Suspect he can add wife/girlfriend and friends to that list as well
Has been displayed on my HiFi rack in a smoke, pet and child-free environment.
Might undercut him with the ones I have.
Mines unopened so has to be worth a grand
I messaged him to see if heād take x3 at Ā£600 each.., So far no response - What kind of business passes up double bubble?
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As the happy owner of Neat Elites, Iāve been wanting to hear these for some time to see what the step up is like. Alas Iāve never been able to afford both the speakers and necessary amps at the same time (been told my itty bitty Nait 5i will in no way be able to drive them).
You may well know this, but various iterations of the Ultimatum range have been around about 25 years, and do show-up at WAY less Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£ than the asking for that pair. I suspect theyād work absolutely fine with your amp, just not at wallbending volumes with dub bass. Nice speakers.
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For less than half the price of those Iād be looking at Kudos super 20a. I went from Neat Elite SX to them and itās a massive leap in performance.
Yes, was going to say that offer seems pricey. That said, I feel like that model doesnāt turn up too often, not that Iāve been looking hard.
Interesting you say itād be ok with the amp. I was told (canāt remember by who though, it may have been a dealerā¦) that itād struggle with the isobaric bass. No harm in giving it a try though.
As an aside, Iām also curious about Kudos (theyāre ex-Neat right?). I once heard some Titans (canāt remember which model - have just noticed they seem to have increased in price hugely recently, along with everything else I guess) - and thought they sounded great. Would be interested to hear the basic pair of those or the Super 20a.
Edit - post crossed with Chrisā. Thatās interesting, from the outside they look very similar. How would you say the sound differs? I have the SX too (or maybe SE).
I thought theyād sound similar, especially after chatting to Derek at Kudos who designed the original Ultimatum, Elite and Petites
They are hyper detailed with fantastic fast and deep bass. The Elites (which I consider quite detailed) are positively Harbeth in comparison. The Elites are really musical but come nowhere near the detail, speed or quality of bass in the super 20a. Only had them for a couple of weeks but havenāt really found any flaws or music they donāt do well yet.
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well thatās spooky, these just popped into my email
That price is crazy for super 20
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Thatās very interesting. I wasnāt considering a change in speaker at all but nowā¦ argh.
Out of interest, think I saw you were using a Supernait 3 (as a sign of how long Iāve been out of it, not only did I not know they had a v3, but I happened to pop in to Tom Tom audio the other week as was walking past and he mentioned they now donāt do an integrated anymore!).
I remember trying an original Supernait and a Supernait 2 with the Elites, and think I actually preferred the originals, just. Though I didnāt find either considerably better than my 5i. How would you say the Sn3 compares?
Yeah, I deliberately held-off from the usual forum reply of āYou like X, but you really should listen to Y instead - itās WAY betterā, but much thoā it pains me to admit it, I agree with Leb, the Kudos range is easier to get along with. And if weāre also fishing for stuff-that-pairs-with-Naim, letās chum those waters for 'gator by including ART: the last couple of generations have sounded really good paired with lively solid state.
I bought a SN1 for the Elites and it was fantastic, got hooked and bought the SN3 as it has a phono stage rather than a DAC I donāt need.
It is a great sounding amp, the SN3 is more refined than the SN1 but Iām not sure if I prefer the slightly rougher/rawer sound of the SN1
Too late now as the SN1 has been sold so the SN3 is staying.
I think Ed @Tons_of_fun did a review of the super 20a with a SN3 and liked the combo.
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Bloody loved it in fact. SN3 is a great amp.
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That was my thought with the SN2 - I was listening with someone and he said it felt more controlled/refined than the SN1. But to my ears it felt just a bit duller/less exciting.
I remember hearing some ARTs at Scalford (maybe Olanās?) and enjoying them. Their models seemed to be pretty big in size though, although Iāve just checked their website and they seem to do several smaller sized models now (and theyāve changed the styling quite a lot!).
The other speaker Iām keen to try, having heard a JBL L100 at Scalford and loved it, is the JBL 4349, which seems about the largest I could get away with in my room. Although apparently they donāt pair well with Naim for the high-end.
JBL definitely well outside the Venn in all ways.
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Do the supernaits have the naim thump when you turn them on?
yep