Nova - Heat control

I just switched. I’ll let it cool and see how that works. But, mine is sitting on a heavy wood shelf and I have saws and drills! So it’s going to be ventilated…unless I decide to swap it with…lol

Many AQ speaker cables are constructed in ways making them problematic for Naim units, such as being internally bi-wired, although Unitis are less picky. The AQ Type 5 has “Balanced Star-Quad Geometry” according to the AQ website. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_quad_cable, this results in high capacitance. As AQ does not publish electrical specs, it is difficult to tell if it is suitable cable. I would try with a non-fancy one and see if the overheating goes away

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Surely the title of the thread should be How to prevent a Supernova?

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What do you use?

Oh wow this is weird, I have absolutely thrashed Novas during demos at a dealers and not once noticed case temperature issues. Perhaps you have elevated ambient temperatures compared to the UK?

Btw my SuperUniti seems to get warm if left at idle, I.e. no music playing compared to when giving it some, but never what I would describe as ‘Hot to touch’.

Naim NACA5, it’s the safest bet but I have a classic amp which is more critical re. speaker cables. The Unitis are more tolerant but there are still cables that are a poor fit.

Hmm. plus these are 3.05m.

The required length is a function of the electrical parameters of the specific cable and those are not known for AQ. There are definitely AQ cables that do the opposite of what fits Naim amps. Dunno about the Type 5. But as you are having issues, ruling them out at least makes sense

No…changed my mind on the used ones.

At the moment, I raised the Nova in addition to switching off the server mode. I’m on the last song from “Kind of Blue” after allowing the unit(i) :rofl: to cool. It’s not very warm at the moment. Running much cooler. I am running much lower volume also tho…about 44…

The issue may well have been a combination of the high volume, the server mode, and the speaker cable. Changing any one may get it back into the temperature envelope, but if you want to kick it again in the future, I’d still try with a different cable

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I’m going to get a Naim cable. Along with a Powerline. My reasoning is, whatever I do to upgrade they will be used.

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70 to 90 is seriously LOUD! Unless are you using very inefficient speakers that are hard to drive that’s going to be damaging your hearing on any system I’ve listened to.
A separate power amp or integrated amp decoupled from the source might be a better fit for your needs if the problem persists.

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He has Focal Chora 816, at 89.5dB sensitivity. Yes, it’s loud :slight_smile:

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Pardon me?

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Lol…yes. Yes it was. Seriously loud. I have a sound meter ap, it was peaking the ap said at 88db. I think it was wrong…

Abbey Road. Come Together…about 4 notes…wow…then Dark Side of the Moon Qobuz Hi Res…whew…

:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I have “Go-4” which is pretty much the same cable and have no problems with overheating on my Nova, though I’ve never used it above 60 for long periods.

Referring to your link states that a 4 core star-quad cable has a higher capacitance than a standard 2 core cable, not a “high capacitance” as such. It states around 1.5 x capacitance of a standard cable, which would mean that, rather than a minimum of 3.5m, you should use a minimum of 5.25m of this cable (I have 2 x 8m).

The cable was recommended to me by my dealer and, on audition, proved better to my ears than NACA5, though of course that’s a personal choice.

Another downside of Star-Quad cables that isn’t mentioned is that they shouldn’t really be bent to go round corners as that upsets the geometry and as the individual cores are pretty thin they may break.

It would have been better to write “higher” capacitance. But my main point was that “As AQ does not publish electrical specs, it is difficult to tell if it is suitable cable. I would try with a non-fancy one and see if the overheating goes away”.

We just don’t know the cable’s properties, but if there was no issue there would be no need to try without it.

And that’s the problem - I found it quite hard to actually buy them as I didn’t really know how suitable they were - it was a bit of a jump of faith.

It really wouldn’t be hard for cable suppliers to quote basic specs.

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