I’ve just purchased a Nova and everything is working fine except for the headphone output. When I plug headphones in I have to turn the volume up to 100 to get anything like a decent level of sound. I’ve tried several headphones and get the same problem with them all. Any suggestions as to what might be going on? Iain
In my UQ2 , you can regulate independently the volume of the headphones/ vs general volume. See if the headphones volumes is “constricted “.
Hopefully it’s not a serious problem
As @anon29651526 stated you can set the max volume of the headphones independently in the Naim app.
If that is not the reason I’d contact the dealer. I have a Star and three different sets of headphones with different ranges of impedance and getting solid performance at reasonable volume levels.
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What headphones are you using?
The output of the Nova is set it max at 85% out of the box you can change it in the Naim app to be 100% but it sounds like your headphones are likely a high impedance and the pretty mediocre headphone stage does not have sufficient power to drive them. I found the Atoms hesdphone output very lacking. You might find changing headphones or using a dedicated headphone amp will be better.
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My Sennheisers are 150 ohm. And my Star drives them like a dream. Digital streaming I usually have it between 40 and 50 volume depending on the sound file. The impedance would have to be very extreme to cause what the op is experiencing.
Thanks. I’ve set the max volume for the headphones to 100% so that’s not the problem. Maybe it is the headphones. I’ve tried both Oppo PM-3s and AKG Y-50s, both of which work fine with my Astell & Kern player so surely should work with a player that costs over £4,000!
Thanks. The impedance on the Oppo’s is quoted as under 30 ohms so you’re surely right - that can’t be the problem.
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It does sound like there’s an issue with the headphone amp. I would suggest you contact your dealer and take it from there.
Sure your dealer will sort it out for you!
Thanks, I will do that tomorrow!
What’s the impedance on Naims headphone stage ? As that will also have an effect.
We allready dicuse about Atom headphone out. What hadphone you use? I am shure that metches is problem. With Meze99classic sound is amazing. And the sound over 50% of the scale is too loud.
But M99c they are easily pushed, even with a mobile phone. Probably a problem is created with someone very demanding headphones.
Is that a pun?
No, its poor English 
I have the Meze 99’s and would never say its amazing with the Atom ok at best I found it lacklustre. It’s even worse with my Focal Elear which are not that hard to drive either really but do take more than the Meze. I prefer both my seperate headphone setups to using the Atom.
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