Are you adding a Powerline?
A Shunyata Venom HC. Got one for my Star and it gave a decent boost. Being a listener at the shallow end of the Naim paddling pool the Powerline price felt a little out of balance with the cost of the hardware. No doubt it would have been even better but the price I got the Venom for it would have to be three times better at least.
Fair enough. Rather wary of mains solutions potentially strangling all the hard work our engineers have put in re power management, but if it works for you, go for it! I had no desire to try an upgrade on the Atom.
I did make the expensive experiment of trying a Powerline on my Nova - that didn’t go back 
2 Likes
FWIW it was a dealer approved solution. They had really good experiences with it as well. So I tried it and it definitely improved things. Felt cleaner with better bass floor.
You mean like me phoning the dealer and going “Hey I want to “demo” an Atom HE” LOL
1 Like
I’m debating over an Atom and wondered if using a pair of Grado SR325e with it would be overkill? Will the HE improve what I already consider a great sound from my IPhone?
The HE will take the sound from iPhone and make it sit in the corner for a week for being a “bad boy”.
There is just no comparison.
But always wise to get a demo from a dealer first.
2 Likes
Ha ha love that👍🏼
1 Like
No denying that, its way behind them all. You start to notice this more after about 6 months and even now some new releases don’t show. Tidal for its foibles is way ahead for a wider set of music
The beautiful thing about the Naim
Is it’s scalable. Whilst the Grado are respectable, the Naim will and should work well with any future headphone upgrade.
And should be an upgrade on the iPhone! But always audition first.
Interesting. I got a Shunyata Venom NR V12 for my DAC V1 and it was a terrible match. Ended up on the power supply for my Sonore streamer where it works fine. But I guess even in the same line up the cables are somewhat different, and of course it would be device and room dependent. I do have their Venom USB cable which is great value and sound.
1 Like
Just for my curiosity. You are talking about the power cable,right? So the cable transferring the electricity from the plug in the wall to your device? How should the quality of the cable make a difference? I just try to understand the physics behind this. Wouldn’t this mean that a device that changes its characteristics in such a Great mannor that it’s hearable just by the way the powers is delivered has a construction problem? Can you really hear this let’s say when you do a blind test?
2 Likes
Here we go again 
5 Likes
I’ll get my popcorn 
3 Likes
Funny how this thing really only has one cable, the power cable, and now people focused on upgrading that. I only bought a thick gauge power cord for my Focal Arche to see if it made any difference but never bothered to compared. I just left it hooked up. I first used it on the Naim but it looked ridiculous with the clean looks, so I plugged in the original cord and everything sounded the same. Now whether a real audiophile cable would have different results, I’m not going to bother. I bought this unit to get away from all that.
1 Like
For what it is worth there’s an article from GC Audio that convinced me to buy an upgrade. Best explanation I could find.
Hi,
I think the Nova still have a better DAC compared to the Atom / Atom HE. For the pre-amp section, I don’t know.
As far as i know, the Nova and the Atom have the same DAC (PCM1791A) and DSP (SHARC 21489) on board.
I don’t know whether they use the same filters though.
Hi Leitmotiv,
1 Like
Me too, quite an uptick in SQ.
3 Likes
This is what I’d like to know, too.