Atom or Nova with 250dr or Non Dr

Hi

i have recently upgraded my unitilite to a nova and am very pleased with it. i thought about the others atom and star but went for the nova. Just trying to figure what speakers to up grade too. I can't comment on the NAP route, I'm sure others can. You have some good speakers so the Nova would probably do the justice.

I started out with the Nova , but had plans to replace in the future with a new Higher end streamer, on the new architecture. The only upgrade for Nova etc is a power amp, so I added a 250dr to my demo. A nice step up in tightness, dynamics and I have had A Nap250 before, so was on my wish list. I had only had the Nova for 3 to 4 weeks and my dealer then had a250 dr in for just over 2k, had to buy. Very very pleased, but I guess I have caught the bug again, and I have swapped it for an ex demo 300 dr. It’s such a huge jump in performance.

I removed the 250 over a weekend, and it was the first time I had truly listened to the Nova fully run in on its own, wonderful! I then some days later installed the 300 dr carefully making sure the burndys were not touching anything. I sat down to listen and thought, not bad this 300 dr. A few more tracks later, I thought sounds like the Nova.........forgot to transfer the speaker cables over, it was the Nova darggh......

Put the cables in the back of the 300dr and it was amazing, everything was much more detailed, faster, dynamic. Very very happy with this decision.

would I repeat the 250dr on the Nova, not so sure.....take some time over it if I were you, and where you want to take your system. Listen to your ears, it’s easy to fool yourself

Many thanks for the comments, I might be best to stick with Nova for a while, and maybe look at upgrading the power amp later.

intrestingly I spoke to Naim technical this morning, and they advised don’t use the Nova with a power amp, not really what’s its intended for.

They did say the 272 and 250dr is a massive step up from Nova, but I see from others on these forums have had a mixed bag of results.

so why have a Pre out??? Not in to many words but the chap hinted its about making ££££.

same with Atom when I asked the question, you can add a Nap 100 to the upgrade path on your website, same again hinted it was about more £££.

Why have a pre-out? It’s simply so there is an upgrade path to the classic series. Add a 250, then swap the Nova for a 272 or something else. Surely that’s better than the Nova being a dead end?

That’s what I was told at Audio Show East, it’s all about choices. We all have our opinions on the forum, you have to listen yourself. If you are buying a Nova, ask your dealer at the end of the demo, please add a power amp. I want to see if it’s a meaningful upgrade, as advertised by Naim. No problem at my dealer, even if it was not what they would recommend. But it’s my money, your money at the end of the day, and your sound preference.

But most important enjoy and have fun, too easy to get bogged down in analysis.

Thanks chaps, I will get my dealer to put a poweramp on and see how it sounds.

Why not simply trust Naim here? Surely, even without much expert knowledge, 272/250 makes more sense than a Nova/250... "All-in-One Player" -- it's on the tin to avoid confusion...