Bigger room - need bigger speakers

Posted by: Thomas Breding on 12 May 2003

Hi!

Just moved to a bigger place, including a bigger living room. My B&W CDM1´s are suddenly too small which is a bummer as I love the sound of them together with my NAIT5/CD5/FC2/NAT05. Now I want a floorstanding speaker.

My musical taste stretches from Rock to Jazz (Neil Young, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Diana Krall etc...), not a lot of classic, not a lot of heavy metal stuff.

I would like a speaker that is strong on detail, acoustic instruments and voices but still can deliver enough bass for the big room (4 x 7 meters).

My budget c o u l d be stretched to the Allae level but not beyond.

The speakers I have looked at (but not listened to yet) are:
-Totem Forest and Hawk
-Allae (did listen to them once, and I was not that impressed)
-Intro 2
-SBL (a have found a demo pair for less than new Allae)

My questions:
-Do I need to upgrade from Nait5 to drive any of the speakers above?
-Have anyone out there compared Totem´s to Allae or Intro´s?
-Is S/H SBL a better choice than the rest of them?
-Any other speakers that I may have missed?

Any suggestions or hints are useful before I start carrying home speakers for demo...

Thanks!

/Thomas

Posted on: 13 May 2003 by Thomas Breding

Thanks Tom,

Will even the Intro 2´s be too much for my poor Nait 5?

I´ll look at the Staff as well, eventhough my dealer thought that I needed to step up to the Hawk level.

:-) Thomas

Posted on: 13 May 2003 by Greg Beatty

I would leave the Hawks.

I tried a pair for three weeks at home with my Nait 5/NACA 5 and this is one bright speaker in this setup. My pair and the dealer demo pair sounded the same. The Totems are noted for a high-frequency resonance that can be very intrusive. It seems worst on the Hawk to my ears.

The Forests are better but had sloppy bass compared to the Allaes.

The Sttafs are OK for the price but sport a tweeter that really isn't up to the task. The Hawk/Forrest tweeter is mucho cleaner although there is that resonance to deal with.

The Hawks and Sttafs also max out without being very loud - they were not up to filling our room. I would say Forests or bust if you like what the Totems do.

I ended up with Allaes.

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

Posted on: 13 May 2003 by Thomas Breding

Greg and Tom -Thanks!

Greg: No problem driving the Allae´s with your Nait 5?

:-) Thomas