Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course. It sounds as though this thread has been useful and I’m sure you’ll find something that works for you.
One thing I found about the Nova is that it’s very speaker dependent. I previously had ProAc Tablette 10 Sigs, which just didn’t work with the Nova but were great with a Supernait. I can understand why you want to stick with your speakers so it will be a case of finding something that works with them. Try a Nova, but I suspect a 82/250 and good streamer may be where you end up. There are some fantastic Olive bargains to be had.
Boy answering your question directly - I started my main system amplification as 102/180. Later added a hicap then supercap and went 52/250. That’s just background
Years later in my second system I had supernait 3 and ndx. I got rid (to help fund the main system) and went through an atom and then a nova but am now back with an ndx, 282, hc and 250dr with which I am much happier. This is into a pair of nSats.
The atom and nova never did it for me - the 282/250 instead of supernait 3 again was because I fancied something different and I already had a “spare” hicap.
If you got a 272 cheap enough there wouldn’t be much value to lose later on if / when you improve from there. My ndx is the weak link and will be the first thing I upgrade
@HungryHalibut, agree with the comment on aesthetics of the Atom. If I go down that road and add an olive 250 I guess I’ll need a specialist lead as there a x2 XLR outputs from Atom HE and only one input on olive 250. Naca 5 cable in the loft on standby
Yes, it was a good combo. I was looking for the one box solution hence the change. The streaming of my flac files from my Nas drive and CDs in the loft was pleasing to the other half. So maybe a mix and match with the superuniti just feeding the flac files and radio to an input on th 82 is worth exploring.
The lead supplied with a 250 could be re-terminated with 2 RCAs at the preamp end for the Atom, or you could get such a cable made easily enough.
The 250 XLR input is unbalanced, so you shouldn’t use the balanced output on the Atom.
Not sure how you get that from this: “I Used to own a Naim Nac82 / Nap180 with hi-cap and really liked the sound playing through Pro-Ac studio floorstanders. The bass went deep and was dry and punchy…”
OP downgraded to a superuniti for convenience and now finds the speakers expose a weakness in the ‘new’ source so he’s going to spend money to rectify as far as I can see. Ideally a balanced system is best of course but if a system is unbalanced the balance better favour the source components. Seems simple enough? You’ve probably argued over this many times so I accept you won’t be agreeing with me. That’s fine. I was simply chipping in with a personal view which has served me well but have no axe to grind. Just let the music play.
Downgrading exposed the limitation of the chosen new amp! By your logic one should never have speakers that require a good amp to control, no matter how good the front end, lest there is a future decision to downsize the amp!
If the OP hadn’t had the system he had, including thise speakers, he wouldn’t have enjoyed the sound he had before the downsize. The choice now is downgrade the speakers as well and learn to accept the reduced system, or upgrade the amp and go back to previous pleasure (or better).
Anyway, that is how I see it…
Occasionally the computer data term “garbage in garbage out” is trotted out in support of the source first argument - but that is a wholly inappropriate expression in this argument: Whichever component makes garbage of the music that is all that will be heard, not just relating to source. More particularly, provided the source is half decent, then although it may not give as much detail etc, it isn’t producing garbage (and of all sources this is true of digital source today, most certainly if any Naim streamer is used), whereas a poor speaker can make garbage of any signal, distorting it, adding noise from resonances, falsely curtailing some frequencies etc.
All chains are only as good as their weakest link - whether in hifi that be source or speaker (or amp). Ideally all links should be as strong as each other (with a perfectly balanced system), but in the real world for anyone having a future goal towards which they are progressing with upgrades it is a more rapid route to the end goal and lower overall cost if things are upgraded separately, inevitably shifting out of balance. The question then comes down to what sounds better, and to me the answer is unquestionably getting the character of the system to sound as good as it can, which is fundamentally down to the speakers because they have the biggest single effect on sound character - all provided that the source is reasonable and the amp capable of sufficient control to avoid unpleasant wallowy bass.
I know that’s the “done thing” with Naim, I gather a hangover from Linn tie up days. It may have made sense pre good digital when decent vinyl sources were not cheap relatively speaking and decent speakers cost a lot less relatively than their equivalents today, but in what way is it beneficial today?
