Dear experts, have a spare Unitqute and thinking of giving to good lady to use in dressing room. Would appreciate advice as to a suitable bookshelf speaker that can the driven easily by the ‘qute’, nothing too expensive please! cheers
I have a UQ1 in my office and have used 3 different bookshelves with it. It’s a medium to small-sized room and pretty well treated (rug, cloth sofa, pillows, etc.)
For almost 2 years, I had an old pair of Q Acoustics 2020i speakers running - they were just ok. Something to listen to, but a bit flat and not very dynamic.
From there, I put a pair of KEF LS50 Metas in their place. Great drive, open and expansive, but way too much speaker for the room. When I would sit in front of them, I’d unconsciously push myself back into the wall to create some distance. Needless to say, I couldn’t volume them up too much in that space. If your room is bigger, could be an option. But they also seem to be pretty power hungry…
The Goldilocks speaker is the Neat Iotas I got over the summer. At first, I thought they were too reserved and sounding meh at lower volumes. I think that was the direct response to my ear being re-conditioned by the KEFs. Now that I’ve run them in for 3 months, I’m super thrilled with them. Listening to some low volume classical Internet radio right now, and it’s perfect. In the evening, if I switch to Radio Paradise or stream CDs, they really come alive. Same drive and attack as the KEFs, but also with a bit of sparkle to them (maybe the ribbon tweeter?) I really enjoy them across a range of volumes and styles of music. They’re super compact, but don’t sound like a small speaker. The more you drive them, the more they respond. 100% would recommend.
That said, I think the Q Acoustics were £200 when I bought them in 2013(?) and the KEFs and Neats are £1k+. So a huge difference in price.
Not sure where you’d land budget wise, but after these 3 I always wanted to throw a pair of sub-1k Dynaudio Emit 10/20s, more expensive Q Acoustics, or even a pair of S/H Sonus Faber Lumina 1s.
Definitely not impressed with any B&W bookshelf that I experimented with. Thin and shouty.
Hopefully others have some more diverse options, experiences. Good luck!!
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I use a UQ1 with Neat Iotas for our TV setup and occasional straight streaming. Considering they’re in a living room and are not very well placed, they sound pretty good. In some aspects they give my main system a few worries, a bit more dynamic sounding at times.
I haven’t actually looked, but they’re probably not a very easy load for the UQ to drive…
6 Ohms and 84 dB sensitivity. Maybe just the lack of sensitivity to worry about then
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I used a UQ2 with some Neat Iotas for a while and found them gutless unless turned up really loud. As it’s a dressing room I’d suggest selling the UQ and getting a Qb2. It’s much simpler, no wires to worry about, and it sounds great.
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Without being specific about budget, it’s tall question. Spenders work well with Naim and there are several models of different ages ]from which to choose, Give serious consideration to HH’s suggestion, Qb2 or even Muso2 - either available pre-used, again depending on what you really want to spend.
It certainly does but nowhere near the performance of UQ w/bookshelf speakers, apart from being able to play loud and use wider streaming options.
Most office setups are in smaller rooms with no need to high SPL.
I have to agree. With a house full of Sonos, I have many opportunities to listen to music from a single speaker. Yes, the Naim MuSo and QB series are better than Sonos SQ wise. But I haven’t heard anything from a single speaker that bests a pair of stereo separated ones.
Horses for courses, of course of course. If you want less boxes, wires, etc. then a MuSo/QB is great. If you want better sound…
My son uses Blumenstein Audio Thrashers, now Tritons, and they sound very qood with his Unitiqute2b. Blumenstein has several other models that might work, too. Blumenstein is direct to consumer from Washington State, USA. We got the recommendation from a West Coast Naim dealer who uses the speaker in commercial applications, i.e. restaurants and retail. You can find him on the web or see what he is doing on Instagram under blumensteinaudio.
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The best speakers I heard with the UQ was the little Dali Menuet. Current version may be a bit expensive for your use case. Maybe the small Oberon standmount?
Guru Jr was all the rage when the UQ was new. Also small Totem speakers called Dreamcatcher.
Maybe these last two can be found second hand
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I’d try and audition the Dynaudio Emit series if you can. Also, I think Dynaudio have a very attractive December offer on the entire Emit range as well - worth investigating.
I’m currently using Emit20s with a UnitiQute2 to great effect, although they need a little space behind them due to the rear port (30cm in my case), the pairing work very well together.
I ‘bookmarked’ an experience at the Acoustica show a couple of years back, where the Dynaudio rep had two rooms at the show. Room one had a full Naim 300 series powering Dynaudio Contour floor standers, and the second room, just a modest Naim Atom and Emit 20. This particular system was one of the very best sounding rooms of the show - perhaps just a coincidence of system and room synergy, but even so. The friend I was with also confirmed that I wasn’t listening with ‘romantic ears’ as it were.
I’d definitely given them a listen, especially if the offer is still on.
I have x3 UQ all using Dynaudio Excite X12 loudspeakers on Dynaudio stands. At the time I purchased them - the dealer recommended the pairing with the words “with that box this is the best sound we can make” - so after a quick demo I thought they sounded good. Perfect kitchen system. Probably a bit of overkill but they are still sounding good.
Thank you all for your suggestions so far.
Exactly what I find, fabulous form factor, great at high volume but not good in a “near field” office scenario, haven’t yet found a suitable replacement but not tried too hard, something for 2024….perhaps a NY resolution…really must get onto it.
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