Adding nap100 to uq2 no other/better sound

Whilst there are different opinions on whether the change in sound is an improvement or if it takes away the nature of the qute I have never heard of anyone before who has said that adding a nap100 to a qute make no difference at all to the sound.  If you have got the speaker cables into the Nap100 and not the Qute then I can't imagine why that would be the case.  What speakers are you using?

Pallie says he's using Neat Motive SX1s which should be more than capable of showing the difference the 100 makes.  

Having recently  gone through a similar upgrade (U2 - 200), if the connections and system settings have been done correctly then I'm really surprised you cannot hear a difference.  Whether you prefer the difference is another thing. 

The motive SX1 may be efficient enough that you don't need the nap100 for your listening levels in your room. Any need for further amplification with the UQ2 is very subjective, and the differences may be barely noticeable or only noticeable with very dynamic music at higher volumes (for me the NAP100 gave a huge improvement but I mainly had low efficiency speakers).

I would give it some more time listening to just the qute with a wide variety of music and up to your usual maximum listening levels for a week or so, then add the NAP100 back in and see if it adds anything for a similar test period. You may find it's not needed for you. Either way is right as long as it sounds good to you.

Thanks for the replies. I'm just surprised there isn't any difference. Maybe i have to change my speaker cable. Now i'm using chord carnival.

Pallie posted:

Thanks for the replies. I'm just surprised there isn't any difference. Maybe i have to change my speaker cable. Now i'm using chord carnival.

I think Hook's on the right lines here. The qute is capable in this instance thus the shortcomings (or benefits) are not apparent. I sold my NAP100 as it was 'not contributing' after a re-jig of speakers.

The second part of your statement is a bit worrying, don't change things 'because', think of why you would want to. What is wrong with the bare qute into SX1? Why boost it?

I cannot identify a decent wine from a crap one but I can tell virtually all the single malt whiskies apart, the qute is not really a swap in/swap out part, it's an all-in-one designed to be as enjoyable as possible, swap in a Uniti2 or SuperUniti for a major upgrade you cannot fail to notice!

The amp/speaker interface seems benign so I would look at spending money on researching better masters of your favourite music rather than splashing out on new cable at this stage...

Hmmmm...

What interconnects are you using between the UQ and NAP100?

I suspect a culprit may be hidden there...

This is a really silly question but I'll ask it anyway: you are plugging the speakers into the 100, aren't you?

I bought some of the original Motive 1s many years ago and found the bass impossible to control. I'm sure the new versions are a lot better, but I'm very surprised that the Qute can drive them properly. People have found that while the addition of the 100 often does not improve sound quality, it certainly increases drive, and for that reason alone I'd expect an improvement when adding one to the Qute in a system with the Motives. 

HH, yes speakers plugged into nap, i use chord cobra rca.

Quote alone drive those Neats also. I did a demo with UQ and nap100 into the SX2. And that was a big improvement. So i thought this would also be the case with the SX1.

Where was the demo? Room interactions can mask or make it hard to detect changes in sound, so it's not always obvious the differences between kit.

Dynamics is an important part of natural sounding reproduction though so I am also surprised that the addition of NAP100 is not giving you an audible difference. Maybe dependent on what kind of music you listen to.

@Mike, having now run my qute2 bare, with NAP100 and with a new Odyssey amp, I can say that the qute will not be the limiting factor in Pallie's system. Adding a more capable amp than the internal or the 100 has given me a huge jump in sound quality from my qute, although probably accentuated by my somewhat low efficiency speakers.

Pallie posted:

HH, yes speakers plugged into nap, i use chord cobra rca.

Quote alone drive those Neats also. I did a demo with UQ and nap100 into the SX2. And that was a big improvement. So i thought this would also be the case with the SX1.

Pallie: I am sorry to say this but in my opinion Chord Cobra are a mismatch for this sytem. If you have an option please borrow Chorus Reference or Cadenza Reference. If you hear an improvement, then compare bare UQ vs NAP100 again.

Another thing: power supply cables do make a difference with UQ (as with other NAIMs). If possible test various ones, and try matching them so that NAP and UQ are on the same cables. If not an option I would try a better cable on the NAP.

another RCA interconnect you may want to try is a TelluriumQ Black - they tend to work very well with NAIMs.

Pallie posted:

HH, yes speakers plugged into nap, i use chord cobra rca.

Quote alone drive those Neats also. I did a demo with UQ and nap100 into the SX2. And that was a big improvement. So i thought this would also be the case with the SX1.

Well, if you can hear no difference there is no difference, and I certainly wouldn't start fiddling with cables. I guess you could keep the amp and get the SX2 instead! Certainly with the original motives the 2 was better than the 1. It seems a shame to have to sell the 100 at a loss. One other thought if you want to keep the SX1 and the 100: trade the Qute for a 172..... You can pick them up for £1200 or so ex dem, so you'd only need to spend a few £00. But that involves spending more money as well, so I can see why you might not like the idea. 

well last night i did a factory reset en i powered the system down due to some network problems.

Now i've got some better,other SQ then before, lets see what happens if it gets some warmer.

Adam Zielinski posted:

Pallie posted:

HH, yes speakers plugged into nap, i use chord cobra rca.

Quote alone drive those Neats also. I did a demo with UQ and nap100 into the SX2. And that was a big improvement. So i thought this would also be the case with the SX1.

Pallie: I am sorry to say this but in my opinion Chord Cobra are a mismatch for this sytem. If you have an option please borrow Chorus Reference or Cadenza Reference. If you hear an improvement, then compare bare UQ vs NAP100 again.

I'm not saying don't do this but I did run a Nap100 on a Qute 2 using a Chord Cobra and the difference was very clear.  Personally I would suspect some of the other possible issues quoted above rather than interconnect issues.

At low volume there is an improvement. More bass. Lets see what happened the next days. Maybe the nap wasn't burn in.