Hello everyone, which floorstanding speakers harmonize best with Naim Uniti Star? I am currently running it with B&W 602, it doesn’t make me very happy in the bass area. Would you have a recommendation to me. On my wish list would be the Focal Aria 936.
Thank you in Advance.
Not an easy question to answer as what “harmonize” well is personal.
To keep simple a quality bookshelf/standmount would be easiest to accommodate into your room.
For me floorstanders do give you more but imo you’ve got to put in more effort to get them to work well although again this is subjective.
I don’t know B&W 602 speakers but the Focal Aria 936 are 3 way floorstanders with min impedance 2.8 ohms which would suggest the Star may struggle to control/exploit them fully.
A speaker that is popular here for Nova, the Star’s big brother, is the PMC twenty5 21i so I’d certainly consider that.
A demo of the speakers on your list at your local dealer would help.
Best.
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Thank you first of all. At the high end in Munich, of course, I was at the Naim stand and got advice in a short time. The employee recommended the Aria 936 to me and to get the best out of it, he went with me to Kanta 2. Then he said: this speaker is the limit for the Naim Uniti Star. Unfortunately, I couldn’t listen to both. This was only possible with the star and the vestia. However, this combo already sounded very good. When I asked if the Aria 948 in the bass range was not better than the 936, he said: of course this goes deeper, but the resolution would be the 936 nicer. Therefore, he recommended the 936 or Kanta 2. Another quick note: I use the Chord Company EpicX as a speaker cable, if that is of concern.
I run a Nova into Pro Ac D20Rs. No complaints in the base department. Lovely natural sound. Previously had PMC twenty.23s. As often stated all about personal choice but I have never regretted the change.
If you know what you like already that’s a good place to be.
Suggest you demo to see how they work in your room.
That said like diggerbj I’m a D20R fan for the qualities they have. Everyone’s a bit guilty of recommending what they have!
Good luck.
The right answer will depend on your own ears, so I’d strongly encourage you to try listening to a few options, ideally in the actual room in which you listen.
It may also depend on placement - some floor-standers (even small ones) need a lot more space behind and/ or to each side than others do. With many, the louder you play, the more space they need.
Having said all that, I would certainly include Neat iota Alphas on any shortlist of this sort unless they will be sitting on a deep shag-pile carpet. Most of the Neat range are very good indeed (including Motives, Ekstras and Xplorers), but these are good value ex-dem or s/h, tiny and a great match with both Nova and Atom (so should suit a Star well).
Other options well worth hearing would include the ProAc D20Rs, but that is a lot of speaker for a Star to really get working. Spendor A4s might well be a better choice, but you won’t know without listening.
Depending on where in the world you are, non-UK options like Driade Model 2, Totem Fires or Shahinian Compasses may be easier to find.
Finally, ancillaries. Your cables are probably fine, but some speakers will work better with different options. What goes under them matters too. Particularly if you are liberal with volume and have a bouncy wooden floor, you may well benefit from putting speakers on Isoacoustic Gaias instead of spikes.
As others have said it’s very personal, but if you otherwise like the B&W, why not consider a bigger pair? I’ve successfully used the 702s2 for quite a few years with my Star.
Thank you for the numerous answers and suggestions. I come from Nuremberg-Germany and here it is very sparsely populated with good dealers, let alone they also carry these brands. A store nearby, for example, has ATC speakers, the other B&W and Phonar. Therefore, that I have set myself a price limit of 5K, I try to get my ears and my system the most harmonized. Musically, I am broadly positioned, from classical to trance across, so it would be an advantage if the speaker also shines in the bass range. If someone comes from my area, you could possibly meet for a test listen and have a coffee.
ATC make wonderful speakers, but I am not sure that anything in their range will do what you need. Sonus Faber have a rather different presentation (not many heavy metal fans seem to buy them for example), but they make good floorstanders and there should be dealers near you. You should also be able to hear good Canton and Magico floorstanders.
I myself use B&W 804 D3s with Naim amplification, so I absolutely know they can work, but they are definitely not the only option - just try before you buy and compare to 1 or 2 other options.
The only Neat dealer in Germany that I know is in Unna, so nowhere near you, but a telephone call to them might be worthwhile.
Good luck!
I think I saw Naim (dealers?) package Uniti Star with Aria 926, I assume Naim feels that’s a good combination.
Yes, I read somewhere that Uniti Star is recommended to pair with Focal Kanta 1 (bookshelves), but I guess Focal Kanta 2 is as much as stretching you could do on Uniti Star’s potential (especially on the bass section).
I myself, use Uniti Star for the second system in my bedroom. Currently is connected into a budget-china-made Sonus Faber Principia 3 (the twin of SF Chameleon) through TQ Ultra Silver cable. But later when my Sopra2 arrive, then the current Sopra1 will be downgraded from my main system to my bedroom with the Star.
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Fake news! 
We have SF and I listen to loads of metal. On the end of a 300DR they do really well - tight bass, their strong midrange excels on guitar/vocals and with SL speaker cable the treble has just enough sparkle without being fatiguing. The new Metallica album sounds fabulous, as does grindcore, death metal etc etc. Complex music which pushes amps and speakers to their limit.
The reason we have SF is that after demos against other brands we actually found them really well rounded, which was important to us as SWMBO and myself have some common likes, but also some wildly disparate favs.
There were brands with sparklier treble, deeper bass but nothing with such a coherent presentation across many different genre of music. Of course they do absolutely excel at presenting vocal/acoustic music.
Speakers are the most personal part of a hifi system aren’t they, sure to divide opinion……
Thanks @IainO - I am happy to be corrected.
Which floorstanding SFs would you suggest the OP tries with a Naim Star?
I generally don’t recommend speakers. Forum search will show what others are using.
As I say, our demos showed that two people can come to completely different conclusions on the same setup. Our main dealer thought we might like Spendor, we did not.
Room placement is also key - our SF for example have downward firing ports, so can be fairly close to a rear wall.
Too many factors. Amplifier, cabling, minimum impedance, nominal impedance, porting, tweeter type, placement.
Not like saying “buy a 300DR it’s fantastic” at all.
I would say our Sonetto iii were okay on SuperUniti, good on 250DR and they’re now excellent with 300DR.
For more bass there is the Sonetto V.
Focals are £3K, there are loads of options in the 3-3.5k range.
I would like to upgrade our speakers at some point, they were bought when we had a completely different system. However we are in zero rush. Dealer has Olympicas…. could get expensive
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Don’t forget the good German brands Elac and Canton !
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Many thanks to everyone for the interesting answers so far. The trial listening of the different brands will still be difficult, let alone listen to rehearsal in my 4 walls😄. Although the ProAc also read interesting. The only speakers mentioned that I could hear rehearsal would be the B&W 702 Signature or the 702 S2. Can any of you recommend a hi-fi store in southern Germany?
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Speaking of Kanta 2s; I’d be hesitant to run them from a Star. I ran a pair from a Nova for a year, and while they sounded nice, they sure weren’t driven to (close) to their potential. Put a 250DR in the mix and thins improved dramatically, and got better still as we waltzed down upgrade row.
I imagine the Star would do nicely with 936s or a Kanta 1 though.
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Sorry. There looked to be good hifi shops in Munchen last time I was there - in the late 90s
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There you go again, bringing back memories 
Before I ever set foot in a dedicated HiFi store I used to ogle the wondrous selection of HiFi components stocked by the department stores in central Munich back in '81/'82 as a very independent 13 year old.
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The 702 looks like an awful lot of speaker for a Star. If you are spending that sort of money you may be best swapping to a Nova and getting lesser speakers. If you like the sound of Focal speakers, then the 926 or 936 should be a decent match. I wouldn’t only look at floorstanders - you can get some very fine stand mounts. Certainly I’m very happy with my PMC twenty5.21i speakers with my Nova. I’d suggest that you have a good listen to anything you are considering, and ideally try them at home too.
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All I can say, from my own experience and having auditioned quite a few others, they work really well on the end of a Star. The Nova didn’t bring much more out of them.