Can anyone suggest a good speaker system to suit a Nait5i, CD5i system? Cost is an issue as I would like to keep it below £1,000 if possible.
I currently have a pair of Wharfedale Pacific Pi-40s which I could use in the interim however I expect there would be other speakers better suited to these components.
Posted on: 14 October 2003 by Markus S
Bob, how would you rate the Pass amps against the Naim line? I was a little surprised to notice that you had given up one for the other.
Posted on: 14 October 2003 by Bob Shedlock
Hmmm, first off, the Pass Aleph 3 w/ the passive preamp is quite a bit more expensive than the "entry level" Naim even when one includes a Naim power supply.
I had both incarnations of the passive preamp, the 2nd being distinctly better than the first.
Overall the combination was sublime, but also a bit of a "hair shirt". With the passive preamp sources "see" all the down to the power amp, impedance-wise, so interconnects and speaker cables become very critical. I got my best results using the higher end Discovery Cables, but Nordost Red Dawns were pretty close, although timbres were lighter.
Speakers too were an excercise in critical matching. My absolute favorites with the combination were a modified pair of Meadowlark Kestrels. They present a benign load and punch well above their price class. I would also add that I did not achieve the excellent results with the Kestrels in every system, but with the Pass, there was tremendous syngerny.
The 30 wpc Aleph 3 draws 300 watts, since it is a pure class A output. It runs really hot and is expensive to leave on if you're not listening. It's incredibly transparent and dynamic, but does not pace as well as the Naim. It can come close with meticulous system matching, and bests the Naim in the aforementioned categories.
At the end of the day, it was happiest when wired with very expensive cabling, finicky about speakers and sources, and expensive to forget to turn off. (Took about an hour to come on song after powering up). I was disappointed when Nelson Pass abandoned the pieces. Still, the "walk-in" costs are significantly more money, and by a big margin.
People here think speaker matching with the Nait is difficult! Anyway, the Pass, when correctly executed, is pretty close to amazing, but lots of money. Very much a low powered, high end system.
