Best Speakers for Qute
Posted by: Augusto Giusti on 12 June 2011
Finally I got the Unitiqute. I have read that B&W CM9 could be good choice as speakers. But in the store someone told me that big speakers will not work nicely with the 30w's Qute. To "move" those CM9 is needed a much more powerfull amplifier, and that's not the case with the Qute.
So please, can anyone advise me to buy some good speakers to use with the Qute? I will use it to play mostly classical and jazz.
Thanks, Augusto Giusti
Hi,
As ever with speakers, it depends on room shape and size, personal preferences etc.
One person's heaven is another's idea of hell (well, sort of.)
However, I'd agree you might be pushing it using the CM9s with the Qute. Their minimal amplifier rating is 30w - and although the Qute does sound more powerful than its stated rating I don't think you'd get the best out of the B&Ws with it. Only my opinion, mind you, and I stand to be corrected.
Best have a listen to the pairing together at your dealer or arrange a home trial if you can.
Others to consider include Neat, Epos, Dali, Rega in my experience.
With what you're considering paying for the B&Ws you've got no end of choice. Take your time and enjoy the search.
Jon
PS: You might be better asking this question in the Hi-Fi Corner section as it's not strictly a streaming audio query.
I went with Dynaudio Excite X12. I thought the sound was astonishing.
You can't generalise about speakers like "big speakers not working nicely with 30w".
UQ works beautifully with N-Sats up to a volume when they starts to sound not so much strained but constrained. Connected to my SL2's the UQ was rather more sucessful at higher [and lower] volume, and remarkably so. A highly impressive bit of kit, the UQ IMO.
So, better to look at sensitivity [and ease of load] of a speaker rather than physical size. Often, larger speakers tend to be somewhat MORE sensitive than smaller ones...
Julian
As always I'll mention Harbeth, especially if you listen to a lot of classical and jazz. *I have a Qute and use Harbeth C7es3's.
Another vote for the Dynaudio X12's from me... nice sound with the qute (to my ears) and quite easy to place
Not to hijack the thread, but I've asked this before, to no avail:
The Qute makes 30 watts versus the Nait 5i's 50 watts. I know that it's not about test bench measurements of wattage, especially with Naim. That said, what are the real world implications of this difference in wattage power? More and more I'll consider the Qute down the road, but one of my hesitations is that entry level Naits have more power than this entry level all-in-one.
Dave
The real world implications are that you can drive more speakers more successfully more of the time with the Uniti. For example, the afore-mentioned eXcite12 is a steady 4-ohm load but because it's 4-ohms, the UnitiQute will run out of steam earlier than the Uniti. It will sound confused more easily with busy music too.
As for matching speakers, it does rather depend on the size of room etc., but here's a few other than those already mentioned:
Rega RS3, RS5
Totem Dreamcatcher, Mite or Sttaf
Dynaudio DM2/6
I have also heard the UnitiQute sound superb with the Guru QM10 on a couple of occasions and (somewhat bizarrely) it seems to work well with Kudos C1s.
Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.