Speaker advice for N272 / NAP200

The advice I'd give is to only consider something you can try at home first, and to consider secondhand options as you'll get much better value. And while mentioning value, what's your budget? Are you looking at stand mounted speakers or floorstanders? How small is small? Do you want the speakers to be near the wall? And finally, don't forget that you'll need a stand to put it on, and some speaker leads, which you need to build into your budget. The latter will be helped enormously by getting a used non-DR 200, which will be half the price of a new DR version. 

Agree with all HH has said and would add that from your post I gather you need stand mounts that can be placed close to a wall so go to your local dealers and see what they stock and can demo then listen to as many as you can. Where possible home demo, speakers can and do make or break a system and will be the most important component that you buy , forget Hifi magazine reviews and just listen to them yourself and  be aware that though you can get big discounts you can also make mistakes buying used speakers blind. just make sure that when buying used if they are not for you once you have heard them that you can move them on without loss. Good Luck. 

Hi,

Everything the smelly old fish and the builder says is true.  However, if you want to be able to upgrade in the future you might consider whether a separate streamer/pre would give greater flexibility.   ND5XS/202 might be a way to go or if available 2nd hand NDX. 

Regards,

Lindsay

Thanks for your replies. Before I buy, I will certainly want a home demo. My room is about 7 by 4 meters. The distance from the walls would be about 30 cm.

I am a bit reluctant to go the second hand route. But having said their is a second hand NAP200 for sale for a nice price.

Going for the ND5XS/202 route would be out of my budget.
This week I'll make an appointment with my local dealer and discuss the options with him.

Your 7m by 4m 'small' room is bigger than my room, which I've never really thought of as being small. 

Interesting thread! Some or less I did the same as HH mentioned: I choose not to wait for the Uniti Nova, but went for a new NAC-N 272 and a second hand NAP 200 which is currently driving my Neat Motive SX2 speakers ...

Speaker upgrade will be next (or a NAP 250 DR ... life is full of choices ... )

Many regards,

Michel

Hi Michel,

The Neat Motive SX2 is on my short list. How do you like the Neat with the N272 / NAP200? I noticed that Neat is often used in combination with Naim.

You'll probably get a lot of different suggestions but I may as well start the ball rolling! My room is somewhat similar in shape and size to yours although maybe more like 8m long and I have to fire the speakers across the shorter 4m length so it's not ideal. For a speaker that's able to work close to a wall, not too fussy about placement and best of all I think sounds pretty darn good, I/we selected the ATC SCM19. I considered other more expensive options but still preferred the SCM19. The use of Herbie's Fat Dots between speaker and stand (Music Tools) made a significant improvement and was well worth the expense of importing from the USA.

I'm using a NAP 250DR which easily drives the SCM19 and suspect that a NAP 200 will be perfectly fine. The room is accustically bright with lots of hard surfaces. This is the current model SCM19 MkII (or whatever it's called) with the curved sides.

The usual government health warning apply, viz. my room, my preferences, etc ...

Hi Jeroen20,

You mention Neat Motive SX2 and whilst my pair are connected to a Super Uniti and not something more elaborate I am very happy with how they perform. Mine are only 10 cm from the wall and just over 2m apart, due to furniture etc in the room, but the sound to me is very good. SWMBO is also very happy with them.

Agree with all other comments regarding demo etc.

Regards

DWO

I'm a Dynaudio and a Scansonic fan, both the X34s or MB2.5s for small towers could easily fit your room. I have slightly larger towers in a 8mx4.5m room. However I would say audition as much as you can and find the best for you!

Room dimensions are only part of the challenge.  Ours is 7m x 4m but I have to fire across the 4m - going the other way is not possible because of doors and windows etc.  

Neat Motive SX2 sound great when firing across my room (4.25 x 10m), placed against the longer wall. However, I'd like to change my setup and place the speakers against the shorter wall. In this setup, the Motive's are not able to 'fill' my room completely. Which is certainly nothing negative towards the speaker ...

I have recently 'downsized' from Dynaudio Countour 1.3mkIIs to a pair of KEF LS50.  They are on the end of an NDX/202/200...

The KEFs can be tuned with the supplied bungs - I have to say they are amazing speakers - wholeheartedly recommended and certainly not a downgrade from the superb Dynaudios (15 years old last year I think?)

Anyway KEF LS50 - believe the hype!

titanium grey sound best

I drive Neat Motive 2's with a Nait XS in a similar dimensioned room (7x4m), about 40 cm from the wall. Speakers are also placed along the long axis, since there's no other option. It sounds great! If you keep in mind the "magic triangle" when positioning your speakers and if you're serious about some sort of room treatment there's also great results to be had from speakers placed along the long axis of a room, in my experience.

When I had the N272/200 I had Neat Motives 2's which were sweet. A big punch for a compact speaker. I wanted the full NAIM sound so bought a pair of S400 Ovators  and the 200 drove them well. The S400 was a massive step up from the Neats .  I then added the 250DR which Is a better compliment to the s400's.