Big speakers for NAP500 - Kudos 808 or Wilson Sasha2

Thanks for the detailed description J !  I'm afraid 36" from front wall and 9 feet apart may be a bit hard for me to do in my room... 

ATB,

Mark

I could swing the 36" in my room easier than I could swing the $37,900.   Holy cats!

Point of information:  Has anybody heard the ProAc K6 or K8?   I don't know if they are in a comparable league, but it would be useful to know what the alternatives are to the Kudos and Wilsons.

That's also about the price of the 808 I'm guessing...

May be close with discounts and all.   Kudos are 22,000 pounds per the June price list.   $28k US for the Kudos if you can find a dealer.  More Wilson dealers and a nice sale for them at these prices.    Still $37.9 for the Wilson is quite the rack rate for the US market.    Proac K6 is $26k retail.  ProAc K8 is pushing $40k.

With our 500 Naim systems, our speakers are almost always the weakest link.  My question is which is the strongest of the weak links?   Having over achieved with electronics, source first and all, we shouldn't have to overachieve on speakers.

Skip posted:

May be close with discounts and all.   Kudos are 22,000 pounds per the June price list.   $28k US for the Kudos if you can find a dealer.  More Wilson dealers and a nice sale for them at these prices.    Still $37.9 for the Wilson is quite the rack rate for the US market.    Proac K6 is $26k retail.  ProAc K8 is pushing $40k.

With our 500 Naim systems, our speakers are almost always the weakest link.  My question is which is the strongest of the weak links?   Having over achieved with electronics, source first and all, we shouldn't have to overachieve on speakers.

Agree, with 500 system, sometimes speakers can be the weakest link or 500 system allows us to explore various speakers that match with your room and personal preference. As my speakers allow me to hear what ND555 can do. 

This post just highlights that naim need to make speakers again. No speakers connect you to the music the way theirs used too. Kudos, focal, wilson magico, nothing like dbl nbl sl2 etc used to, not even close.  Their speakers used to have the same engineering approach as their electronics - designed to serve the music, not the manufacturers ego. We are now lost in the mindfield of a million ideas, when all that was needed was the gradual improvement of their existing designs, just as they have done with their electronics. 

Hi Mario, I couldn’t agree more although it is now a big pie in the sky sadly. ATB Peter

Skip posted:

May be close with discounts and all.   Kudos are 22,000 pounds per the June price list.   $28k US for the Kudos if you can find a dealer.  More Wilson dealers and a nice sale for them at these prices.    Still $37.9 for the Wilson is quite the rack rate for the US market.    Proac K6 is $26k retail.  ProAc K8 is pushing $40k.

With our 500 Naim systems, our speakers are almost always the weakest link.  My question is which is the strongest of the weak links?   Having over achieved with electronics, source first and all, we shouldn't have to overachieve on speakers.

Skip just to be contrarian - maybe a Naim 500 level system actually needs fantastic speakers so that (a) one can hear the benefits of the electronics and (b) so that one hasn't spent all that money on electronics only to hear the weaknesses and limitations of the speakers.

I've heard it said (written) that great speakers simply let you hear the music. In my limited listening, I've found that sometimes it costs a lot to not hear the speaker.

£85K worth of vinyl front end, ND555, 552, 500 and a bit of Fraim, £3K on a used pair of NBLs and a few lessons learnt about setting the system up (that only cost time). Sounds pretty damned fine to me.