Naim and Dynaudio Thread

Hi
wanted some advice
Recently purchased some Dynaudio Contour 3.4S & a Cambridge Audio CXN V2 streamer & want to upgrade my integrated amplifier which is not so great
would you suggest naim ??
As i ihave been told these speaker can be difficult to drive & need high current to make them sing.
I was looking at the musical fidelity M6si
but saw this thread regards David

The Contour 3.4S are awesome speakers! I’m confident that these will bring you loads of pleasure!

This is a Naim Forum and I doubt that many people have experience with MF amplifier you are mentioning. In the end also here goes that the more power you feed into these speakers the better they will sound, from a Naim perspective I tend to think that anything fro a SN3 and onwards will drive these beauties sufficiently.

Again, enjoy!

I totally agree with @Klout10 on this. We also have a pair of Contour S 3.4 LE over here and love them. Have fun with them!

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I also had Contour S3.4 before my current Confidence C2. They sound better the more power/current you can give them and – this may seem counter-intuitive – the better amp you have the better they will sound at low/moderate volume. I only ever used a Naim 250 with my Contours, and that might be a sweet spot for these speakers. I think they would work well with a SuperNait, Uniti Nova, or a NAP 200, but perhaps not as well with a Nait XS. Your best bet is to home audition these if you can.

I don’t know anything about the Musical Fidelity amp you mention, but if you consider it make sure it is stable at 4 ohm impedance and lower, because the Contours will make such demands on it.

I used to have a NAP200 driving my contours, but wasn’t completely satisfied. With my current Purifi power amp I feel nothing is missing in terms of power.

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I use NAP300DR with my Contour 60s, a large floorstander and it drives them with ease. On the second system I drive Contour 1.8s with a CB NAP 250 and that is a happy combination too.

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I have to say the 250DR was pretty nice on my Confidence C2s but it took the 300DR to really make them shine. It was like getting a speaker upgrade when I got the amp upgrade, even with my smallish room (11’ x 17’).

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Yes, that amp drives these speakers very nicely. I originally used it with NAP300 non-DR. Very good but the DR put it into another league.

Thanks for all your advice
as well as all other member input.
Will try & audition Supernait 3
The Supernait is a bit above my previous budget , but only want to do this once.

It seems difficult to get dealers to let you take these amps home for audition
Wondering does this happen??
May have to lug these speakers down to Sydney
anyways thanks again
David

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Hi Bob
saw that you owned some Dynaudio Contours 3.4s.& wanted some advice if possible?
I have just purchased a second pair of Contour 3.4s & have a new cambridge audio CXN V2 Streamer
looking to upgrade my very average yamaha integrated AX592 amp
was looking down the naim road possible a Supernait 3
& saw your post re Hegel H190
We do listen at moderate to louder volumes at times

just would like to get your thoughts
also considerable price difference

regards
David

Hegel : Made in China.

Naim : Made in Wiltshire, UK by Naim staff

First Picture SN3, picture below Hegel H190

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Hegel H390

Hegel H590

I don’t get it with all the pictures of Hegel internals …

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the transformers of the hegels all look pretty much th esame size considering the higher power. The wiring on them looks untidy too… know where my money would, and has gone… wiltshire

sometimes a picture is worth a million words, but just in case here’s a few short words to explain.

After looking at the internals of Naim vs Hegel, it seems obvious that Naim take a lot of pride in their work (look at the effort made in the neatness of the internal wiring which has big sound and music quality benefits) and the quality of the Naim parts is also very clear to see.

Naim use a massive transformer for the SN3, and it looks mighty impressive.

Add to that a the top quality and expensive casing used by Naim with no need for the exposed air which could present a very dangerous problem if liquid was spilled accidentally on the “other” amplifiers.

There’s a lot of pride and love that goes into making a Naim product.

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Hegel H160 stereophile testing report

“I measured the Hegel H160 using my recently recalibrated Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com, and the January 2008 “As We See It”). Before performing any measurements on an amplifier, I run it for an hour at one-third its specified maximum power, which, thermally, is the worst case for an amplifier with a class-B or -AB output stage. I cut short this preconditioning of the H160 after 20 minutes, however, as the THD+noise, which had been just 0.00315% with the amplifier cold, had risen to 0.83%. The chassis was mildly warm, at 92.2°F (33.4°C), but the temperature of the internal heatsinks must have been much higher. Allowing the amplifier to cool brought back correct operation, with very low distortion, but this is not an amplifier suitable for sustained high-power use, such as providing the music for a rambunctious party.”

The transformers are the same diameter but are deeper

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Thanks for the explanation and I fully agree, but the title of this topic is “Naim and Dynaudio Thread” maybe you should start a Hegel topic

Stereophile Supernait 1 testing report

“Before performing tests on an amplifier, I thermally stress it by running both channels for 60 minutes into 8 ohms at one-third the specified power—in the case of the Naim Supernait, 27Wpc. The THD+noise percentage was 0.025% at the beginning of that period; it hadn’t significantly changed at the end, by which time the amplifier’s case was quite hot, though not so that I couldn’t keep my hand on it.”