Which speakers?

...none of those.
It depends on your room, on what you want to achieve, the music you like, and dealers in youe area that are able to dem/homeloan your shortlist. With that number of E's I think the majority of forum members will say 'SBL' or wait a bit and see how the new naim speaker turns out.

"even if you currently remove the doors from your car each night, put them in the corners of your music room and hook your naim system up to the speakers installed in the car doors"

Absolutely love this and reckon it would be the most elegant "front end first" argument I can recall since the forum began.

By the way Charlezz, MrT's advice is spot on.

Cheers

John

Anyone with views on ProAcs? I have a similar system except I have the CD5/FC2 front end. I was thinking of the ProAcs Response 1SC. My Epos ES12 makes my room boom too much. Have tried numerous ways to eliminate the boom but to no avail.

I should have read the post a little closer! I agree you must get the the source right first.

Hmmmmm It all depends.

In 1979 I had a 12s/160/JR149s (Small cylindrical monitors derived from LS3/a)The front end was an LP12/Grace/Supex. JV was promoting the 'front end first' upgrade policy but I insisted on listening to first the Ittok arm then the Isobariks, both at similar prices. There was absolutely no contest - the Bariks won hands down and I bought them and still have them.

They provided a very well balanced system at that time IMHO, instead of an unbalanced 'front heavy' system in which the speakers (like most car speakers) strangle the music. They allowed every future up-grade to be fully appreciated without the worrying fear that the speakers might be 'strangling' the beautiful sounds that are reaching them but never getting out to reach my ears.

Only in the past two years have I heard speakers which IMHO come close to or better than the Briks. They include Nautilus 802 and 803 and NBLs.

I should arrange to audition the Nautilus 803 and 804 in your system and then listen to a better CD player. I would also listen to a combination upgrade, say Nautilus 804 plus CDX or s/h CDS.

What I would't do, is blow the £4k on a better front end just because of peer pressure.

happy listening

Cheers

Don

Thank y'all guys! You're surely right... and i think i'll start with buying Kans II and if i can find one , an old supercap for my 102 (putting the hicap on the 3.5).And ,if i have got money left, i will go for used Nac 52 or Nap 135.
Thanks again .
Charles

Charlezz,

None of the above!!

Try a pair of Ruark Equinox's I use them in a similar set up and they are very impressive.

But try them for yourself.

NB

Charlzz,

be careful of getting a 52 before doing something with your CD player. The 52 is a very transparent piece of apparatus and will leave you wanting for an improved source. Personally, I like the 804's but they are a little bass-light for some. They are also very demanding. I bought the 804 to go into my 52/250 and loved the detail, speed and presence but did sometimes wonder where all the bass had gone. I added a second 250 and bi-amped with spectacular results.
The bass is there with huge presence and the higher frequencies are fantastically fast and detailed. I have got a highly spec'd LP12 and CDS-II and my worry is that you are looking at the end of the chain before concentrating on the source first.
I understand that the 803 is actually a more easily driven speaker so you may want to give that a go. The 802's are out of this world and can easily challenge the NBL - trouble is they don't go active.

Gang--

I think the 802 v NBL question is more a question of what someone is looking for. If you want tunefulness, dynamics, timing, etc than the NBL wins. If you want staging/imaging etc than the 802 wins.

I think Phil Barry said he would pay NOT to have to listen to Bose (and I agree). I can't go that far with B&W, but I will say I respect them more than I like them. Horses for courses.

Cheers,

Bob

Ride the Light !

i have heard b&w speakers (the big ones, i dont know which model) 2wice, both at grahams.

first time, quite some time ago during a cdx vs cds2 demo - i was seriously considering cds2 upgrade from cd2 then. the rest of the system was 52/250. what i recall was that i could hear differences between cdx and cds2, but i was left with the feeling that the uograde was not really that worthwhile. then, at then end of the demo, i requested 135's, just out of curiosity as i had not heard 135's before. it was then that the music became rather more convincing - through the cds2. unfortunately, this was a lunch time demo and we didn't have time to compare cdx and cds2 with 135's in command. this is when my interest in 135's was sparked and you may recall i wrote about it in the old forum. but as you know, i now have 2x250 active driving sbl's, and am having great difficulty wiping the grin off my face.

second time was more recent when my system had stopped playing music after an accident with 52 input 2. so i took my 52/supercap/250 to grahams to compare with their equivalents. we used their basement demo room with, guess which speakers, b&w -- the big'uns again. we proceeded to compare and we found no material difference -- although, with hindsight, rather stupidly, we didn't swap my 250!! i completely forgot to do this!!! what i remember very distinctly is that i really wasn't enjoying the sound either way -- i.e. my gear or grahams gear -- and i remember at the time wishing we were using the more familiar sbl's. to cut the long story short, i since discovered using other tests that there were faults in my kit and these have all being sorted out by naim and i have music at home again. "and they lived happily ever after, etc etc...."

so, my 2 experiences with b&w havent been too positive, but this may not indicate anything negative about b&w's. i strongly suspect you need beefy power (at least 135) to drive them. in any case for me they are somewhat irrelevant as i am following the active route, and i am not sure i really like their appearance?? i know people like them for their appearance, so this is a clear case of "one mans meat... " etc.

hmmmm....

enjoy...

ken