Which speakers interface well with Naim?

Most speakers would work well with your Naim amplifiers however if you don’t perceive hiss at low volume settings, substituting the Tannoys with less efficient speakers will only compress sound and give a less dynamic presentation.

I am delighted with my B&W 805D3s they just keep giving. When I bought them I had 202/200. I’ve now progressed via 282/200, 282/300 to 552/300 and they have not been found wanting.

On a much lower caliber than most systems being discussed here, my Vandersteen C2e’s sound wonderful with my modest Nait XS 2, Naim HiCap DR, Rega P8, Roksan Caspian CD, Lehmann Black Box phono pre & Arcam irDAC2 for streaming. SgtRock/Dean

Well I bet that’s made it easier for you to choose! So many options and so many favourites. To make things worse, I really love my Piega 701s😁

Is the Klipsch Forte IV too sensitive to be a good match?

Are you referring to the the Scala Utopia Evo, the £30,000 floorstander? Not with a Supernait 3 surely? I heard them on the end of a full Naim 500 system and thought they were dreadful; hifi pyrotechnics at the expense of the music. Elements of the music thrown at you in a disjointed way, to the total detriment of the performance. Some like that sort of thing of course.

well let’s say that the problem is only the gain of the 252 dr pre before I had also tried a 552 no DR but always the same thing however it is difficult to replace the Canterburys with rock jazz acoustic and classical percussion music is beautiful a real sound to tear your jaws off even with previous speakers Triangle magellan sw2 Concerto, Avalon Eidolon, Estelon xa, so I repeat it’s just a matter of gain the naim philosophy already at minimum volume all frequencies come out having 96 db of sensitivity

Hi hungryhalibut
The scalas have been around for years. Yes expensive now but quality generally ages well. I’ve had focal speakers and Naim kit serviced to good effect in the recent past. Opinions differ and at this point I haven’t heard them.
I presume that focal trust their sound otherwise they wouldn’t use them in roadshow demo’s

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I would endorse Harbeth. I’ve just upgraded my Naim Credo to Harbeth 7ES-3. The soundstage is very impressive. Does anyone want a pair of immaculate Credo in Cherry ?

Funny, I’ve always thought this is what Naim speakers have always done really well, being able to really involve the listener with real animation, excitement, ‘fireworks’ and verve. Things can tend to be a little boring otherwise in my view…I’ve swapped out my Neat Motive SX2s for a pair of n-SATs for that very reason I’ve stated above.

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I’d say that portraying enjoyable music is what Naim speakers are good at, which is the antithesis of hifi pyrotechnics.

Since I can’t/won’t go too far afield to try new speakers, was wondering if you or anyone else has heard a naim /borreson or magico set-up. Certainly lots of “new” technology in either but curious if that equates to a better speaker?

I think my experience reflects the same as yours with regards to Focal speakers. I’ve heard them in various top Naim systems to bottom, albeit only in demos at shows. Be interesting to actually to get a pair home and hear what they’re really capable of in one’s own environment. The main problem(s) I have with them is that they’re insanely expensive and are just too big and bulky for my tastes.

I can add also kef Q75

Hungryhalibut,
I have also tried the sn3 and nd5 xs2 with a pair of the original quad 22l’s series one, which I bought new in the early 2000s and are still going strong. New they were around £1k so not dissimilar in price range to the proac tablet 10 signatures. The sn3 sounds good with the quads but sound exceptional with my focal micro utopias listening to a wide range of music from 50s jazz vocalists through 60s pop, classic 70s rock to John Mayer, Adele etc.
the quads were bought as a set with quad 11s and a matching quad centre for a home theatre setup with a denon av11. A good setup but when I bought the micro utopias I tried them with the denon AV amp and the sound was immediately more enjoyable for music and movies than the quads.
Others may find differently ( and Naim would say source first) but for me I find the influence of speakers to be highly influential on the apparent capabilities of other kit.
The quads are good speakers but they prevented the denon AV amp and my sn3 from giving their best.

Impossible answer without testing but I’d be wary of anything over 92db with Naim. That’s not to say there aren’t good working combinations out there.

@fdm Not sure anyone rates Rega speakers that highly. They clearly haven’t found their groove yet. There is no common design theme at all. Rega have 5 or 6 speakers on the market and all are as if they gave up and went back to the drawing board. Different bass loading. Differen tweeter design. Different cabinet design. It’s a real scatterbrain collection of unrelated oddballs.

My Vivid S12’s work brilliantly… I would think any of the Vivid range would be superb.

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Classic Royd speakers are a wonderful combination with Naim.

When my Naim DBLs broke I auditioned quite a few speakers in the £10k to £35k - yes a wide price range simply because I didn’t know how much I needed to spend to better the DBLs in current times. I hadn’t listened to any other speakers for 10 years or so.

Reading of all the new technologies - cabinet designs, new driver technology, improved crossover components etc, I thought I would easily be able to beat an old design for £20k +.

I actually found it wasn’t so easy to replace the DBLs. Fortunately with the aide of the DBL refurbishment thread on the forum I was able to fully restore them and get a far better sound out of them with upgraded system cabling and Isoacoustic GAIA feet (expensive but incredible improvements).

So I listened to quite a few possible replacements. I did try the Focal
Scala Evos but they give off a lot of energy especially in the bass and even NAP 500 had difficulty controlling it. It would need a lot of room treatment to tame them.

The best speakers I found were Vimberg Mino - part of the Tidal Audio group. Rockport speakers seemed to clash with Naim, not a good partnership to my ears.

Speaker replacement is hard work for sure.

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