I have a Naim New Classic 222/250/300 with CD5Si.
Does anyone have experience of speakers with this new Naim series?
My budget is max £7500
Possibles are
PMC25 23i
PMC25 24i
PMC Prophesy 5
PMC Fact 8 Signature
Neat Orchestra
Splendor D7:2
Linn 150
Spendor D7.2?
Good afternoon,
I’m sure folks with experience of those boxes will be along, but golden rule with speakers, demo essential if possible in your listening room.
Good luck.
Thanks Jaybar-I’m trying not to drive my dealer crazy with too many options but agree with LindsayM that listening in your own music room is essential.
Interesting that you say Splendor D7:2 as I had these on a previous list following a previous thread on the forum but didn’t include them. I’ll add them again.
Can you get a home audition ? In NYC ONE CANNOT get home auditions? I trusted my dealer and they proved a great upgrade to my Spendor A4. I am getting my series 300 components installed this week. Upgrading from SN3 and NDX2/XPSDr.
I don’t have an NPX 300 (yet!) but I recently bought a pair of Kudos Titan 606s (pre-loved) in pristine condition for less than your budget from a well known Naim / Kudos dealer. I previously demo’d the Spendor D7.2s, and although nice, I much prefer the 606s. To my ears they are much better all round. So don’t just consider new. There are bargains out there.
Home demo is a must though to be confident they will work well in your system / room. Unless of course you can return them at little to no cost.
Interesting, the 606’s are an Isobaric design similar to the Neats on my list-another one to think about. To be honest I am open to pre-loved and there are examples in my list that i could have access to, ideally my budget is in the £5500 region including trade in. To go further something would have to really make a"Big" difference. Speakers are a bit of a minefield, so many brands and price levels-these will be my last purchase. Thanks for responding!
The 606s are well worth a listen.
DG…
Tell us a little bit more about the space you want to fill and how flexible you are with speaker positioning. Maybe post a picture of your room. Some speakers demand space around the and some can go close to the boundary etc.
Maybe start with going to a few dealer events and listening to options and build a relationship with a dealer and do the demo thing. Worth spending time to get it right….and most dealers will know what works well with Naim.
Gary
I’d delete the PMC Fact 8 Sig. it’s a bit on the hot side of neutral for me.
And add the PMC 25/26i , magnificent speaker for the money .
ATC SCM40 are a great match for the 222/300/250, I still use them now I have upgraded to a 332/333.
There’s a pair of both Neat XLS and Kudos 505s in the flea pit.
Speakers all sound very different, and have the greatest influence of any component on the overall character of a system’s sound, so you really need to audition widely to find what suits your taste. If I had no prior experience of various speakers I would expect to have an initial cursory audition hearing many different speakers, very possibly at several different dealers, then a more focussed session or two comparing the top three or four.
Meanwhile it is worth bearing in mind that buying secondhand, or at least ex-dem, maximises your buying power, potentially enabling you to include higher models.
If you buy second hand and then something happens, what are ones options? Also if people don’t support dealers, what will ksporn when we need them?
On the first, whilst they can happen speaker failures are rare, with a long life of several/many decades. Also secondhand, and especially ex-dem, need not be old. On the second, ex-dem would be from a dealer, while many dealers also sell secondhand stock that they have taken as trade-ins (and, incidentally, all usually with at least an initial warranty period, and if, for example PMC, ex-dem should have the full PMC 20-year warranty).
Thanks for the tip, interesting you have upgraded and kept the speakers, I’ve just seen a pair on offer at £2499.
Thanks for the response. I think that choosing speakers is more difficult than choosing the system, most dealers only stock 3-5 brands among the plethora of brands on the market and quite naturally tend to push what they have (and believe in) So ultimately you are limited in demos unless you want to travel around the country and even then it is the acoustics in your room that really matters! My dealer is very helpful, but I thought that I would ask the question specifically about matching to the new classic range based on the experience on the forum, so thank you for your responses which always provide food for thought .
Has the upgrade made a huge diffence? and in which areas?
I kept them because to me they are better than any other speaker around their price point.
Moving up to the 333/332 with NPX300s improved everything. Immediately obvious was that bass was better controlled, the mids sounded more present so bringing more out of the ATC dome mid, and the top smoother. The sound stage was better, and the noise floor was lower, the silence between individual notes was more apparent. Vocal had more clarity. Overall it felt there was more life and clarity to the sound. If I was going to upgrade from the 40s it would be to SCM50s but they are over twice the price and I don’t have space for them even though the room is big enough to accommodate them. I have heard the 40s driven by a full 500 system and they sounded even better and it didn’t feel like the speakers were letting the front end down, as you would expect from a speaker with such a strong professional heritage.
At £2499 for a secondhand pair is about half the list price for a speaker many reviewers have said better almost all speakers a few thousand pounds more than they are. Give them a listen in my advice.