Where to next?

Nick,

There are almost as many speaker options as there are contributors to this forum. Have you tried the search facility?

If search is unhelpful, then can you provide some information about your room size, any requirements from the speakers (e.g. must go close to wall etc.), would be helpful.

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.

Hey Frank...

I guessed as much.. but that's great!  I'm looking for ideas... 

..my friend... who may be lurking here somewhere... recommends B&W 800Ds...  

I have 2 scenarios....  

Scenario 1.  They are here for 80% of the listening.  I have a room which is 3 metres by 10metres where the speakers sit normally... they sit a metre away from a wall... at an angle (they're kind of in a corner) but with a massive structural support sitting between them....

Scenario 2.  20%.  Outside on my terrace... They sit 3.5 metres apart... 2 metres away from a corrugated concrete wall (sophisticated building here in dubai...) with me and whoever else at least 4 metres away....

I would put up with them sounding a bit compromised in Scenario 1 to have them sound OUT OF THIS WORLD in Scenario 2. 

Hope that helps... 

N

Nick,

Your room is 3x10m, are the speakers sitting with their backs to the 3m wall (firing lengthways) or the 10m wall (firing crossways) ? I suspect they're firing lengthways. I am unclear about the scenarios actually. You move the speakers around?

800Ds need more amplifier than a 250. B&W speakers like a lot of current and although the 250 is capable in this regard, it's simply not enough for the likes of an 800D! If that level is your goal, you need to look at the 300 as a minimum and even that's pushing it - 800 series, particularly the big models, are very demanding amplifier loads. As it happens, the 252/300 is a very sweet spot in the Naim amplifier canon. <shrug>

There are so many speakers around and it really depends a lot on your local availability. Do you have options and can you let us know what they are ?

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.

Useful thanks...

In the corner of the room is a wall support that is around 1.5 x 1.5m the speakers are either side of that around 1.0m away from the walls..  they're pointing diagonally towards the opposite corner of the room.. (so they're pointing the longest distance in the room).  If not clear I will post a pic.

Out here there is availability from a bunch of speaker manufacturers I'm really not familiar with:

Martin Logan

Piega

Revel

Sonus Faber

Wilson Audio

Vivid Audio

Anything decent from that lot?

N

Nick, 

A warm welcome to the forum.

A good starting point would be to know your budget. 

As far as recommendations go you'll receive many many different opinions on this forum. 

I would look at what speaker range is within budget and available to you locally. Go and have a listen to a few and make a shortlist of those you like. Then try and arrange a home demo.

With regard to the B&Ws I have the 802D2s and have used them with a 300, bi-amped with 2x300 and now with a 500. It wasn't until the 2x300 that I felt the speakers were driven adequately so I'm with Frank on this one.

I recently had a brief demo of the new 802D3s and they sounded very good indeed, so much so that I have arranged a demo this Friday comparing the 802D2 with the D3. With your set up I would possibly recommend the new 803D3 for you to listen to.

Good luck.

Steve

Hi Nick,

3 meters is very narrow. I have that now in my study, and I'm settling with near field listening, i.e. stand mounts with not much bass, set up so that I get emphasis on direct sound and less emphasis on side reflections. I've tried the diagonal setup several times in various other buildings & rooms, but it is a compromise, I've always preferred firing along the room.

That 1,5 x 1,5 m wall support complicates things for you. Your speaker choice is definitely dependent on how they happen to work in that space!

But personally I don't find your system at all out of balance in terms of price. Those 2k Spendors will surely sound even better with a NAP 300. If you love it now already, you will love it even more. In fact if it was my system, I would get the 300 first before even trying new speaker candidates, but that could be just me...

Felix

Nick Paton posted:

Hey Frank...

 

I guessed as much.. but that's great!  I'm looking for ideas... 

..my friend... who may be lurking here somewhere... recommends B&W 800Ds...  

I have 2 scenarios....  

Scenario 1.  They are here for 80% of the listening.  I have a room which is 3 metres by 10metres where the speakers sit normally... they sit a metre away from a wall... at an angle (they're kind of in a corner) but with a massive structural support sitting between them....

Scenario 2.  20%.  Outside on my terrace... They sit 3.5 metres apart... 2 metres away from a corrugated concrete wall (sophisticated building here in dubai...) with me and whoever else at least 4 metres away....

I would put up with them sounding a bit compromised in Scenario 1 to have them sound OUT OF THIS WORLD in Scenario 2. 

I'm not going to recommend my speakers because of their age, but an experience I had may have some relevance.

i once had occasion to use my speakers (IMF Ref Standard Prof Monitors - a large transmission line design) in the garden - where they sounded absolutely out of this world - they sound great indoors, doing all that I want from a speaker, but simply do it better outdoors. Probably most significant - but probably also an area of significance from your terrace - is that they were effectively completely freed from room effects, being a large garden, hedge boundaries and grass/flowerbeds/veg patch betwwn speakers and listeners. Your terrace clearly will have reflective surfaces in some directions, but perhaps open in others(?), so you may get a partial effect.

That would dictate speakers that don't rely on room effect to create their sound, and that but I don't have enough detailed knowledge to suggest any - however this might help others' thoughts.

If you  are happy with the sound of your Spendors, why not upgrade to better Spendors? Perhaps A9? Your 250 will drive them with ease.

This would be a good point to decide whether your long-term goal is to go active or not. Try and listen to an active Naim system, or at the very least search some of the forum postings to read what others think about passive vs active. I switched to active last year and love it - for the sort of music you listen to, I think it would be a big difference and you'll know pretty quickly if it is one that you like.

If so, then this limits your speaker choice quite significantly, even if you don't go active today. You're probably looking at the Ovator S600, or perhaps one of the older Naim models.

If you want to use speakers on the terrace as well as indoors, then you could try some Shahinians, as they have castors. 

Thanks everyone for lots of help and the warm welcome.  

Some answers:

1.  Budget.  GBP5k to GBP10k

2.  Active.  Sounds interesting... but know nothing about it... Will look into it.

3.  Piega classic 40.2... have been recommended to me by local dealer.  Will have a shot with those... see how they stack up to my aged Spendor S8s.

4.  Upgrade amp first... Wow thats an interesting one.  I'd thought that the 250 would already be slightly overkill for the S8s...   and I understood that the 300 was basically a 250 with separation of the power supplies?   Does it really make that much difference?  To be honest, I was thinking next amp would be the 500 series.

I hadn't realised quite how many posts arrive in 24hrs so you regular posters are going to be busy answering all these people!  No need to waste too much time on me.  I'll start auditioning some stuff!

Thanks people

N