And the journey starts

I agree, I find it quite strange as well. I would have thought adding a more powerful amp would have shown some improvement (even if a slight one). However, like you I am quite happy with the definite improvement that I hear on my system.

That is a superb deal. I think I need to start searching for Titan and Sopra dealers.

Purely my own understanding, and respect what you hear with your own ears, but I don’t believe the Uniti stuff was ever really ‘designed’ to be upgraded in that sense. It’s an all-in-one for a reason, and adding a power amp defeats that purpose.

Naim have put upgrade recommendations because, well, why wouldn’t they?! Think of this - the ‘natural’ partner for a 300, according to Naim, is a £7000 252 powered by a £4500 (I think) Supercap. Why then would a Nova be a sufficient partner. As @anon4489532 said, the 300 completely outclasses what the Nova is capable of.

As I said, this is my understanding and if adding a power amp to a Uniti brings an improvement for you then that’s nuff’ said.

It really is not as simple as that. Having tried various permutations, I have found that a combination of balance and quality source is a far more satisfying than bunging on the muscle.

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Power amp upgrades on Unitis have always divided opinion. I believe Naim provide the option so that you can still use an all-in-one player if you have demanding speakers or a large room, as not everyone wants, or can afford separates. Personally, if I wanted to upgrade my Atom I would buy a Nova rather than adding a 200.

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I dont dispute that at all and agree that different people hear different things. However, at the same time, I don’t expect Nova with a better amp would sound worse. If the Uniti range wasnt supposed to be upgraded with an amp then why would Naim equip the Nova with a pre out?

I had the 200. The Atom was in a second system - twas out of interest.

Also, if you don’t want or can’t afford separates, you buy a Uniti…

I think a lot of it is about providing an upgrade route. Add a power amp to the all in one and then swap the all in one for a source and preamp, which may be in one box or more.

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As with @anon95106626 I had the Nova in a second system so it was purely out of interest that I lugged the Nova into the same room as the 300 to give it a go. I used the same cables (RCA to naim XLR) from flashback that were connecting a Hugo2 to the 300 and work well, so I doubt it is the cable. Given these comments, I might give it another go and see if my ears were having an off day…

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Quite possibly, yes. I would never have added a 200 to my Superuniti if I hadn’t then added a separate source and preamp to it.

I agree, but it seems that this step in the upgrade path would have to bring “some” benefit too, else it makes no sense as it would be “Get a Nova, then buy a power amp and make it sound worse until you can afford a better source or preamp”

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Exactly. It would make no business sense for Naim to prevent the addition of a power amp. That doesn’t mean to say it adds benefit, though. But perhaps I’m being a cynic.

Agree with that, my P10/Aria/Nova/250DR outclasses my old CDS3/252/300. I would add though that I include the source material as part of the source…most of the CD’s I used to play on the CDS3 were crap recordings which I got sick of. The vinyl I replaced them with is much better as a source material (in the main). Also the 250DR drives the obelisks as well as the 300 did, so it is all about the balance of the system…

Cynic away…does in my case :slight_smile:

From the sounds of it, the unity/power amp upgrade is really not worth it if that’s the end point. Unless the plan is to upgrade source and pre in the future. My feeling, having thought long about this is that Naim are loosing out not having a newer version of the streamer/pre (272?), as that would be a natural pathway for unity owners.
Going from a unity to a 3+ box system is probably out of the question for most.
The issue for me is that you can’t go from unity to SN or ND5xs as an upgrade so it has to be a power amp, but this is prohibitively expensive to create a balanced system where you know you are getting the most from each component.
What unity owners need is a bad ass, new platform streamer/pre to upgrade to after a power amp.

There was something about the amp in the Nova that just dident do it for me, when I bought the SN3 I still had the Nova for a week or two whilst awaiting delivery of NDX2, the Nova firing the SN3 was a whole lot better than stand-alone Nova, particularly in the bass Dept. I guess in this situation I was only using the streamer in the Nova and pre/power was taken care of by the SN3 whereas adding a 250 or 300 still requires the Novas pre.

The Nova only has a pre-out, so you would have been using its preamp.

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I tried a 350W March power amp on my Nova. It gave the Totem Hawks more grip, but the dynamics weren’t as good, so I’ve stuck using it bare. It was the same with my SN2.

Well, exactly. If it works for you. Interested to read about the quality of your CD’s vs. LPs - do you mean the genre/age of music you tend to listen to has crap productions, or that the actual CDs were bad rips?

Yep you’re right now that I recall, I had the SN3 in AV bypass from memory