Nova Utopia Be $38K - Are they good?

I recently acquired the Novas which replaced B&W N800’s. Prior to my decision to buy these, I evaluated Wilson’s Grand Slamm (Series 2) in my room. Front-end is all Levinson. Overall, the Novas are stunning and in my system, the speakers disappear on most CDs.

Comparing to N800:
- Bass is much faster and lower (no need to get a sub)
- Midrange is significantly more accurate and makes the N800 sound ‘constipated’
- Top-end is cleaner
N800 tends to draw attention to itself as in ‘listen to me’ whilst the Novas draws your attention to the music.

The Grand Slamms was a very interesting experience although my room size wasn’t ideal. I found both to have much in common and the overall sound was similar which perhaps makes for some form of convergence for high-end speakers. Where the Grand Slamms offered better performance was in dynamics whilst the Novas delivered better driver integration and soundstage height (which I suppose is a result of my room as I always felt I wanted much greater listening distance).

Hope this helps.

Slaufer, I would suggest that you arrange for these speakers to be auditioned in your home (even at modest cost it would be well worth it). Once your system is fully warmed up, sit yourself down with a decent wooded chardonay and enjoy...

Sirspeedy, one way of knowing whether the Novas were fully runned-in was if you heard an unusaul amount of sibilance. Those Be tweeters needs at least 250 hours of break-in and thereafter sibilance almost vanishes.