/B testing at home did it for me. S40 is great but I’ll stick with the floorstander.
In my previous set up Sonos Port/Primare i30/ProAc140 the S40 was the winner, more sophisticated sound in many ways.
So I will say goodbye to my S40. Sometimes things end up differently! My upgrade path for the Nova in the future will definately be within the ProAc family, DT8, D20R or D30R.
S40 are brilliant but not the easiest to drive (a few similar threads on Nova and speakers if you look it up)
I think all you need to do now is enjoy:)
How old are your Dynaudios? They can take quite some time to break in, so if they’re not very old you may need some more time for them to show their true abilities.
On the other hand, it could just be that the Proacs suit your room and/or your personal tastes better, in which case you’ve saved yourself some cash.
I have run ProAc D30RS speakers with a SuperNait 2 and 282/250 DR setup so you should get to a dealer and get a demo with a NOVA to see if it works for you. If you enjoy ProAc you should explore the range at a dealer if you can. Good luck with your decision.
ProAc’s Baby … I had S40 with SN2, S40 is hard to drive and sounds like Dynaudio’s
I have D20R much easier to drive and to listen to.
Every time I’ve tried other speaker brands I always end up back with the ProAc.
I once had a Supernait/Tablette 8 system and now have ProAc Studio 140 mk2s with a NAC N-272 and NAP-250DR. Naim and ProAc are consistently a magical combination, as many on this forum agree. If I ever upgrade my 140s, I will only look at ProAc. The DT8 seems especially intriguing, but I have not listened.
You’ll find different opinions over here. I’m very happy with my Special Forty’s, driven by a NAC-N 272 and NAP250DR. They look gorgeous in the living room!
You are absolutely correct that the sound of our system is personal taste. I have heard S40’s in my dealers demo and they were nice but I did not like them more than the sound of my ProAc speakers. When I choose my ProAc D2 speakers the choice came down between a pair of ATC SMC19 or the ProAc D2’s. I believe I could have lived with either but the ProAc speakers won that day.
It can also be the system combo source, amplification, power supplies, etc, etc, plus room and perhaps even how we are feeling that day can impact the decision. That is why a demo at the dealer than a home demo for a week or so is important.
There is no wrong decision or opinions, just personal choices and at times best guess if buying without or limited time demonstrations.
