Unfortunately I have the opposite experience with the Nova. I bought it a couple of months ago to drive my Confidence C1s because I wanted an easy all in one solution for my streaming/playing CDs. Regret to say I don’t think the Nova’s power is up to driving the C1s to their potential. I can only get to around 62 on the dial before the sound begins to get uncomfortable. And the bass is on the light side without a subwoofer. So I’ve had to resort to connecting my Bryston power amp (120wpc) so I can play my music louder without distortion. Problem is that you lose the outputs to the sub when you do that. Love the Dyns. Bought them new around 3 months ago and they sounded so bad for the first 6 weeks that I wanted to sell them. But the dealer insisted I persevere and I’m glad I did. They sound just superb now. Can’t complain at all when I play CDs through my Primare preamp/Bryston power amp combo. Wonderful sound. Just a bit underwhelmed when I use my Nova as a streamer/amp but I guess I will have to live with that.
Yes I thought the Nova would struggle with C1’s, when I owned mine I tried them with my Supernait 2, same result as you.
How did you solve the problem ? Swap the speakers or the amp ?
I originally had the C1’s in my home theatre as Front left and right speakers, so I was using a CARY Audio 200.2 amp with them.The Cary is 350 Watts/channel into 4 ohms, so drove them easily. The problem was that I like to play blueray concerts extremely loud, and the C1’s would be overdriven, and the woofer would “pop”. I decided to change to my current Dynaudio XD 600’s as front L + R channel speakers, which play much louder with no woofer popping. I also had a seperate 2 channel Naim system upstairs, with the Supernait 2. I hoped to replace the focus 160’s I was using with the C1’s, but they actually sounded worse than the 160’s, because they needed more power. I ended up trading them in, but wish I kept them and got a 250 DR.
That’s interesting. I’ve disconnected my rear and centre speakers and just run the C1s for my DVDs now. Obviously not the same big effect but it’ll do for now. I too had 160s which I tried to sell just before the lockdown but I’ll try again soon. The 160s popped as well which was scary. They were really dynamic but felt a bit tipped up and I felt I needed something a bit mellower now. The C1s are great although they have popped a couple of times. Do you know if the 250 DRs will do the job or are you just hoping they will ? If someone can verify that I’d be prepared to give them a try,
This exactly mirrors my experience with Naim and my Contour s3.4s okay to a degree and then as you say things begin ‘to get uncomfortable’ I used a 250-2, 250DR and 300 and also a Uniti, within their range they all sounded great especially the DR but crank the up and they would all begin to crumble.
I’m now using a Quad Elite QSP capable of producing 250 watts or more and the Dyns are now on song.
Thanks for that info Bob. Seems like even the larger Naims aren’t much better. I’ll read up on the Quad and see if it’s available here in Oz and whether I can borrow it for an in-home demo.
The 250 will do the job much better, I ended up trading my SN2 on a 272/XPSDR/250DR eventually. My C1’s were gone by then, but my local dealer let me borrow his C1 platinums to try for a week,and that combo was much better. No amount of power will eliminate the woofer popping at high volumes though, and is a big reason why i moved on.
The picture of the white C1’s is of mine when i tried them with my SN2/High cap DR.
The Rosewood ones are my dealers, when i first got the 272/250dr.
I can’t speak for the C1s, but I have C2 Platinums. The 250DR will drive them well enough (that’s what I had until end of last year), but if you want to really play them loud you should probably be looking at a 300DR. That’s what I have now. I primarily listen to acoustic jazz and classical. Where the 300DR really shines for me (well, it does everywhere actually, but especially…) is on large scale orchestral music like Mahler symphonies or Strauss, Tchaikovsky, etc. The 250DR coped with it reasonably well, but nothing like how well the 300DR does. It’s a real beast by comparison. I suspect the 500DR is the real end game, but I’m not going there.
Nevertheless, if I still had my 250DR I could be happy (assuming ignorance of what a 300DR brings to the table).
I’m certainly no expert and am just relaying my experience the 250DR may well work for you it’s certainly worth a try if you can get a demo as it is a fantastic sounding amp.
I owned a pair of Guru QM10 with a 200 which actually blew when my other half was playing them very loud and the guy at Guru said that they didn’t like being played at party levels in rooms with high ceilings. I suppose what he meant was that room acoustics can also play a part.
Love the Rosewood finish. Unfortunately I got in when all local stock had been sold except for one demo pair - which was in black. And I really don’t like black ! Just shows all the dust and finger marks. Never mind I love the sound.
I too like acoustic jazz and classical (my stepdaughter sings opera in Vienna) but also like really well recorded soft rock. When I’m in the mood I really like pumping it up. My room is relatively small (6 x 4 m) so probably don’t need the sort of power that a 300 DR brings but I know from another site that you are an all- Naim guy so you’d know what you’re talking about. I may ask my local dealer to lend me one for the weekend. See if it makes a huge amount of difference (more than my Bryston power amp does). Thanks for your input.
Ok looks like we’ve got some agreement on the 250dr. Thanks for that.
Question to the dyn experts.Need advise pairing S3.4 with my system(250DR/HCDR/72/CDX2).Room is16.5x12.position is in front of the long wall 6.5’ apart.distance between speaker and back wall 33 cm max,no problem with sidewalls.They need to have scale and finesse for orchestral and coral music and most importent to excel at low volume.Your opinion please.
My prior system was 282/HCDR/250DR with a pair of S3.4 (and upgraded Esotar2 tweeters) in a 11’ x 17’ room. I live for large scale orchestral music, and that system worked brilliantly, so I would say no worries. I did have them on short wall, 3’ off back wall, 2’ off side walls and me sitting about 8’ back.
Now I have 252/300 with Confidence C2 Platinum. Same room and setup. Even better. 
I also have two REL subs.
Thanks,do you think they can work properly at 1’ from back wall and another worry is are they very good at low volume, this i ask because i read many times that dyn speakers tend to come to life at high volume but maybe the S 3.4 are an exception in this respect.
Just 1’ might be a bit close to the back wall, so you may want to use the port plugs to keep the bass from sounding boomy. Now that I think about it, mine were closer than 3’ (I have since pulled my C2 farther out to about 3’), and more like 18-24" off the back wall. Can you pull them out to 20"? Dynaudio recommends a half meter or more.
Dyns can sound really good at low volume with a good amp. I often listened to my S3.4 at about 75db and turned them down lower if I listened late at night. The better your amp the better the Dyns will sound at low volume too. I played mine with a 250DR and they sounded great. S3.4 and a 250 are a great match up.
Great help,thanks.
Is anyone using a Bluesound Powernode 2i with Dyn speakers. I am thinking about matching one with a pair of Audience 52SE for an office system. It doesn’t have to be loud but I would like it to sound pretty good (mostly classical music via Roon). I would love to just get a Naim Atom, but even a used one would be out of my budget.