Thanks for the steer, hadn’t heard of Hegel. I give them a look.
Uniti Nova would seem like a sensible choice?
Probably not with £10000 speakers.
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Ah i didn’t realise they were that expensive…
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To be fair I cannot comment on hegels software either. My personal opinion is steer clear of hifi companies streaming softwares, but then I like to tinker. I personally I use essentially an optimised PC for the main hifi streamer. For less ‘important’ stuff pi’s running ropieee.
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I’d demo the Atom HE into your Nap 300 and see if it works for you.
Its unbalanced, but it might work well / sufficiently.
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I presume you have the latest firmware for the 272, Tidal isn’t perfect on the legacy streamers but was improved with the last version of the firmware?
I fear a wholescale change could be ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ you seem to be a long term Naim user and could well regret any move.
I know you don’t like to tinker but a solution worth considering is to make your 272 Roon compatible.
This would require either a software bridge, a pre-made one is the Sonore UPNP bridge and you would need a Roon server, either a ready made one like the Nucleus or if you can stand one more session of tinkering you could put together a Roon Rock server using an Intel NUC.
Once this has been done your Tidal issues will be gone and with a Nucleus or Rock you will have an ‘applicance’ that just works. It would also open up QoBuz to you if you so wish.
I have done this with my legacy NDS and have no issues an couldn’t be more delighted.
Just an alternative solution.
This preserves what you have already invested in, those speakers really do need an amp of the quality of a NAP300.
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I would second the advice here re ensuring you’re on the latest firmware (4.7) - however, it would be remiss of me not to mention that a further update (Firmware 4.8) is due within weeks. This does include TIDAL-specific updates, among some other improvements and fixes.
I sincerely hope that will smooth your user experience until a future generation of Naim streaming pre-amps is announced…
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. . .until a future generation of streaming pre-amps is announced.
You can’t just leave that there! That sounds like more than ‘when we get round to it.’ There is a wink emoji missing from the end I’m sure!
Hegel sounds a bit dull compared to Naim. I’d suggest you try an Aurender A10. It has decent SQ and has XLR outputs which is good for your NAP300.
Aurender will have good software, and you can save a lot of things on the internal ssd+hdd.
I can and will leave it there… Let’s talk again when this insane component-shortage situation improves 
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Easiest thing to do is buy a Roon endpoint to connect to your 272. I think you can get one under $100.
My personal bias is towards dCS streamers so maybe keep the 300, buy a bartok and skip the preamp?
Agree, better to do something properly rather than quickly.
Ding ding ding 
I’ll hold fire till the new firware and looking forward to: taking it out the rack, finding a bit of cable, a PC, a new driver, the cap (so I don’t need the XPS as well) and keeping my fingers crossed on the third attempt.
The XLR outputs on the Aurender are balanced. Those on the 300 are not. You should use its unbalanced output to match the unbalanced input on the 300.
My 272 works fine and requires no fiddling. Shrugs shoulders. I’d get rid of the Kefs before the naim boxes.
Thanks for all the suggestions, come to the stage in my life when I want my hifi t to work like the proverbial “toaster”.
I’ll try the new firmware, if not satisfied, may go back to a 282, just using Naim for amplification and search for a new front end.
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Maybe Naim had to adhere to more stringent US rules to export, like the bumpers on a Lambo.
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