I have also that the Magico A5s are a great value for the price and easily driven
The Magico A3 have a list price of around 15,900 EUR compared to double the Proak K6 Signature.
Of course the price does not always mean.
Your comment is interesting.
Comment from a Naim Community person:
“
For what it’s worth I have heard Kudos Titan 808s. Impressive, but didn’t do it for me in the same way that ProAc does.
“
Quote “I will certainly listen to the speakers before buying them”.
Decided not it seems.
Hope it turns out OK,bearing in mind the major room, isolation and equipment positioning issues you had a few weeks ago.
Bruce
If you’ve been following the Forum for any length of time, you’ll have noticed a widely held appreciation of Kudos’ Titan range, the comment you quoted is probably unrepresentative of the Forum as a whole. Personally, I think Antz is right.
But, given that you haven’t listened to any of your shortlist at home, and that you like your exiting Proacs, upgrading to a “better” pair is likely to be your safest option.
I wonder though, given that you had been happy with your existing speakers, how many here would have advised saving your pennies towards a 552. In your position, that’s what I’d have done.
I’ve got a very similar system
And use b&w 804 D3s and love em…
To be fair not listened to any others but I’m very happy with them and they look great.
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Have a listen if you can to thekudos 606 .You will be amazed
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Whatever you finally decide to shortlist, have a care with Naim power amps. Whatever the website claims, the amps (with the exception of Statement) are not ‘beefy’ at all. They will all struggle to drive low sensitivity/low impedance speakers due to the nature of their output stages. They are really only capable of driving easy loads.
My dealer had a pair of Raidho C1s, a small, stand-mount two-way with ceramic woofer and a very uncomfortable impedance pattern. No amp seemed able to make it sound properly until we decided to give a Nait 5si a try. They flourished immediately. The late Dave Wilson is reported to have replied, to someone complaining about the difficulty to drive his loudspeaker systems, ‘Have you ever heard a pair of Sophias with a Naim Nait 5i?’
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Are you in the UK ? If so, then I’m told that ProAc have a couple of demo pairs of the high end K series speakers which move around the country from dealer to dealer.
Paul
Good to see you posting here, Max
Thanks!
M.
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aristoweb,
you have a wonderful system. I have listened to 252/SC/300 many times at a friend’s and at my dealer’s, and have come to the personal conclusion that it is the best sounding, more cost/performance effective Naim amp. I am not currently owning Naim, but should I ever return to my ‘hometown’ brand it would only be 252/SC/300.
I have heard it with Harbeth SHL5s, Focal Sopra 2, Focal Kanta 2 and just yesterday with a brand new pair of Sopra 1s. While I am not a big fan of Focals, in each occasion I could appreciate the beautiful, detailed, relaxing but energetic presentation of the amp. I have also heard the 252/SC/300 combo with Canton Reference 5K and 7Ks and with a very costly pair of ProAc K6 or 8, sorry I don’t remember which. Whatever the speakers, 252/SC/300 was always authoritative and powerful, with extended, solid, controlled bass, smooth top-end and perfectly focused stage. Consider that Harbeth and Focal probably embody the opposites in sonic design…
That is just to say that in my opinion such amplification system will likely make any speaker system sound good; now, two important elements in helping you make the decision are: have you carefully heard any of the speakers in your list, even with different amps? What is your taste in music and sound?
My somehow unorthodox suggestion could be to browse personally wherever you can for speaker systems that fit your maximum budget (it’s always a good thing to buy the best you can afford, avoiding what can often be detected as uselessly overpriced, over-hyped fancy stuff), find something that you like whatever the amp and rely on the 300 to make it sound at its best. This as an alternative to the more reliable but inconvenient option of demoing at home a number of different designs and the less reliable option of basing your choice on someone else’s taste. It’s your money and your ears, no-one else’s.
Best with your quest,
mb
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Thanks to this forum and to the precious people who populate it, I learned a lot and solved the problems
Surely the Kudos 606 will be extraordinary speakers too.
I read on the forum a comment from some time ago:
anon5525519
Oct '19
@frenchrooster I don’t know. I do know ProAc have a wonderful transparency and if setup right will throw a huge soundstage and have this uncanny ability to sonically disappear. Dynaudio are another great speaker, and a good match with Naim, Magico I’ve heard them a few times they are very revealing and take the absolute right gear. And truthfully I haven’t heard the Kudos. And there’s a devout group of Harbeth lovers who have the same zeal as Naimies: grinning:
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I confess that I have never heard a 5i. What is it’s specification? W into 8, 4 and 2, damping factor and slew rate?
Proac K6 Signature spec :
Nominal Impedance
4 ohms
Recommended Amplifiers
10 to 250 watts
Frequency Response
25Hz-30kHz
Sensitivity
90 dB linear for 1 watt at 1 metre
Thank you Max.
Your comment is very interesting and important.
I recently added 4 Isoacoustics Isopuck pins under each electronics to my system, Isoacoustics Gaia II pins under the speakers and a Puritan 156 to the power line, as well as a Furutech NCF wall socket.
The musical experience has improved even more with fantastic and even more three-dimensional sound.
Hi, sorry, I was replying about the 5i integrated. Apologies for the confusion!
However, your speaker numbers are interesting. Good sensitivity, but the ‘nominal impedance’ would concern me. Manufacturers use all sorts of terms to hide the real performance of their equipment and an independent set of measurements from a reputable source (stereophile e.t.c) are invaluable. With these speakers, I would really want to know the lowest impedance that they present to the amplifier. Remember, the lower the impedance, the higher the current demand and this is where Naim amps struggle. The 300 is the best of the bunch however in this regard (better than he compromised 500), so you have a fighting chance!
And I confess that I have only heard it, never measured it nor did I find technical literature on it: as you may know, Naim is not very lavish about technical specifications…
It is stated to erogate 50W; when Naim and I were younger they used to specify that the number characterizing a power amp was the sum of the watts on both channels into 4 ohms; so a NAP 140 was supposed to release 70W/ch into a 4 ohms load; but that is not the case with their integrates.
Regarding Naim amps’ driving ability I can only add another short anecdote: a friend of mine had a pair of Avalon Acoustic Ascents with a big Rowland digital integrated; he had to send his amp for servicing so he borrowed a 62/HiCap/140 from a friend. He had always complained about his Avalons’ pickiness about amps, but called me in amazement to tell me (I was the Naim guy in the gang then) how easily the small shoebox Naims made the Avalon play.
I haven’t read ‘slew rate’ in a while - who talks about the time an amp takes to amplify a square wave today? It brings me back to the time I read StereoReview® and everything was only measured and nothing was listened to for a review, not even speakers mostly…
I don’t regret those times because I was in my twenties - not only - but because I miss objectivity a bit; that’s why I’ve spent a few weeks reading technical papers on speaker wires and now I am ready to post about how smart the NAC A5’s design is…
Best,
m