Help re subwoofer

I’ve a bit of an odd system……sources areLP12 /stageline/flatcap2., a CD5i2, and my Uniti nova. I don’t use the power amp section of the nova , preferring to take its preamp out to a 250DR. I also watch a great deal of films., audio being routed through the nova. All this drives a pair of Fyne 501sp speakers and I was thinking of adding a subwoofer for films (and to a lesser extent) audio. I thought about a pair of passive subs powered by the amp stage of the nova or perhaps a REL powered unit again using the high level input

What are your thoughts? It isnt the biggest of listening rooms!

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What speaker cables are you currently using?

NacA5 from the 250 to the speakers

Have you tried losing the 250 and using the Nova as is with the ‘properly’ terminated NAC A5 cables?

Yes, the 250 is much better. And yes, all cables properly terminated with Naim plugs

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You have large speakers that go down to 36Hz. Maybe you don’t really need a sub. If you do, an active REL should be more controllable.

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The trick is going to be this. Without a proper AV receiver/processor the LFE (Low frequency effects 0.1) of the surround sound signal will not be sent to the sub. If you use a rel or other sub you will be channeling the stereo downmixed sound to the sub which then will be filtered using the low pass filter which although will give a sound improvement will be nowhere the same wow effect you will get with a proper AV receiver used with Naim’s unity gain.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You have a couple of options here. You could use a single active sub connected to the sub output on the Nova, or a second sub taken off the first.

More interesting would be to try running your speakers in a bi-amp configuration, as they have high and low level inputs. Take one run of speaker cables directly from the speaker outputs on the Nova to either the high or low level input on the speakers, and run a second set of speaker cables from the 250 to the other level inputs on the speakers. This would much cheaper to test than adding a sub and would be quite an interesting test, I think.

Do you have a particular passive sub in mind? The vast majority of subs desigbed to be integrated into a 2 channel HiFi system are active.

Well folks. Tried lots on different setups , ultimately sold my 250 and powering my speakers from the nova……added an n-sub and I’m a happy happy chappy. , yes the nova power section is THAT good. ….I’m sure the 250 would be better given a better front end but the nova is just too convenient…and my vinyl is just mid range 1990’s LP12 with CD from a CD5i-2. That is what I’m sticking with for a wee while…the sub is bloody amazing when watching films etc as well as adding a fair bit to my fyne’s (501sp)

Thanks for your help….as always, it’s all about the tunes!

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If only Naim still made the n-SAT speaker package to this day. I can only imagine that they would’ve sold in truck loads paired up with all of the latest Uniti ‘all in ones’.

Sigh

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