I hear you. I have a high end IEM too (64Audio U12T). Been comparing it against my Dragonfly Cobalt and just for fun, Chord HTT2. It was a win for the HTT2, but not a massive win. Which did surprise me - a lot.
I’ve had the Qutest as well, without question the best VFM DAC that I’ve ever owned or heard.
Paired with an nDAC and a good power supply, e.g. a 555PS, a Bluesound Node sounds great and offers the convenience of a user-friendly interface with good integration of the most commonly used services.
As streamer technology evolves, a good DAC can be retained and paired with more recent transports. Used Bluenode streamers can be bought and sold on with little loss.
These are my thoughts exactly. Don’t have a lot of eggs in one basket.
Agreed. The Node is a great streamer, easy to use and even better when used with a separate DAC. DAC tech my also make a leap as well as streamer tech remember.
On the speaker front, I’d include ATCs on your bookshelf speaker audition list. I think Audio T stock them, though not sure about Manchester. They’re sealed boxes, so less sensitive to positioning than some ported designs and to my ears give wonderful insight into the music partly a result, I suspect, of their studio heritage. They do like power so I’d be inclined to go for SCM 11s rather than 19s with a SuperNait. Even with high quality stands they’d be well within budget.
Roger
Here is my list for Audio T.
Dynaudio Special 40
Dynaudio Evoke 20
ATC SCM 11/19
NEAT Acoustics Petite 30
NEAT Acoustics Ministra
ProAc Tabs
ProAc Response D
Spendor Classic 3/1
Harbeth C7ES-3 XD
I’ve asked for Naim Supernait 3 and Bluesound NODE 2021 as the upstream. Then I want to get that speaker list down to a few and add a Chord Qutest into the mix. Then replace the NODE with and without the Chord Qutest with the Naim ND5.
Has anyone else done such a long demo session? Any advice? Should I be asking them to position the speakers and chair roughly the same as I have it at home or is that unreasonable to expect?
Wow! You’ll need to take provisions and smile nicely to use the loo!
Recipe for disaster right there.
Narrow your list down to 3 speakers in one demo session otherwise you’ll leave not knowing whether you’re coming or going.
Well you have a good list of speakers to go at i must say, as for a long demo session i have all way’s found i feel uncomfortable until my last trip for some new speakers ( a long story) but it was a very pleasant experience and i now have the system i always wanted.
Hopefully you will have a good time testing and finding what you like, have fun and let us know how you get on.
I think the issue with that list is that they’re likely to sound pretty different in your room. If you have speaker positioning flexibility, then perhaps not so critical, but their interaction in your room will likely affect how your think of them.
If it was me, I might try and either pit brands against each other, Neat Vs Proac Vs Dynaudio, but pick just one of each. Or pick a brand, and narrow down which of their offerings you prefer. Then get your shorter list home for a demo.
I don’t have a great suggestion for handing the Harbeth Spendor and ATC, other than putting them in their own battle X)
Maybe if the dealership can support a long demo session, and that’s the only option, split the session up that sort of way, with lots of breaks, and taking lots of notes.
There sure is an ideal way, that does this in lots of sessions, but I’m also sure we don’t all have the luxury of the time to do that sort of thing.
Anything you can do to reduce your shortlist quickly will help, so if close to wall, or positioning in lots of free space are off the cards, you can likely exclude designs optimised for that placement.
What’s your room like?
How flexible is speaker placement?
Can you get them close to a wall?
Can you put them in free space?
I will also say that it does sound like fun, and having a list of cracking speakers to choose between sounds great, so I hope this isn’t turning into a drama 
I think the the list is way too long. You will not be able to make proper judgement if you want to audition it in one day. I would say that around 2-3 hours is what the brain can take at once…
I have done exactly that demo.
I chose the Neat Ministras, they were by far the best. Perfect speaker. Choose that one.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Surgeoner.
(joking, obviously, sorry, couldn’t resist 
)
Yes, I agree that list is silly big and I’m sure I can exclude certain speakers quite quickly with a demo.
I certainly believe this is going to be a trade-off depending what my preferences are. I can only use my experience of IEMs to which my favourite are the Sony IER-Z1R. I believe these are my favourites due to gorgeous texturing of the bass. I’ve had Empire Ears Odin costing twice as much and I found the mids far too forward (W Shaped).
I also had some MMR Thummim and these were my second favourite IEM but the bass on the Sony pipped them.
I want something I can listen to for hours without feeling the need to turn them off or turn them down. Again, from IEM experience I found that true of the Odin’s due to them been too analytical at the top end.
If this is a game of give and take I’d rather sacrifice top end detail for textured/layered bass.
I’ve been listening to Jacques Loussier all day and I’m not even a big classical/jazz fan but the Naim just keeps me wanting more. Tomorrow I might wake up and blast some Parov Stelar, my musical mood changes so much from day to day.
I think my biggest concern is the placement of my speakers. Currently there is an 8 inch gap between back of the 3030i and the wall. Walls either side are about 1.5 meters away as my room is wide and shallow. Listening position is roughly 3 meter triangle. Room is carpeted with large plush fabric sofa.
The wall behind the speakers is an external wall so pretty solid compared to a partition wall.
I have a funny feeling I am going to love the Dynaudio Special 40s but I also have the same funny feeling they will sound very different at my home compared to that of the demo room.
I would demo three at the most at one time…
My first visit would be to listen to the ATC SCM 19, ProAC D2R and Harbeth C7ES-3 ED.
If nothing works out I would ask for another demo date.
I hope you have a good dealer to work with and good luck with your journey and future decisions.
If it were me I’d sort the source out first, using whichever speaker the dealer recommends. With just the Node it will be much harder to work out which speakers are preferred as the source will be the limit with all of them. Alternatively, use an NDX2, the natural bedfellow of the SN3, and pick your favourite three speakers. Then sort out the source and take it and the three favourite speakers home. Remember too that it’s essential that all the speakers are fully run in. In these odd times that is probably easier than done.
Great advice from all, much appreciated!
Call me sceptical but I’m wary of ‘salespeople’. Do they have my best interests at heart or their numbers?
The only theory I have so far is that when I bought the SN3 it was running Dynaudio Evoke 50s and I did think how suited they are to my needs with regards to their top end. I was there for a good 1.5 hours and at no point did I think they were starting to ring my ears.
Based on that, I think I pick similar tweeters from the range I’ve listed. Then maybe throw something in completely different to see if my theory is correct. That may exclude some other speakers on the list instantly. But then again it could include other speakers I’ve not even listed.
I remember what my old Monitor Audios sounded like and I absolutely can’t make the same mistake twice. I also remember what my XTZ speakers (home theatre granted) sounded like and I’m certainly twice bitten at this point.
I also remember my mates B&Ws and that was an awful experience whenever I went to visit (RIP Dave - no offence meant). I also remember some Mission speakers from my work experience days and they were also just awful!
That reminds me, I blame my high school for all this due to spending two weeks in a specialist hifi shop for work experience. I’d be rich by now if it wasn’t for that.
I agree with @anon4489532 - use an NDX2 as the source to audition speakers. Otherwise you might end up with the speaker that works best with the limitations of the Node. Very likely not the best choice in the long(er) run.
I would also keep an eye on the speaker cables and power cords used during the demo. No exotic or crazy expensive stuff. Preferably standard Naim leads, maybe Power-Lines and the NACA5 as proven standards with Naim kit.
Also note that stands have a considerable effect on the SQ and presentation of bookshelves/monitors. A stand that works well with speaker A doesn’t necessarily work well with speaker B. In particular with both Dynaudio and ‘thin wall’ BBC-ish designs like the Spendor and Harbeth in the mix.
They have targets to reach, yes, but that doesn’t stop them wanting to do their best for you.
I was in sales /dealing direct for around thirty years. Long term relationships are vital in high value sales.
What you are doing with such a long list is making it difficult for the salesman.
A good salesman will also tell you if you are wrong -( as happened to me yesterday ) and why .
Though to be fair, I think audio suffers from too many dealers who spend more attention to what is coming from their one mouth than listening with two ears to their customer
So, it turns out even though Audio T list most of those speakers, they don’t actually have any stock unless I want to do an 8 hour drive.
I’ve found a selection of differnet dealers that have a combination of those on my list, however, this is far from ideal. I’ve asked about home demos and all I get is a reply asking me to visit store first to see if I like the speakers I am interested in. I seem to be working much harder than the salepeople I am talking to, I’m pretty sure this should be the other way round.
Had a real good think last night and even though there are lots of speakers out there that I would love to listen to maybe this just isn’t feasable. I audiotined my Supernait 3 on Dynaudio Evoke 50 and I loved the sound - maybe I just got really lucky and found my prefered sound by mistake. Maybe some of the other speakers would sound even better to my ears, maybe if I keep saying maybe I’ll still be using my Q Acoustics 3030i this time next year.
I can’t reach the Evoke 50 price, but I can just about stretch to the Evoke 30’s. I’ve been reading about Dynaudio and they appear to have one of the better audio laboratories and as a Science bloke myself I do believe in that type of R&D. I’ve also been reading more about the Special 40s and whilst they get glowing results there is quite a big debate on that forum I was told not to visit - it appears from the experts there is a major flaw with the Special 40, which I’m not going to get into on here. I don’t believe the Evoke range suffers from the same flaw and from what I have been reading the Evoke uses a different technology which I can’t find any bad words about.
Yes, so I started with a budget of 2.5k and asked for Bookshelves. I seem to be going down a 3k Floorstander route now. Again, my only concern is the wall behind the rear ported speakers - but I can bung this if needed.
So my conclusion to all this;
I’d like to demo Evoke 30 and it’s closest sealed or front ported rival at home. Am I going to be better suited to any of the rivals with regards to the tweeter that I found so beautiful on the Evoke 50 though?
So, anyone with memorable demos like to share which speakers are similar to Evoke 50 but cheaper? I presume if I enjoyed the Evoke 50 so much I would also enjoy the Evoke 30.
@chrisgtl I went through a similar demo journey about 9 months ago, including many of the speakers on your list, plus various amps and digital sources.
My only advice would be to break this into a number of different sessions as otherwise there is too much to take in and mental fatigue will set in. Also worth taking a friend or partner along if you’ve got a willing participant as it’s helpful to have someone else to talk through what you’re both hearing. Can help with overcoming some of the confirmation bias that can otherwise creep in.
Enjoy - it’s a lot fun
Link to my experience and findings: Recommendations for bookshelf speakers with an Atom
