Thank you for joining the group and greetings from Finland to everyone.
I had a Naim XS3 and Naim ND5 XS streamer for over a year, I changed them to a Naim Uniti Nova a week ago. I have PMC Twenty 5.26 as speakers and NAC A5 as speaker cables. I was wondering if there would be another speaker that would be more suitable for that amplifier, are the speakers too big for the Nova? The space where I play is quite large, the distance to the listening place is approx. 5m and in addition to the width of approx. 4m, the space continues behind the listening place for approx. 3m. Could other Uniti Nova owners give you some tips and would it be nice to receive pictures of your Nova sets.
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Hi- until recently I powered my twenty5.6 with my trusty old nap200 and they sounded great even up to ten o clock- plenty of bass and volume- my room is 13m x 19m, enjoy!!
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Once I tried a Nova with Focal Utopia Maestro at a dealerās store (I think that was about 8x6 meters and quite a high ceiling), I remember the speaker cable was TQ Diamond Silver. It sounded very nice and didnāt feel like the Nova has any problem driving such a big and expensive line of speaker, and being Naim (& focal, and TQš) Iād say the sound is musical enough and SQ-wise is above average over other hifi brands in relative terms.
But of course one could always critisize and obviously you can always upgrade the sound with other gears. But what Iām saying is if youāre looking for a hifi-class sound to enjoy your music, Nova can do, even with bigger speaker. Just my two cents.
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As good as the Nova is, 80W is nowhere near enough to properly drive your 25.26.
If you like the PMC sound, you could go the Focal Kanta route. If not, Spendor D9.2 or Proac D48 are even better options.
Ditching the Nova for at least a 300DR and matching pre+source would be far more expensive.
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Welcome to the forum, I would think how you listen and to what type of music can have a big choice when it comes down to speaker selection, personally I like most things apart from classical and jazz (sorry folks) and I like it pretty loud sometimes too loud but everyone is different.
I use the earlier version of your 26ās and they definitely seem to come alive with more power, hence why I have slipped my Bryston in and the 200dr out, the big PMCās just seem to respond to the amp so well, but just my opinion 
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Just a thought, but what level is the volume set at in Audio Settings in the App? Is it 80 or 100?
Have a look at this
These photoās were taken from the official Naim roadshow for the launch of the Uniti range. You will see they were using PMC Twenty5 26 speakersā¦ā¦.in a very big room 
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By their standards, even the baby Atom was doing a superb job driving the 25.26ā¦
With these kind of dealers, no wonder people donāt get to fall in love with the Naim sound.
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Why do u think 80 W is not to drive the 26ās? Have u tried a nova with these speakers? Are u just guessing or assuming? My 70w 200 nap made them sound great
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The PMCs will be driven fine by the Nova or even on less power. Power isnāt the issue here so much as a general mismatch. They are a revealing speaker and although if you hook them up to the Nova they will work, and even sound great, they wonāt sound anything close to what they are capable of. A better Naim amp would drive them so much better but mainly by virtue of just being a better amp, not so much the power.
If it was me, Iād do what I call ādowngrade to upgradeā and get a lesser speaker that the Nova controls fully. I suspect on a Nova you might get better results out of the Twenty5.23.
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Are you suggesting that a ālesserā pmc has the ability to sound better on the Nova than a better pmc speaker simply because it results in a better balanced system? And price apart why would the lesser system make it better balanced? Have you heard both 23ās and 26ās driven by a Nova?
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I recently had the opportunity to use a good friendās PMC twenty 21ās in my system, for a couple of weeks and to my surprise they were absolutely excellent the balance seemed spot on.
The best way I can describe it would be like going to the cinema, with my 26ās itās like Iām sitting on the front row where as with the much smaller 21ās you are sitting much further back, I know the 26 need much more room and better electronics than I have to get the best from them, where as the 21ās just fitted the space and the system perfectly, hope that makes senseā¦
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No I really havenāt heard the 26s on a Nova. So I canāt say for sure. But being familiar witb PMC speakers (Iām on my third pair) and also having heard the results of ādowngrade to upgradeā in respect to too much speaker for an amp so many times, I feel like thereās a good chance. The 23s have a simpler crossover and are less revealing of what comes before yet also capable of tackling massive amplification upgrades. I actually drive 23s on the end of a 282/SCdr/250dr. Which in simple numbers is about the same power as a Nova.
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I have to agree with @feeling_zen and that comes from experience. I have had PMC Twenty5 26 speakers in the past. Currently have in the house PMC Twenty5 23 and a Uniti Nova. I used the 26ās with a 272 and 555 DR and 300 DR. I tried all the different combinations. The best matched system for my room was with the 23ās. That was with the Nova or all the separates. Do not get me wrong the 26 variations were very good and better. However, there was a certain synergy, with the room and 23ās
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This forum has a lot of expertise and information, it was a great help to me when I recently upgraded but it is also full of anecdotal advice and memes that are unfounded, it seems that some make guesswork comments on posts and these memes become accepted fact- I have ran 26ās on a nap200 and they were terrific, I now am lucky enough to have a nap300 and the 26ās shine the benefits of it but to say that a lesser amp needs a lesser set of speakers baffles me- such non qualified opinions donāt help people using the site for help, advising someone to ādowngradeā an incredible pair of speakers is to me blasphemous!!!
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In all fairness to the dealer, actually itās me who had the idea of trying nova with maestro utopia just out of curiosity. The dealer did tell me and we both understood well how big the disparity between the two. But we were both quite surprised to hear the output was actually nice and āhi-endā enough.
My point is, the thread starter could have the Nova with 5.26 for now (if that may sound good enough as in my utopia case), and upgrade the source to better or multiboxes gradually (instead of downgrade the speaker) while still can enjoy good music along the way.
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If someone had Ā£15,000 to build a system, itās unlikely that theyād allocate Ā£5,000 to an all in one and Ā£10,000 to a pair of speakers. So from that perspective itās an unbalanced system.
But, as they say, we are where we are. The question is whether it works and whether itās enjoyable. A lesser pair of speakers would make for a better balanced setup, but set against that is the fact that selling the 26s would entail a significant loss of money.
Partly it depends on whether @Jugi007_Finland intends to go significantly up the ladder in future. It would be shame to sell the 26s only to regret it later.
The most sensible approach is probably to borrow some 23s from a friendly dealer and try them against the 26s. If the theoretically better matched combination is more successful then youād know. On the other hand, if the 26s were preferred, the nagging doubt would be laid to rest.
Hifis and rooms are funny things. What works happily in one room can easily be a disaster in another. It would be good to hear what Jugi makes of the advice offered so far.
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Itās a mirage.
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Are you the genuine starving flatfish of old? If so welcome back- we have missed you!!!
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