And the journey starts

1, 2, 300…and you’re under. A 300DR just showed up and I have officially entered the rabbit hole. I knew I shouldn’t have spent so much time around here. I blame you all for it…affectionately :smile: :grin:

A stonking deal, saved me a few thousands. So, the plan so far is: run it with the Nova as a preamp for a while until I can get my hands on a 282 + Supercap. Speakers will be Focal Sopra 2. Will have to pitch them against Titan 606 but I heard a pair of Focal 1s the other day and I was very impressed.

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Congratulations!!!

Very nice. What’s your planned source to go with the NAC282/Supercap + NAP300?

I suspect you have just stacked them to photograph the units but bear in mind that the rubber feet do mark the cases if you stack them for a period of time.

It’s best to put something underneath the feet to stop this or ideally don’t stack the units.

Just like my wife … goes shopping during the sales and tells me how much she saved :slight_smile:

As someone who smuggles cartridges in and tells his wife that the Nordost Odins are just cables … even though I bought them 60% off, I don’t dare tell her much I have saved :joy:

Congrats on your new gear and enjoy it.

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Deserves a 552 if you ask me…:slight_smile:

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That was fast, I told you you’d get the confusion sorted quickly. Official congratulations in this thread as well :clap:

Thank you very much guys. I was very happy with my Nova but wanted some decent speakers and based on opinions on the other threads it was clear that whilst Nova would be able to drive them I wouldn’t get the best out of them. So I had to stop resisting and went for a multibox setup. I was thinking of going for a 250DR however when I came across the deal for the 300DR couldn’t resist.

One of the definite sources will be my Technics SL1200G turntable. I’m still undecided whether I continue to use a CD player or simply go for FLAC on external hard drive instead. Streaming will obviously be another source. So, in order to keep box count to a minimum I might go for an Atom with an external HD attached to the back of it. As soon as I get hold of a 282+SC the Nova will go up for sale.

TBH I would have gone for a 250DR if it wasn’t for the price. I told my girlfriend, her eyes widened a bit then quickly rolled and then she went in next room to carry on with what she was doing. She knows objection would have been futile. :grin: :joy:

Thank you for that, I wasn’t aware. They are staying in a stacked position for a while so I will place something in between. Any particular material recommended?

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I wish. It is well beyond what I would spend on a preamp unfortunately. I may stretch to a 252 if I got lucky and found it at a decent price second hand but otherwise the 282+SC is my realistic option. Don’t forget that I have to spend another £10k on speakers. :flushed:

Thank you, I thought my best bet was to start by deducting what I didn’t want and what i couldn’t reach so I did that and ended up with a choice of 250DR or 300DR and 282 or 252 and Supercap.

You will be very happy, I think, even though every discussion here tends to end with “but the 500 is what you really want” :slight_smile:

I dont even glance at the 500 series at all. Or any threads about them either. It is beyond my financial means and psychological perception. In my mind you spend £40k+ on hi fi when you have above £500k saved in the bank and a nice top of the range Merc or Bentley sits in the drive of your £500k+ house. Until then I’d rather invest that money on my children or future grandchildren instead.

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By the way how do I connect the Nova to the 300DR please? Do I use the 2 Din to XLR cables that came with it or do I need to buy a new cable?

Why do you have to spend so much on speakers? Go secondhand. I paid £2,100 for mine. New ones lose value like autumn leaves falling from the trees.

A quick look at the back of your Nova will answer your question about the cables…

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Interestingly, my reasoning for considering a 300 my ultimate stopping point is that I find the 500 and even Statement as rather ugly. You can all gasp and clutch your pearls now:

image

Good job both are also beyond what I would be prepared to pay!

Mark

The Atom will be a very limiting source on a 282, you would probally be better running the 300 off the Nova, otherwise at this level you really are looking at an NDX2 and XPS DR for a balance system. Otherwise you are just amplifying the limitations of the source.

Actually, the Atom only has a pre-amp out, so you can’t connect it to a 282 anyway…

It may be a good idea to take a breath and plan where you are heading with the system…

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Rather than spend 10K on speakers I would pitch for a 252 instead of the 282 and spend maybe half that amount on speakers. For what its worth I have run n-Sats off the back of a 252/300 and they sounded amazing. I always try to think of a spend ratio as follows; assuming 10 units of spend, spend 4 on source; 3 on pre, 2 on power, 1 on speakers. This is only a generalisation of course as the pre is more deserving given that it is a window on the source, and the speakers more deserving than 1/10th of the budget as it is a tricky item to get right in the overall balance of the system, but source first is a very valid stable rule for optimising SQ and VFM in a complete system purchase…

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I’ll definitely do that. Ex-demo ones usually tend to be well discounted. Nevertheless I doubt i woul dbe able to find a pair of Sopra 2 or Titan 606 for less than £7k.

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Ah right, I didnt realise the Atom couldnt be connected to a 282 or 252.

Using the Nova just for its streaming section would be a waste of money in my view. Might as well sell it and fund another purchase.

Well, in that case I might go for a ND5 XS2. Decent price and likely to be even better second hand. It doesn’t seem to need an external power supply either by the looks of it. I’ll attach an external HD with all my CDs copied into it as FLAC and I’ll be sorted.

I did have a brief demo of the Focal Sopra 1 running off Naim separates and I was very very impressed. I imagine the Sopra 2 will impress me even more however I have yet to demo them side by side. You never know I might change my mind and go for the Sopra 1 instead however I am quite keen on a pair of Stormtroopers (White and black Sopra 2 :grin:).