I thought i would share my experience with upgrading my amplification.
I brought my SN2 in 2013 driving Dynaudio Audience 72SE floorstanders and was very pleased with the sound quality.
A couple of years later i upgraded the speakers to Focal Electra 1038 Be (40-400W rated and 93db sensivity so should beok for SN2 to drive) and very pleased with sound quality upgrade but felt that i could get more out of the speakers.
A year later i added a HiCap DR to the SN2 and again very pleased with sound quality upgrade.
A couple of years ago What HiFi tested the 1038 Be’s and said they were much better with better amplification during their test which got me thinking to upgrading my amp further so i researched the forum and the best advice was go to pre/power amps.
However i only have space in my AV Rack for one more box so limted me to a 282/250 at a tight squeeze for the napsc but no room for a separate headphone amp and i use headphones alot in my lounge when my wife watches the TV.
I contacted Naim so find out if new models so superseed 282 hopefully with no napsc and a headphone out but told nothing planned.
Then asked Naim if 250 would be replaced with a new model to include SN3 power amp improvement of faster slew rate etc and hopefully more power than 80W but also told nothing planned.
So like many on the forum waiting for new pre/power amps to come out.
This got me thinking about better and more powerful integrated amps so did loads of research and short listed the Hegel H590, Krell K-300i and Mark Levenson 5805 with the Krell being my preference.
Demoed the Krell against a Supernait 3 with same CD Player and cables and same speakers and cables and although the Krell was much more powerful the sound quality was just more musical and better with the SN3 so brought a SN3.
The SN3 compared to the SN2 with the HiCap DR with the rest of my system being the same is better the SN3 is more agile and responsive and has better bass control and overall sounds better than then SN2 which i now use in my second system.
The SN3 still has more to give as i home tested a Chord Signature RCA interconnect on my streamer a couple of weeks ago in place of my Chord Epic and got more detailed and better sound out of the system so i have ordered the Signature as it will really be great when i upgrade my streamer in the near future.
Still waiting for those new pre/power amps though.
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Are we?
What new pre/power amps?
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If it ain’t broke…
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This goes to show that any upgrade is both room and system dependant. I’ve read many reviews /posts that say SN2 to SN3 not taking into account the added Phono Stage was a minimal at best upgrade and others like yourself who have reported a very noticeable upgrade and exactly the same for adding a HCDR to a SN2.
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