i noticed this question was asked a while ago by another user and it did not seem to gain any traction.
I am currently using the Atom and thinking of getting a Nova. I currently use it as mainly a headphone amp but from time to time plug it into the stereo. Love the atom with my LCD4’s.
My main question is, i know the Nova is a big upgrade from the Atom as in completely different internals (from what i have learned) will that / does that make a difference out of the headphone jack?
Interesting. Thanks for the comment. I have never heard of Violectric and i will look more into them.
I do like that the atom/nova has speaker outs, streamer and ( some ) HDMI as well. got the atom to replace the RME adi 2 fs which that replaced the McIntosh mha 150. Thanks again for the suggestion i will look into them.
I have a Nova and happy with the headphone output. Can’t speak for the Atom in relative SQ terms, as I haven’t heard one. You have a strange user case though because I’d have thought the SN3 headphone output might be superior, although I can’t speak from experience. Let’s put it this way, it’s not going to be worse than an Atom.
Whats odd is the SN3 heaphone out really did not sound that great. Felt a little flat and lost some of the musical meaty tone. I tried using it with the ND5 XS 2 (? freaking naim names) thinking it woulld be steller but was pretty sub par.
If others had a difference experience let me know.
I have a spot next to the tv where i take the atom and plug it in HDMI from the smart TV and use my speakers over the sound bar. Mainly for movies. I really enjoy this experience but 85% of the time i have optical in in the back from my PC and im using it while i work fro music.
Odd that you think the SN3 is worse. Unfortunately Naim don’t give much away in technical terms with their product info so one can’t explain it that way. I guess you need to audition a Nova because if the headphone output improves in proportion to the main speaker output, I would expect an upgrade in sound commensurate to the price increase. I am guessing though.
Thats kinda what i would assume, i have heard that the nova is a big step up. But im not sure if that mattters with the headphone jack. I would assume so?
I’ve earlier had the Atom and now own a Nova. I like both of them very much. But I could not hear any difference between them with headphones. I use Grado SR 125 as headphones. Imo keep the Atom and buy a dedicated headphone amp.
If it’s when you plug in your headphones I found setting the ground switch to floating sorted this out. If not, it may be firmware related and there is an imminent update, which you may find will sort this out, amongst other things. A mild pop 20-30 secs after shutdown is normal, apparently.
