Thanks for the replies. I'm increasingly feeling that the Epic 2 would be a good choice for me.
As regards associated equipment, my two sources are a Marantz CD6002 CDP and a Squeezebox. Speaker cable is Chord Carnival Silver Screen.
I'm slightly wary of a speaker that would over-emphasise the well-documented bass of the NAD amp - but on the other hand, I don't expect to have this amp forever so wouldn't want to base speaker choice purely on the characteristics of the NAD.