SN2 plus 250 - does that make sense?

....thanks, Jan. Indeed, the Eggs are something special. Way underrated compared to Wilson, but boy they do rock and roll and convey smallest details without being analytic. I am very curious what these little Fontaines are able to deliver when upping the front-end...

What is the front end (source) ?

(The experience of hearing the Andras, fronted by FM Acoustics gear, many years ago in Lyon, is seared into my brain. The store was l'Émotion Musicale, unfortunately no longer in business)

The Fontaines are basically the Andras without the big-a$$ woofer. They do the silent-loud thing in a scary way....

My front-end is a Linn Akurate DS/1 streamer leading to a AudioNote 2.1x Dac to the SN2. I also have a LP12 lurking and waiting to be repaired for some nice vinyl.

Cheers

Klaus 

Have you written your thoughts in some other thread about this comparison? I'd love to hear more. I'm currently at Naim DAC - SN2 + HCDR but 272/250.2 DR has been in my mind. 

About the topic, I see no point of using SN2 only as a preamp. Why not sell it and buy used 282? 

Andrew Everard has discussed this nice and succinctly in a previous topic also:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/topic/supernait-as-pre?

My front-end is a Linn Akurate DS/1 streamer leading to a AudioNote 2.1x Dac

By "upping the front end", I take it then you that were referring to the power amp, and not the streamer + DAC, or the preamp.

Jan

If anything, it shows what exceptional value the SN2 is...and I say that as a previous longtime 252/300 user.

G

...yep, thats what I meant. A power amp is not really front-end though, isn't it. I see that now

I gather from the previous posts (thanks, guys!!) that giving a 250 a try on the SN2 won't hurt, given the option of a later trade-in of the SN2 for a 282 (or get a used one).

Good plan. The Egglestons really deserve the 252 though

I use the SN2 in a biamped configuration with a 250.2, driving Spendor SP100/R2 speakers. 

Source is mainly a Marantz NA-11S1 network player (which I reckon is on par or slightly better than the NDX but much cheaper) and speaker cables are NAC A5. All electronics fed by a dedicated line and a PS Audio P5 power regenerator.

I found greater control and detail when I added the 250.2. However, contrary to what I've read on this forum, I preferred the SN2 driving the upper registers and the power amp the lower. YMMV.

Good luck!

You seem to have it all mapped out but the cult of the power amp persists. I would also want to make an assessment of SN2 and HC-DR too into your 'not that bad' speakers, as well as SN2 and Nap250 into them.

C.

It's something I considered doing, but with a constant churn of equipment for reviewing it's not so convenient to have such a set-up. One day, if ever I get a break in the workflow, I intend to try it.

the thing is even a 200DR is a serious upgrade to the SN2!

i know cause i have made this test, and was actually blown away how big the difference it was...this particular difference being the "glitch" that made me choose the 200DR as power amp.

when swapping the 200DR by 250DR with SN2 as pre the difference is smaller than by adding the 200DR to SN2. and the 200DR is 60% in price of the 250DR. i'm not saying that the 250DR is not better, because it obviously is, but i, for once, like to get the best VFM upgrade, and for a SN, be it 1 or 2, the 200DR is the best VFM upgrade no doubt!

in fact, in Naim's amp manual, this is the next step of upgrade after the HC... with DR PSU integrated, i guess that in this case, for SN2, might be even more worthwhile to try the 200DR and use it's preamp DR PSU as well, for the SN2 pre-amp section... it might reduce the imporvement with a 250DR to a less significant value, and get the best out of a new purchase with the 200DR!

disregard what many will say here that the 200DR is not a big upgrade to the old 200. some of them haven't heard them side by side... some have, but the best is to try it yourself... i consider it the new sweet spot in Naim power amp range, since the difference in SQ in lower to 250DR than it was in the older non DR gen between 200 and 250.2, both new DR amps being more neutral and dynamic.

I like what you are saying, and have not heard the 200 DR, catalinmetal, but 2 dealers have disputed this and at least one forum member saying they all 3 could hear no difference between 200 and 200 DR. 2 of these dealers actually played them one after the other and gave me this feedback that there was no point in upgrading from 200 to 200DR since I already have a HCDR.

however as you know Frank Abela of Audio-t does say the 200 DR is much improved compared to the old 200 (the new 200DR doesn't have those "dry as a desert" traits of the old 200), so I'm just very curious to hear the 200DR myself, as I am a big fan of the 200.

By the way I still don't get the dry as a desert part of the 200, no matter how hard I try to find it 

anyway as long as you are now happy with your kit 172/200DR/Ovators, and especially enjoying the music , that is a good outcome.

Indeed - in fact the 200 was quite a tight sweet amp with the 282 in my experience... lovely sound (Driving ATC SCM 11's)

Simon

exactly I find the 282/HCDR/200 to be a very sweet sounding combo, really very good. Probably one of the better sweet spots in the Naim range (this view also has been mentioned by Richard Dane, but he was speaking of 282/200 only)

What I did find was that it is very sensitive to sub-optimal setup, such as bad NACA 5 soldering, poor quality interconnects, and the moment I went from RCA-RCA to RCA-DIN on my Hugo and turntable, musicality and Sound quality went from "very good" to "just about perfect" for me.

these issues are not absolute hard facts and depend on the voicing of speakers, the pairing of my previous B&W speakers and NAP 200 is not ideal to my ears, but Dynaudio and NAP 200 sounds excellent, that is because Dynaudio try to be as tonally neutral as possible, and I think ATC strive for the same - since both companies make pro-audio studio monitors.

Andrew:

I was never taken by the effects of bi-amping, tried it several times. Maybe a tad more control but definately not worth the expenses for an additional amp. Sometimes even detrimental effects occured,  especially with regard to timing and coherence...

Cat: good idea re. the 200DR, let's see if I can demo one at home.

Cheers

... that's the spirit!