I think the ND5 XS 2 with an integrated amp would be a nice option since you are familiar with the Heed gear and you would have some items to trade in to offset the cost. Arranging a home demo may be easier then swapping everything around. It is great having options…
Good luck with your decisions and look forward to reading about the upcoming adventure!
A bit of the back story is that Mrs Mike doesn’t want anymore hi-fi in the lounge, which is fair enough. And, I use the second system a lot more these days and she is happy for me to rearrange that room as I like. Hi-fi is certainly an adventure.
It sounds like a win-win situation, you do not have to disturb the lounge and then have the opportunity to build out the downstairs area into an equally or perhaps better sounding ‘second’ system!
…yes, Hi-Fi is an adventure, enjoy…
How about active speakers? That would give you 1, 2 or 3 box source to keep things simple. ATC would be the obvious choice, or maybe Dynaudio.
Do you need a tv in the office room ?
Do you need a system downstairs if you finally decide to put your main system in the office ?
Because, if the big Totem work good in the office ( first thing to absolutely try I feel), and if your wife don’t want to have music and speakers downstairs, you could sell the Nova and the Hawks, and buy a 282 to go with your SN2.
But, as the space is limited, the big tv and the rack under it will limit the sound quality. And the table on the left too.
You would have a dedicated listening room, which is a dream for most of us.
If the Forest don’t work well in the office, you can try the Hawks, driven by SN2/ Ndx2 , as suggested Chrissu.
But I imagine it’s a lot of work. Better be in holidays to do that.
Anyways, so far I have established that changing the table in the left corner to a smaller one, turned towards the back wall, will provide for suitable speaker positioning and remove that restriction. Tomorrow I will haul down the Forests and see how they go, and if favourable, try the SN2 as well.
It’s difficult, as a dedicated listening room for the main system downstairs in the office is desirable, but dropping the performance upstairs in the lounge is undesirable. Probably a good problem to have created for myself. Mrs Mike is very bemused, but tinker, man must do 
It’s not so sure that the performance will drop, because in the lounge your space is very big , so can also be problematic…
I am very curious on how it will work for you. I hope the best.
I’d swap if I were you. A dedicated listening room will have way more scope in the long run. You can start thinking about acoustic treatment without having to figure out how to break it to the mrs that you are going to stick strange things on the walls. Also might have better bass in a smaller room. And it’s not like you’d have bad sound in the main room!
The only problem that comes to my mind is the view. The lounge is so nice, open, with a view on the sea.
There’s also the problem of having the office and the listening room in a same room. Can be a problem for some.
The third problem is the low ceiling , 2,1 m.
Even if it’s worth doing the effort and see how the main system can sound in that office, with Forrest or Hawks, there is a better solution : Put Mrs S in the office and close the door 
I have the same problem , so both my wife and I had to find a compromise. I listen at low volumes when she sleeps, and only 1 hour per day when she is at home. And more when she is outside.
Yes, the office (which is downstairs, lunge is upstairs) also doubles as our movie room with the large OLED TV. I watch a lot of music blurays and 4K movies there. Having the better setup there would improve that experience.
Exactly, but there would still be a system there, and I can only use the lounge with speakers when I am home alone, or when the family watches TV.
This is probably okay, as it’s my office and I’m moving to part time, so more time for music!
A bit stuck with that. I added a false floor as a precaution for very rare flooding. This reduced the ceiling height.
Hi @anon23154165, I saw your comments on the speaker thread about small versus large listening rooms and wondered if you had any thoughts on the issues I’m discussing here?
So you will try and swap ?
If it were me, setting aside any potential technical difficulties, I’d have my main speaker system downstairs (your office) and use the Nova as the communal system upstairs in the living room. I’d also have a headphone amp/DAC so I could look out at the amazing views you have while not disturbing anyone.
I’m sort of in a similar position in that my better half enjoys listening to her own music in the living room and kitchen. So, if I want some quality critical listening, my office is the obvious place. To begin with it felt limited, due to size but as it happens, it’s turned out to be anything but. Now, I can listen to music at good level of loudness and the better half just uses a Phillips Hue light scene if she wants to call me so she doesn’t have to shout upstairs 
I would try and clear the office floor space for a bit so I could try out various seating positions that allow you to move speakers against and away from the wall. Rather than trying to squeeze a larger listening triangle into a small space, don’t be afraid to try smaller ones with more space around the outside. This will potentially mean you will hear the sounds directly from the speakers without any/fewer reflections.
The key is to give yourself plenty of time to experiment with different layouts and narrow it down to one that sounds great but fits in with your work. That size office shouldn’t be a problem though and you would be able to gain the most out of your best gear and have a good system for general use in the living room!
Edit… basically, you will be free to choose a layout to give you the best sound rather than a layout to suit family living.
I’ll try the Forests with the SN2 as a test first.
Actually… while I didn’t have a problem combing office and listening room, you do need to think about power point positioning. I ended up installing 5 extra sockets to the room and distanced the ones for the computers etc as far away as possible from my dedicated audio ones.
Thank you very much for the detailed response. I do have a DAC and headphone amp I can use in the lounge if I move the Core there, which is feasible.
I’ll try this out. The door positions and my desk, along with the large TV really limit the options to playing across the room, but the crunch can be moved easily for dedicated listening. I can only really tidy up the back left corner with a smaller desk, which will give more open space in front of the left speaker.
You could have it so you pull speakers or seating out for critical listening and back for background. I ended up installing monitor arms so I could move my monitor and large drawing screens back up against the wall so they don’t get in the way. Sometimes you take a good speaker position etc and then tweak other desks, monitors etc around you to make it even better.
I was more saying that the listening room is a break, leisure, to relax…and the office the work. It’s on the psychological point of view.
I know what you mean and you’re right of course. I’m fortunate enough to enjoy my work but I also took the time to turn the room into a retreat that I feel comfortable in so I can work and relax in the same room.
I imagine that is not comfortable for Mike to wait the moment when he is alone in the living room to be able to appreciate his music and system.
All this is not easy. I fear he is the only one to find the best solution.