UQ2 speakers for apartment

I have 20.21's (On PMC stands) with the UQ2 in a small room and I'm very pleased with them. Also Have 20.23's in my main kit. Both took a while before giving their best. 

Where I live is impossible to audition a good variety of anything (HI-Fi) to make a decision but if you can, do it. Nothing better than please your taste.

I also had Mission's before, I don't remember the model but where not cheap but cheaper than the PMC's, those had much more bass than the 20.21's.  I don't like to much bass, that was the main reason for changing, and was very short after I acquire the Qute.

There are many threads with recommendations at different price levels to build your own list for auditioning.

Regards.

Erich

We have Naim nSats for our upstairs NaitXS setup and love them.   We also have Proac D40R's on our big 500 system.  The UQ2 has much less power.  

On the advice of a US Naim dealer, we ordered Blumenstein Audio Thrashers.   They sell customer direct from the US and cost $500 or more for premium finishes.    They are impossible to audition, but we have bought everything that way.  

We connect the Thrashers with Crimson Electronics speaker cables, which are more flexible, more open sounding,  and cheaper than NACA5.   My Naim dealer uses this setup for commercial and other price sensitive customers.  I could not believe how good they sound in a small room.

If our world changed and we were forced to downsize, we could be very happy with this setup.   With a Minimserver, it will play the music you have on your laptop wirelessly and make it sound great.    The price is right, too.   The UQ2 Thrasher rig is not the last word in anything but flexibility, but it rocks to high heaven!     

I use  Sonus Faber Venere 1.5 with UQ2 and I'm very happy with this combination. But it seems that almost any speaker works very well with UQ2... Is is a matter of (your) taste.

I mostly agree with the above.  However there are a few points.

Some technical issues aren't a matter of taste and can be subject to specific recommendation.

One of these is the Acoustic Energy AE1.  These are notorious as quite a difficult load for an amp and I'd be very surprised if a UQ2 was able to get the best from them.

The Harbeth P3ESRs are consistent to Harbeth's design philosophy and are optimised for neutrality rather than for rock.  You may find them a little tame or slow at times, but on the other-hand they'll present chamber music with more subtlety than many other speakers (some of which can completely mask the whole point of the performance).

Finally, optimisation of a single speaker for rock and classical and intelligibility of the spoken word isn't possible.  So as Feeling_Zen says - you'll have to make up your own mind where the compromises should be; and the best way to do this is with your dealer's help.

One final point, consider using main speakers with limited bass extension and use a sub.  The main speakers will be easier to place in a good position for midrange performance without causing bass boom; and the sub can then be positioned freely to give a more even bass response.  Furthermore, to increase intelligibility of the spoken word the sub can be turned off.  The same can be done at night to avoid disturbing the neighbours.

Guru Juniors will meet the rock needs and are fine with spoken word - I had a set in the past with a Qute 2 and they were excellent.  Didn't really try them with classical though.

I have the Sonus Faber Venere 1.5 and while it excells at music, i did not like it whatsoever with the spoken word.  I tried it at my TV with several different amps and could not get on with it for TV/Movie listening.  In fact, whike I thoroughly enjoy speakers with soft dome speakers, the best speakers I had for TV/Movie listening were a pair of Paradigms with a Aluminum Dome Tweeter.  

While I don't have a specific recommendation if I were in your shoes I may look at something from Monitor Audio, Paradigm, B&W Or the higher end Totem Acoustic models with the Aluminum Dome Tweeters. 

I tried the PMC twenty.21 with my then SuperUniti and thought they were terrific. Ultimately I bought the 23s because they have greater bass extension and the PMC stands were a bit bulky, but the 21 is still a great speaker, with good imaging and a very convincing way with voices, with none of that chestiness that you often get. I think it would really benefit from more power than that provided by the Qute, but may well be ok if you don't want to play really loud and if the room is not too big. There are also some small Focals (906 maybe?) that are more efficient and cheaper too, and are supposed to be very good and may be worth investigating. 

I had the oportunity to listen to the Andrew Jones designed Elac B5s last weekend. They sound better than they have any right to at their £250 (in the UK) price point. Well worth an audition when they become more widely available towards the end of November.

El Soldado I think you're on the right track with a lot of your thoughts. For UQ2 I found the Gurus a really nice match, but the QM10's are overkill. Even with NAP100 added I felt the Juniors' sound was so close to the QM10's that the extra cost wasn't justified, although if you plan to upgrade amplification or move to a bigger room later then you could make a case for the bigger speakers.

I also really liked the Harbeths and since your listening includes spoken word, they are well worth a demo.

I also found PMC match up well with UQ2, but if you happen to live anywhere near a JM Reynaud dealer you should try to hear them too as they are really complementary to Naim gear.

Find all the small speakers in all the dealers near to you, and audition as many speakers as you can.

Take the UQ2 along (with tracks on a memory stick).  Some non-Naim dealers will even be interested to have the chance to hear it!

Make a shortlist and see if they'll let you do home demos of 2 or three pairs.  Everything else is just here-say, and their opinion based on their tastes not yours (only you can know what you actually like).

Thanks very much one and all, quite a lot of food for thought in all the above replies. I'm still tossing up the whole floor stander vs stand mount question, but I think from the very good advice I've been given on this thread that it's really down to having a few good demo sessions. Thanks for all the great suggestions. One name I notice that didn't crop up was XTZ: I've heard of these but never heard or seen a pair, but they do look gorgeous. 

My plan would probably be not to add any external amplification until I move to a house which won't be happening for a couple of years.

+1 for the ELAC Debut B5.  Just took delivery from Amazon, 229 USD, free shipping. Paired with a Qute 1, they sound fabulous right out of the box, better than a run-in pair of KEF LS50 in my small room.  VFM is off the chart.

I have the Audience 1+1 in a vacation house, expensive but the sound is great, they have no crossover  and the sides are ported both directions.  They were tight at first but have relaxed and sound great. In very complex music like Peter Gabriel I can hear great detail.  I do not have access to my TV thru them tho. Gorgeous finish, they'll never need to be replaced in a system, a sub would fill out the low end.

I can highly recommend Neat Iotas with the UQ2 (connected with Chord Odyssey). Had mine for approx 4 months, playing very similar music to that which you list. Well worth an audition.