Speaker choices for the mighty NAD C370 in a large-ish room on a budget

 

Bronze Member
Username: James_lehmann

Post Number: 64
Registered: Nov-06
Those of you with long memories will recall my adventures choosing a new amp/cd system for my PMC TB2s...

https://www.ecoustics.com/electronics/forum/home-audio/285219.html

... in which I ended up with a lovely Naim Nait 5i/CD5i combo and with which I am still delighted.

However, I am now in a position to build a second system around my unused NAD C370 integrated in another (much larger) room, albeit on a micro-budget.

First stop was ePray where, for the relative novice I am at bidding, I seem to have lucked out on a recently reconditioned NAD C541 CD Player, which is a nice complement to the 370 from the same era, appears to work great and sounds really quite refined for the small change I paid for it. Works with the 370 remote too. Pleased with that!

So far so NAD, but it's now pretty clear my venerable Heybrook HB1s are bottlenecking the system and are lacking in filling the large-ish room I have now, ie 8m x 5m with some real oomph at higher volumes. The C370 is crying out for something more meaty to get it's considerable claws into!

On the plus side, even with the Heybrooks I'm finding my 'scrap-heap' NAD system very musical and engaging so I don't think my source-sound will cause me any worries. Speaker-wise, obviously I love the PMC house-sound, which for me is neutral-ish, detailed, nicely sound-staged and without insanely hyped bass.

Clearly I am not short of raw power so efficiency is hardly a worry - the 370 is the most powerful amp I've ever owned and the windows already start rattling anywhere past 11 o'clock, so the issue of 'being able to drive XYZ' is almost irrelevant here. I have a big room and can accommodate something quite sizeable if necessary. I get the impression large speakers tend to lose their value more quickly than mid-small sizes as folk have smaller living spaces these days - hopefully I can profit from that as I have the space.

I listen to a very wide range of material from acoustic to electronic, although I fall into the camp of believing that a good pair of speakers should sound good whatever the source material.

I'm thinking floorstanders because I have the space, but if a good pair on stands comes along I'd be perfectly happy. I have some spare Naim NACA5 cable that serves the purpose - I could change that down the line if it turned out to mismatch whatever speakers I end up with.

So...

Given a limited budget of say +/- $300 (this is my second system remember - I'm scavenging on a budget here!) plus the fact that I will almost certainly pop for something second-hand and blind on eBay what would the panel recommend I look out for? I'll be buying in the UK so esoteric builds from outside Europe might be nice but almost certainly prohibitively expensive to ship. I'm aware the field is large and speakers are very personal things but please weigh in with what sort of brands/models you'd be looking out for in my situation.
 

Gold Member
Username: Stu_pitt

Stamford, Connecticut USA

Post Number: 4063
Registered: May-05
I'm assuming this is more for background and/or party music. A pair of JBLs or Klipsch may fit the bill nicely.

Efficiency is something you should keep an eye on, even though you've got a powerful amp. You've got a big space to fill, and an inefficient speaker will take away headroom and ease from your amp IMO.
 

Gold Member
Username: Dmitchell

Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Post Number: 4390
Registered: Feb-07
Klipsch Synergy F2
Paradigm Monitor 7 v4
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