New Superuniti owner with some questions

Hi Jason,

Congrats on your SU - it's a fantastic product.  Got mine a few months back and am enjoying it immensely.  Mine was purchased new and consequently took a good 3 months to give its best.  But all the naim equipment I've owned over the last 20 years took at least 3 to 4 weeks to come back on song after being turned off - even after burn in.  It should get a lot more consistent sometime during the second week I would say.  I've always had the speaker setting set as you do, so can't comment on the SQ difference there.  One additional tip: I found that turning off all unused inputs (in my case everything but UPnP) made a small, but worthwhile difference.  

Enjoy,

Evan

I'm curious, naimUnT - how much of an improvement did the Powerline bring to your SU?  Considering doing that myself...

Best, Evan

Hello. Congrats, as said by others, the SuperUniti is a great product. Got mine 3 months ago, new unit. Now I find it pretty similar in SQ than my previous Snait + HC2. Since I have difficult speakers to drive (Dyn Contour 2.8), I added a 250.2 which helped for bass control especially. Also noticeable improvment on mid-bass like baryton sax and fluegelhorn (low notes). It works well. If I wanted more, would have to go back to seperates. Not sure about that, I love the 2 box set up. Good compromise for now.

I have no idea about your speakers - are they easy to drive? Some forum members here love Kudos but IMO, if you change your amp, you need to rework the speaker placement. Maybe that will help. Check also cable dressing as sais by NaimUnT, it does make a difference, to my ears at least.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck

Yip.

Many thanks for the replies.

I'm going to turn off the unused inputs.

Also interested in a powerline...

I bought the speakers with the SU so I can only judge this system as is - it's the fact that the sound has got richer, deeper, fuller, less bright/weedy in the 5 days I've had it or that I'm getting "used" to the sound that I'm trying to fathom.

It's not your imagination - that's exactly how the sound of all naim gear changes during warm up in my experience.  (And don't worry if it sounds worse some days during the second week - that's normal too.)  By week three it should be stunning.  Just don't ever turn the thing off again if you can help it!

Evan

Just a quick question - how do you turn off the unused inputs in the SU? Thanks 

Go to Settings>Inputs via the front panel display and you'll be able to scroll through all the various inputs and toggle them on and off.

Thanks alot 

Belated welcome to Jason as another Superuniti newcomer.  Although mine already sounds pretty good to me I have now followed Evan's advice of switching off unused inputs with the exception of the last digital input.  I use this to "park" the system when not in use i.e. mute, volume to zero and input as didgital 5.  I am not sure if this is necessary but I somehow feel more comfortable that that it is better in this way.  As an aside one of the reasons for buying the Superuniti, apart from the sound quality and convenience, was to avoid upgraditis.  I am therefore concerned to note that I am also looking forward to hearing about the potential benefits of a powerline.

Have no hesitation about the PLine.  I have a SUniti now with PL

Attached, but initially added it to a Uniti before exchanging to the

SU.  Adding it to the Uniti was an obvious and immediate transformation

in all areas of SQ.  Adding a PL to the SU can only be better, since it

is more revealing.  

California Jim

My experience with PL when I added to my SN a few years ago was clear and immediate (and I have to say I wasnt a believer when I first tried it). It gave more clarity to the sound, probably due to the silence being darker. Like if there was more air around instruments. Downside was that bad recordings were even worse.

I cannot talk about the SU since I did put the PL directly when I got the unit. Is it worth the price? Only you can judge that. For me yes, it is worth every penny. For others, its not. If you can borrow one from dealer, you will get your answer.

Also many many good threads on the forum on this topic. 

Yip

A little update.

Firstly after spending a week and a half burning about 300 CD's at lvl 8 compressed Flac I decided to compare with lossless Flac (my NAS won't serve WAV), and the difference was noticeably fuller sound with better note decay, so spent another week and a half reburning...

I've also been lent a burnt in Powerline from my excellent dealer - Signals - and I'm not sure I believe my ears, the soundstage is significantly increased, resulting in better frequency range and again a fuller, richer sound - at least as big an improvement as lossless.

Finally I've been playing with the sand levels in the stands. I've gone from all 5 legs half filled which gave a very bright, detailed sound, to leaving the four smaller legs half full and filling the larger centre leg completely which resulted in muddiness and loss of detail. Now I've got the centre about 80% filled and the sound is much warmer, much less top end with little loss of detail. I've gone from being 80% happy to 90%+. I will try and take a little more out later in the week and experiment with the outer legs.

I just wanted to (potentially) wrap up my own thread. My brilliant dealer Signals lent me a pair of C2's and S10's to play with as I just wasn't getting on with the C10's due to an overly high top end IMO. 

Firstly I had a good few hours and 2 other pairs of ears to make my decision, swapping between the speakers in just a couple of mins back and forth but giving each speaker a number of the same tracks to play. The C2's were quickly discounted - they sounded pleasant but on some tracks the bass did boom although not necessarily when I expected it to. The C10's continued by sounding better at the high end but not in proportion to the mid and low end. However the S10's blew them both out of the water. They sounded better at every level - greater detail, voices sounded richer, bass fuller and the mid had real depth but most importantly and given those descriptions, amazingly IMO, the sound was much better integrated and therefore natural. The poor recordings are liveable with now whereas with the C10's they were exposed mercilessly which is really interesting when you think that the S10's are better on every level. They've added detail at every point but are sympathetic to the ear.

So I'm now a very happy owner of Kudos S10's and I can finally relax and enjoy the music it says something that I'm no longer listening for faults, just enjoying, again partly because they make poor recordings sound good and good recordings sound great. I realise that this is all very subjective but would encourage any Kudos owner to listen to the S10's if possible.