Advice on speakers pls

[admin_exported]

Hi

I'm a huge music lover - pretty much anything except heavy metal, but am new to high-end systems.

I'm looking to start with a NaimUniti and would like to match it to either Spendor A9's or Monitor Audio PL300's.

I appreciate the Spendors got the What Hi-Fi vote but i wonder if the price was taken in to account on this?

Does anyone have thoughts on which are the better all-rounders?

I appreciate I'll be advised to listen to both, but advice would be most welcome.

Price between these two is not part of my consideration - i want to get the system right!

Many thanks

Martin

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Martin

My personal advice would be to find a dealer which has the Naim and ask to demo it with a selection of speakers. What gets a great review in a mag doesn't mean it will sound great to you.

I can offer this advice from personal experience when I purchased my own system. I originally planned to purchase a pair of KEF speakers because on paper they looked great and had a great review. In practice though they sounded too bright so opted for B&W which I preffered.

All the best

Garry

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Martin

My personal advice would be to find a dealer which has the Naim and ask to demo it with a selection of speakers. What gets a great review in a mag doesn't mean it will sound great to you.

I can offer this advice from personal experience when I purchased my own system. I originally planned to purchase a pair of KEF speakers because on paper they looked great and had a great review. In practice though they sounded too bright so opted for B&W which I preffered.

All the best

Garry

 

[CnoEvil]

Hi Martin

My personal advice would be to find a dealer which has the Naim and ask to demo it with a selection of speakers. What gets a great review in a mag doesn't mean it will sound great to you.

I can offer this advice from personal experience when I purchased my own system. I originally planned to purchase a pair of KEF speakers because on paper they looked great and had a great review. In practice though they sounded too bright so opted for B&W which I preffered.

All the best

Garry

Good advice.
For what its worth, of those two speakers, Spendor would get my vote - but that's personal and may not suit you.
There are other good matches for Naim eg Neats.

 

[deanhartley]

Hi I'm a huge music lover - pretty much anything except heavy metal, but am new to high-end systems. I'm looking to start with a NaimUniti and would like to match it to either Spendor A9's or Monitor Audio PL300's. I appreciate the Spendors got the What Hi-Fi vote but i wonder if the price was taken in to account on this? Does anyone have thoughts on which are the better all-rounders? I appreciate I'll be advised to listen to both, but advice would be most welcome. Price between these two is not part of my consideration - i want to get the system right! Many thanks Martin

 

[CustomCable]

If you are already at 4k would you go a tad more? If you would then 4.4k for PMC OB1i might go down a treat. Just my two cents.If your only choice is spender a9 and ma then my personal choice is a9 as an all rounder, have you narrowed it down to just these two after listening to other speakers already?

 

[deanhartley]

dfregtrhgfbgf

 

[deanhartley]

Hi,

Some sort of gremlins since the forums changed. Try again

Please go look and listen to the PL300 against other competition. I think you will find the Platinum series is what most small esoteric companies would call ultra high end. Look at the built, technology and quality of components used in comparisson with the other competition you are looking. Look at the reviews of the PL300 as a good endorsement.

The naim Uniti is only 50W/pc and is no where near powerful enough to get the best from the Platinum series, in particular the PL300. Even though they are very efficient and easy enough to drive, you will not get the dymamic delivery at anything above average listening levels. You may also find this with most high end speakers you are looking.

I would personally recomend looking at a seperate server/media player such as an Olive and good power amplifier with around 100W/pc. You can get this for the same kind of money as the Naim.

Regards,

 

[shooter]

Hi I'm a huge music lover - pretty much anything except heavy metal, but am new to high-end systems. I'm looking to start with a NaimUniti and would like to match it to either Spendor A9's or Monitor Audio PL300's. I appreciate the Spendors got the What Hi-Fi vote but i wonder if the price was taken in to account on this? Does anyone have thoughts on which are the better all-rounders? I appreciate I'll be advised to listen to both, but advice would be most welcome. Price between these two is not part of my consideration - i want to get the system right! Many thanks Martin

Sorry dude but there is no way i would spend 4-6k on speakers and put them on the end of a Naim Uniti..

You obviously have good taste in transducers so i would forget the Naim even if it's compact and convenient.

Go for an amp that will do those speakers your thinking about some justice and worry about the sources later.

I'm thinking Bryston, Chord and Classe for starters...

 

[CustomCable]

I agree with the above few posts. If you are into a small solution that sounds good then I would take a listen to Cyrus xp when out and pair that with their power like an 8 power. It will cost a bit more but the benefits will be enormous. You need to control these high end speakers like the ms speakers and no 50w amp will do that I guess unless it's something like a class a.

 

[CnoEvil]

oops - should have recomended pl300

 

[Anonymous]

Plenty to chew on!

Many thanks

Martin

 

[Frank Harvey]

I'm with Shooter on this one. £4k speakers, unless they're a very easy load, aren't something I'd really be recommending with the Uniti. Effectively, you have a Nait 5i in the Uniti, so you'd be looking at the sort of speaker that would normally be recommended for that amplifier. Usually, I'd be sticking to easy to drive models below the £1k mark, with a handful above that price point that could be used well above that price point.

If you really want a larger floorstander, have a look at either the KEF Q900 or ProAc's Studio D140 MkII's, both of which are an easy load with a high 91dB efficiency. These models will make the most of the Uniti's 50wpc amplifier. Don't get me wrong, you can use more expensive speakers, and to many it will probably sound fine, but the speakers will sound nowhere near how they were intended to sound. Big speakers like the Platinum PL300's tend to need more bass control and current than sub £1k amplifiers can provide. They just don't have the headroom needed to deal with some of the dynamic peaks that some of these speakers demand.

If you really want to stick to your original plan, you can take a look at the Monitor Audio Platinum PL200's or PL300's, KEF Reference 203/2's and 205/2's, Spendor A9's, PMC OB1i's, Neat Acoustics Ultimatum MF5's, Naim's own S400 and S600's, and ProAc Response D28's and D40R's. But I would recommend against this route unless you're going to add a power amplifier very soon, ideally the NAP200 or NAP250.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again

I have actually heard a Uniti with Kudos X2's in Audio T, Warrington, that was fairly impressive....