hello, i have an old naim setup 62/110 hicap cd3.5 and flatcapx2. and i'm moving to a new house with a large (10x8m) open plan living room/kitchen/dinning and need advise on speakers. i've looked at but not listened to everything from rega r5's through to martin logan electrostatic hybrids and the quirky deuvel planets. may upgrade the amp, but since i've only recently had it recapped i didn't want to. have a budget cap of 3k - what ideas has everyone got?

Hi Karuhi;

What's your current speaker?

hi, current is an old/unusual pair of B&W CM 1/2 concept 90. which all boils down to CM1'S sitting on top of CM2'S which are 2 rear facing woofers

Steer away from the MLs IMHO if you can.

The 110 is a vfm but might struggle to fill that amazingly large room unless you have very efficient speakers.

Have you ever contacted Naim to see how much it would be to upgrade the 110 to a 140?

no i didn't relise that they would upgrade the amp - will have to talk nicely to chris in naim wellington.so are electrostatics out then?
i've just seen a set of castle stirling3 - to small?
how about those deuvel's? wife loves them! me.. they just don't LOOK like speakers

zu druids mk4?

Gidday fellow Kiwi.

You probably already do,but i would be taking a very regular look at Trademe! - just having a peek this evening and there are some excellent 2nd hand speaker sets up for sale right now.....which i what i assume has prompted your question about the Zu Druids??
Difficult to demo and always a risk with 2nd hand purchase from a Non-dealer etc, but worth keeping an eye on!
Cheers.

Hello karuhi,

just thinking aloud, but 3k is a lot of money to spend on speakers considering your front-end and amp setup...
However, a room 10x8m is a speldid size and just perfect for SBL's, i dunno how easy they are to come by in your part of the world, but with 3k you could afford to have a nice pair shiped to you in NZ and still keep lots of that budget money for upgrading other parts of your system : )

regards~
nymph

i understand your point, BUT i have a cunning plan... my wife is getting very sick of this constant chopping and changing of speakers. just dosen't understand that every model could be the one - but isn't. NOW if i spend alot on speakers which will suit for future purchases, then outwardly nothing will be seen to change! with a little creative accounting. a little black box will disapear and reapear - obviously upgraded to me, but to her nothing changes!!

But cunning plans only work if you keep them secret!
Didn't you know all us women like a jolly good chin wag now and again, i just can't wait to tell you good lady all about your plan!! : D

nymph

p.s. acually, getting a nice pair of sbl's may stop all this chopping and changing... as long you get around the WAF, and i can't help you there, there's no accounting for taste!

damm foiled again!
no i haven't seen a set of the sbl's for sale in nz - i'm sure you can get them new but the owners must like them so much they don't come up. i'll have a look on UK and US ebay and see what it would cost. - thanks

SBLs are super speakers, but their WAF is pretty low in my experience!

SL2s are a better speaker in both looks and performance. (now run away...)

WAF ??? (i'm an audiophile jargon idiot)

Zero...

WAF = Wife Acceptance Factor

In my view, only go to SBLs if you have your 110 modified to be a 140, and even then that size room is going to be a big ask.

Allaes are easier to drive, can fill a room like that and will grow with the system as it miraculously but invisibly improves (yeah right). Seriously speaking, I can't see how you're going to shoe-horn a 200 or 250 into a 110-sized case! The amps you should be looking at to fill that size room adequately are in the 200/250 ballpark.

karuhi, I have the same size room with very high ceilings. Allaes or SL2s will not like fill the room very easily, even with the larger naim amps. I suggest you need a phsically big speaker such as NBLs, DBLs, for eg.
I use Piega C 8 ltd`s which are 90 lbs each driven by 135`s. It works, but would be bettered with a more powerful amp or even bigger Piega model (cant afford!). Small or medium size speakers simply cannot fill a room that big- unless you just want backround music. If you want to feel the music, the power, the scale, the bass, there is no substituting for big boxes. And big boxes generally cost big $. My experience, anyhow. regards, david

Hi there Karuhi,

Sounds like the troble will be that you're trying to fill a very large room with a small amp. Using efficient speakers may help, but it seems to me that efficient speakers are usually quite lean sounding ie. Regas, Naims, Royds. In your large room a lean speaker may sound even leaner than it would in a small room and this may not be to your liking.

I'm using Naim Arivas which I believe are a bit fatter in the bottom end than other Naim speakers. I don't think there are any more Arivas available in the shops here in NZ but if you could find a pair S/H they could work well. Alternatively you could try the Neat Motives. In your room I think the Motive 2s could be ideal. They're within your budget and have a great sound with a more generous bass than the Naims. Having said that I found them to be very articulate right down very low and they have a nice fluid presentation. I had a pair of the 3s running for a good while and liked these almost as much as my Arivas and actually thought they were a bigger window on the music. Ideally if you could pick up a S/H 180 power amp or better I think you'll fill that room reasonably well. The Momentums are even better but you'd have to be planning some upgrades on your amp & font end to justify these. Having said that I had Momentum 3i's on the end of my CD5x/Nait5i and they worked surprisingly well!

If you want high volume levels with your present amplification, try the Zu Druid or a pair of Tannoy Turnberry or a vintage pair of Tannoy's. All are efficient and easy to drive speakers which will comfortably fill your room with the 110.

thanks to all for the replies, i'm looking at a pair of demoed zu druids, i've read alot of good things about them. would rather stay with naim for the speakers but i think the cost will be a killer. looked at a pair of sbl's on ebay and i'll look at how muchie to ship. cheers

Well below budget is a pair Intro would match the amp very well if you like the Naim speaker sound.
A pair Linn Keilidh would be another fine option at the cheapskate.
You might win more by getting a hicap/better pre later ?