As a new Naim owner since a couple of months, I would like to share my experience so far.
After rediscovering my interest in listening to music, having more time as I stopped traveling in my work, I looked around for a new audio system.
I decided to go for the Naim Uniti Nova and subsequently hooked it up with my old Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home loudspeakers.
I must say that I was very happy with the result, but I was still not convinced that this would be the “end game”.
I went back to my dealer and listened to several different loudspeakers, B&W 804 D3, Epicon 6, Focal Sopra 2 to mention some.
I finally decided to go for KEF Reference 5. This choice might be considered as somewhat “uneven” by some, but I must say that it sounded really good, or even, in my subjective opinion fantastic. Clear, detailed, dynamic and with tonal balance (…maybe a little bit bass heavy if my neighbors would have their saying but I found it just perfect).
However, after reading some of the posts on this site I started to wonder what an upgrade of the Nova would bring.
Today I picked up a 250 dr at my dealer and connected it to my system, driving the bass with the Nova and the mid and the highs with the 250 dr.
The result is very encouraging.
The bass is (even more…) tighter and more “punchy” and the mid and highs are more detailed and pronounced. The soundstage has definitely improved. I really enjoy how the vocals are much more pronounced.
I am currently listening to Beck “Morning Phase” on Tidal in CD quality and I am totally satisfied, I would even say “blown away” by the sound.
The great thing is that the sound is absolutely wonderful, clear and detailed already at low and moderate volumes, which is important to me as we live in an apartment.
I do have to be careful though, not to upset my neighbors too much, when listening to more dynamic tracks, like some from Michael Jackson or Massive Attack. The bass is more than impressive. It’s awesome!
Anyway, I thought that I should share my positive experience as a new Naim owner and I hope that some of you have found it interesting.
Update: I switched from Tidal to Qobuz and I mostly listen to High Res albums/tracks. In my opinion it is a considerable improvement to Tidal CD quality. However since I could not listen to Tidal Masters, as the Nova does not support MQA, I cannot judge if there would have been any difference in SQ between Tidal Masters and Qobuz High Res.
