Well the room is big. However, I think the Sopra are too demanding for that amp.
I however regret, that it cannot be used at full capacity, or should come with a note: Do not exceed NN% of volume on demanding speakers…
The step up transformer will probably be leaving the amp hamstrung. You should have it properly converted to 115V
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I’m sure things can be improved, as RIchard has noted.
Also, again, what speaker cables are you using - brand and length? Worth ruling out any chance of them being part of the problem.
Hi Clare, the cables are some Focal cables, that I guess are good quality. The length is about between 1.5 et 2 m long each. Do you think that could be an issue?
Back on the transfo note, I had some similar issues back in France, with the amp directly on the (recent) House power plug, and notice some similar concerns when pushing it up a bit.
I don’t think a Nap 250 would help you much. When I had one it would frequently overheat and cut out - going to 135s solved it.
I now have a Nova into N-Sats and a sub and have never had a single instance of that and I still play it loud. When I demmed the Nova the dealer said it was the loudest dem he’d ever had and it was loud in the main shop 2 floors down from the dem room.
The Nova is not short of power - I agree that there is something wrong with your set up.
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I didn’t find specifications for Focal speaker cable (and it seems there are many different ones), but in any case 1.5-2 meters is very short, even though the Uniti products are more tolerant than classic amps (for which a minimum of 3.5m NACA5 cable is specified).
If the Focal cable has less than the inductance of NACA5, I think you can easily land in critical territory with just 1.5-2 meters. The forum has seen several cases of Novas overheating due to problematic speaker cables.
I would very much recommend to try with 3 meters of NACA5.
By the way, here is the FAQ about speaker cables and the specifications of NACA5:
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You really cannot run a £4,000 all in one into large £12,000 speakers, in a large room at high volume, and expect great results. It’s just not going to happen. The Nova is good but cannot work miracles. For those speakers and a large room you are looking at an NDX2, XPSDR, 282, Hicap DR and 300DR as a reasonable starting point.
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Hi all, so I checked my cables, they are Focal Performance, 13 Gauges (2.5mm carre) Hyper Twist.
You’re using the word “reasonable” in your reply HH. I do not think it means what you think it means! The equipment you listed comes to more than £24,000 and you would need to add plenty of rack and cable to that figure! 
I know exactly what it costs, and to get a well balanced system with the OP’s speakers you are looking at that sort of money.
Yes, but the Nova and the speakers are 16K. By distributing the funds differently, the result may have been more satisfying, if the budget doesn’t allow a suitable frontend for 12K speakers.
With this caveat, I’d still try with 3 meters of NACA5
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The speakers you have chosen are rather demanding, particularly for an ‘all in one box’.
Although a Nova CAN drive them you’re going to have to arrange things to give it every chance of doing so properly, you need to optimise all the service conditions to be as ideal for the Nova as you can achieve; this means:
Get the Nova switched over to 110V (rather than having its power supply hampered by an additional transformer).
Use at least 3m of NAC A5 speaker cable each side (and 4m or 5m would be better).
Plug it directly into the wall using a Powerline (N.B. don’t use an extension cable).
Position the Nova so that there’s free airflow around it.
It will probably also be of benefit to put the Nova on a properly constituted HiFi rack.
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I highly suspect these are a major issue here - twisted/braided cables are not a good partner for Naim, and can contribute towards overheating issues (as several people on these Forums have experienced.)
Uniti is more forgiving than some earlier designs, but i’d still recommend 3m+ pair of cables - non-twisted; non-braided. As noted above, Naim’s own NAC A5 would be great place to start.
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The Nova can be converted to US electric standards very inexpensively. That sounds like step 1.
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Hi everyone, thanks for your feedback.
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Of course these numbers are dependent on the max volume setting, so can’t really compare them without knowing the value of that.
Is this speaker cable intended for car audio use? Focal are big in car audio and I’m not aware of them supplying any domestic HiFi speaker cable. Maybe worth checking the spec?
My guess is that there are other factors at play, but this could still be a contributing factor.
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They also supply home cinema solutions, pretty big ones, and I think that they might also have cable for this, in addition to cars. But there’s scarcely any info on focal.com. In any case, as the cable used is only 1.5 meters on one side it would have to be pretty special to provide the same values as 3+ meters of NACA5, and it most likely isn’t
NONE of the Focal speaker cables are ideal for a Nova, as none are of high inductance low capacitance configuration.
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