Downsizing advice

Dear Naim friends, I have a conundrum. I need to move away from a dedicated music/home theatre room with a Dr Feickert Blackbird, Cyrus Signature Phonostage, NAC 282, HiCap, Nap 300 and NDX. Speakers are Dynaudio Confidence C1 . AV receiver Arcam Avr360. I need to reduce the number of boxes to allow good HiFi sound plus allowing the Confidence C1 to be Left and Right for the TV. There are so many different options - go to an integrated amp (SN3, Accuphase, T+A, McIntosh), go to a streaming pre-amp and keep the 300s, keep the 282 and go active. Budget is 15k Euro. All ideas welcome.

What about a SN3 and a standalone DAC? Feed the AV gear and NDX through the DAC into the SN. Or if you like the NDX just as it is, run your AV gear through the NDX’s DAC!

NDAC has plenty of inputs, but you only need 2, so a Chord Hugo TT or similar would also work.

Not heard any of it, but a Chord Hugo non-TT through my XS3 sounds good :slight_smile:

It would help to know what the space is to work with.
I managed two stacks of Fraim below a wall mounted telly with speakers (NBLs) either side and alcoves full of LPs each side of a chimney breast to one side in a room ~4m a side. There was even room for two double sofas but I never got into av, TV sound was through the stereo. There was never a need for centre fill with a bit of careful speaker positioning. This was enough for a system very similar to yours, minus the AV and later accommodated a full 500 system plus the turntable and supercapped superline. There was even a Tivo and a tuner above the power supplies.

Have a look at Auralic. You could keep the 300 and add a streamer/pre-amp. Vega G2.1 would be a great solution. Sorted.

This is an interesting idea - does the HDMI from the TV ago into the Vega or should the optical connection be used? Thanks

How is the SN3 sounds vs the 282? I really don’t want to lose sq. Hence looking at a high end integrated eg McIntosh MA12000 etc. Space wise all the boxes will not fit into the Spectral cabinet plus dvd, ps4 etc. hence the reluctant need to find a suitable alternative - equal or better sq in fewer boxes. Thanks

I’m not sure what you want to do to be honest. The simplest option seems to remove the AV stuff and replace the NDX with a NDX2 and an XPS DR. It won’t reduce boxes, but it will be a great hi-if system and you just run any TV or bluray sound output to the NDX2.

Optical into the Vega

I don’t know, sorry, I “just” have a XS3, was trying to make some suggestions and get the thread going as it had sat for 3 days :slight_smile:

I do know folks on here have downsized to the SN3 from some fairly high end systems and not regretted it. I’m sure there is a SQ difference, but the question is would you really miss it after a few months, and/or does the space and impact of boxes make up for it.

Best of luck choosing!

You have a very capable pair of speakers and I think you will really miss the drive, grip and control of the 300 if you go for a Supernait. There’s no escaping the fact that Naim systems at this level come in multiple boxes.
For me the solution was a rather unexpected move away from Naim amplification and I now use a Chord Dave DAC and Étude power amp. Two smallish boxes, and a clear step up in sound quality from the Dave/282/250 I had before. I do still use my NDX2 as a digital transport though.

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What about running an Atom HE into the 300?

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Moved from a five box system to a Nova, added a Power-line and am happy.

The Power-line has a beneficial and uplift in performance. Driving Harbeth P3ESR - the missing bit was the Power-line and I don’t miss multiple boxes on that scale

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It would be like running a 112 into 300……

Not at all Rooster. Ask your dealer to demo the HE. My dealer runs it into a 250DR and since the C1’s are hungry beasts it can be a good solution.

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If the Atom HE’s preamp had the quality of an 202 for instance it would be priced differently. Naim know their business…

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2 members already compared vs bare 272 , as pre. The bare 272 was clearly better vs the Atom HE pre.

There was a time the Rega isis/osiris was poaching a few Naim owners, even from the 500 level. I wasn’t convinced myself but I only heard the combo with RS7 speakers when Rega visited my local dealership. The manager of which did indeed cash in his 500 gear and bought the Rega combo but he kept his SBLs. He later changed from Osiris to one of Tom Evans’ room heaters and preamp but still runs the isis last I heard.

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