Speakers for Unitilite

I'm a big fan of Revel speakers. If you can, try and get a demo of the Performa3 M106. I have the bigger brother f206. Beautiful uncoloured natural sound. I've heard a few speakers that are either bass or treble heavy. The revels are neither. Just stunning at the price 

Hello Bob and welcome. Slightly cheaper than the R300's and imo just as good are the Kef LS50's. In fact being just a tad lighter on the bottom end than the R300's, they might suit your neighbours very nicely. Below the £1k mark, I would also say the Linn Majik 109's are good, perhaps slightly more rhythmic and "musical" than either of the Kef's. Also worth an honourable mention are Neat Iotas. The best advice I can give is get out there and listen and do try and get a dealer to let you listen at home.

Heard the new Neat Iota small floorstander at the Bristol show this year they sound coming out of these very small speakers was staggering the bass was outstanding.

I think they are due out late April with a price of around £1200 might be worth a demo when avalible.

A pair of n-sats if you can find them, or if you want new then kudos X2. Both sounded great with my Unity.

Pcd posted:

Heard the new Neat Iota small floorstander at the Bristol show this year they sound coming out of these very small speakers was staggering the bass was outstanding.

I think they are due out late April with a price of around £1200 might be worth a demo when avalible.

Actually Bob, that is Bob at Neat, tells me the new Iota floor standers are released in June. I have not heard them myself but have good reports from people I would trust. Pity they look like a pair of electric convection room heaters. Perhaps they can multi- task.

Thanks for the replies everyone

I will check out some of those speakers

bob

If you can find a pair - Guru Juniors. Don't look very special but sound very special with the Unitilite.

I had CM5s briefly and I didn't think they went well with my UQ (at the time) - they're too polite and a bit flat. I also don't rate the KEF LS50s highly - great on demo but hard to position in a room at home. The Linn 109s are very lovely in the mid and top, but no bass. Guru Juniors seem entirely mythological.

I'd look at the classic Naim options if I were you: Neat makes good speakers for Naim, and Focal is an obvious choice (the 906 is a very good match for a UL).

Dynaudio Excite X14

Hi, I agonised over this same question for some time. After a huge amount of listening and going in and out of my local hi fi shop, I settled for the PMC 23 speakers. I have similar issues as you re too much bass, due to wooden floors and proximity of neighbours. Anyway, I adore this partnership.

The sound is spectacular with great high end clarity.   I should say that I generally listen to classical and opera but they also cope well with rock etc. They also look lovely, very sleek  

They were probably the most expensive option of all that I listened to and I agonised about that too. However, now everything's installed and 18 months later I have absolutely no regrets.  

Sonus faber chameleon range sounds nice

I used Focal Arias 906s with my Unitilite I've changed them recently for used Naim Arivas which have a bit more bottom end, both sound fantastic with the Unitilite. 

Nick

I have seen the Focal Arias 906's this morning, they look fantastic on the matching stands. Strange that the black speakers are about £150 more expensive that the wood effect ones.

Unfortunately I cannot find anywhere in London that demo's them. They have got very good reviews so I might just go with these...

KJ West One in London do Focal. 

They're excellent speakers at the price - very balanced and even-handed with all types of music, easy to drive and will go loud if you want them to. They have a really nice, 'friendly' character and match Naim's Uniti series perfectly IMHO. I really like them, and would have bought a pair if I hadn't decided to go a little further upmarket with my amp. 

Of the others mentioned above, I've heard the PMCs and really like them a lot, but that's a whole other price level compared with the 906s. If you were intending to upgrade the UL at some point then it might be worth going that far.

Yes that is were I viewed them this morning, right next to another pair of speakers priced at £140.000!! That is one seriously high end hi fi shop. They are selling the ex display speakers and stands in black for £950 no boxes.

However I have tracked down a new pair for £530 delivered and the stands are £200, all brand new and boxed.

I would like to see the walnut finish just to compare but the blacks on the stands look stunning.

I've recently sold my Focal Arias and matching stands for £500, as new boxed etc I had the walnut ones and because of the "tapered" design the sides weren't really visible, the fronts are wrapped in leather with a glass top which is echoed in the matching stands. I thought they were very nice looking.

Nick

Yes I agree they look great. How they look is important to me as I will be looking at them everyday.

i see there are some on eBay, second hand in very good condition wouldn't worry me at all.

bob

I use B&W CM1s with a UnitiLite and they sound exceptional. I find the CM series pairs well with Naim amplification.

Ok that's interesting, I have used the CM1's with the Arcam Solo.

Is that the original CM1's?

I haven't heard the new S2 CM1s, but the previous model were . . . all right. That's usually my response to B&W speakers TBH. They're all right, but don't make my foot tap. They seem designed to be inoffensive. Well made and quite pretty, but I think there are better-sounding speakers out there for the money.

bob60 posted:

Ok that's interesting, I have used the CM1's with the Arcam Solo.

Is that the original CM1's?

Yes the original ones. I selected them because I had a small room at the time with paper thin walls but I still wanted quality sound at decent volume. I think they're quite good speakers. There seems to be a knee-jerk negative reaction whenever B&W is mentioned around here (and in some cases I agree with the criticism) but in the case of the CM series I think they offer good performance especially for apartment dwellers.

I had a demo this morning with the Unitilite and Monitor Audio Gold 50's. I thought the sound was really nice.

Has anyone used these speakers?