heathen question

Posted by: xcentric on 17 November 2018

Am moving various bits of kit around the house, and am wondering about something truly contentious.....  hesitate about asking, but hey, its Saturday and I'm sure all I'll get is helpful comments :-)

Currently have 272/250/XPS DR in one room for actually listening to, and Uniti in adjacent room for more casual listening.  Would like to move the Uniti elsewhere, and am wondering quite how much I'd compromise the sound if I fitted a decent switch to allow me to use one set of speakers in one room or the main set in the other.  I know I'd not be able to use both, etc, but it might give me more music options elsewhere.

Has anyone tried this or got experience of it?  Just opinions ('don't do it!') are not helpful unless backed up with experience..... but positive and negative experiences (or scientific justifications) welcomed.

Posted on: 17 November 2018 by NickSeattle

I have used Niles speaker switches in the past, and found the performance was acceptable to me, in my context, using two channels off of a Yamaha AV amp out to four zones.  The Niles unit had a protection circuit so the amp only sees a normal load.  You could defeat protection for a performance lift, if you used one zone at a time.  Each zone had an in-wall mechanical volume control.

Later, I ran Tape Out to a NAD 12 channel distribution amp.  The results are much better.  You can definitely hear more of the quality of good sources, now that each speaker has a dedicated amp.

I doubt the 250 would not survive a brief A/B switch trial.  You could amend your build-out with a cheap amp for Zone 2 (assuming your 272 has Tape Out/Line Out) if your idea does not pan out.

Of course, caveats about the impacts of wire choice and wire lengths’ impact on the 250 apply, whatever they might be.

Nick

Posted on: 17 November 2018 by Mike Sullivan

Have you considered going with the multi room function, even with another second hand Uniti?

Posted on: 18 November 2018 by Richard Dane

I would avoid any kind of speaker switch - it will be a performance compromise and AFAIK their use is not recommended by Naim on their power amps.

You could run the Line out via a suitable interconnect (ask Naim for advice here as long i/cs may cause problems without loading) to a cheaper integrated in the other room. This has the advantage that you can have local volume control.

Ideally though, if you mostly stream, then another streamer/amp is probably best.  Have you considered a s/h Unitiqute, or how about a Mu-So Qb?  The latter is really neat solution and when properly set up can sound remarkably good.