Supernait and Dynaudio Contour 1.4

The SuperNait is a very capable amplifier indeed. Volume gain at 9 is indeed something I can confirm 

Klout is right the SN is a very efficient amp.  If you moved up to say a 282/250 you’d find that you’d still be listening at 9 but there’d be more grip. 

Regards,

Lindsay

All Naim amps are similar in this respect, and the volume pot will generally need to be at a low setting unless you have a low level source, or hard to drive speakers. 

Would this be an original SN or the SN2?

I was talking about the original SuperNait, but I imagine the SuperNait 2 is just the same.

My SuperNait (1) partners 83dB/W/m speakers & indeed 9 o’clock is about as loud as I go with most albums,  exceptions would be DSD  which needs a touch more. 

Thank you for the confirmation. I am using mainly my computer/DAC as a source so I could change volume on my player(not best solution from the sound quality point of view) but I have heard that there is solution to reduce it by some kind of software modification/change of SN. Is it true? It would be much more convinient to have more volume steps especially at low levels.

I have the SN1 too and I feed it currently with a Raspberry Pi + USB DragonFly Black. Since the 90GBP DragonFly has an output of 1.2 volts, it allows me to use the volume dial around 10 which is the comfortable area of the volume regulation of the SN1.

Furthermore, the SN loves to work and pairs good especially with inefficient loudspeakers. I use BW CM1's with it at 84db.

Another good thing of the SN1 is that it dramatically improves when it gets paired with an Hicap DR. It is one of the most cost effective upgrades in the Naim world.

All my opinion of course, but I'm very happy with my SN1.

I'm not aware of any means of regulating SN volume levels for different inputs.  

I don't really understand what the problem is;  my NAT-05 has an output of 600mV,  the NDX is 2v & that varies dependin on what its playing,  NAS & iRadio is about the same but TV is much lower.  It all gives different volumes at the same volume control position, I just adjust it to whatever I want.

Naim amplifiers generally use potentiometers that have significant gain early in the rotation, so that's perfectly normal. In fact, with very sensitive speakers and low level listening this can be an issue as channel balance is not perfectly 50/50 at the very early stage of the rotation.  

With my old Contour 1.8s and both the 200 and 250 9 was the norm sometimes a little more with vinyl

I used a supernait with contour 1.3's for many years- and yes it sounded loud even below 9 o'clock, but only with the NDX - with vinyl I could turn it up significantly more. I have a 282 now with the same speakers and same result. Only the slightly newer preamps like supernait 2 and 272 are less sensitive and more suited to modern high output sources.

Thanks a lot for the answers. Just one more question. Is it allowed to connect/ disconnect DAC sources (optical/coax cable) when the amplifier is turned on? I know that it is not allowed for analogue but what about digital?

Just hit the mute button on the amp and connect away..