I have the Hawks with my Nova, great speakers. Have you found you much more from them with the 250?
Hi
I found once I added the 250 DR and bi-amp’d I didn’t need the sub
Using the 250 for mid/high and Nova for bass provided a significant uplift in the lower region … very happy (although slightly baffled to be honest 
)
Thanks Fred, how do you bi-amp of the Nova?
Hi
When you connect the 250 DR to a Nova the power section of Nova remains active
In my case the speakers have separate connections for bass and mid/high
So I have connected the Nova to the bass section and the 250 to the mid/high
Hope this helps
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Fascinating, I never new that. So you have speakers connected from the Nova and the 250 and it just runs in bi-amp mode? I have bi-wire speakers too, so this is an interesting option. How does it sound?
@Fred123, did you compare this with just using the 250 in place of the Nova’s power amp (with only the one set of speaker cables, not biwiring? If not that may be worth trying (i.e. an simple upgrade of the Nova).
This is passive bi-amping. Whilst biwiring is of highly dubious value, and can make cause deterioration in sound if the characteristics of the cables is not taken into account, passive bi-amping has the potential to improve things if the amplification is the limiting factor, but the difference may be marginal - hence it would be interesting to try the 250 on its own.
Active driving, removing the crossover from the speaker and using an active crossover between preamp and power amps is very different - and would be expected to give a considerable lift
Hi
I haven’t tried just the 250 yet and was actually planning to only use the one amp (250) originally but then got a bit sidetracked and went for the bi-amping. Was so impressed with the sound that I haven’t tried other configurations. I will do one day when I feel more adventurous.
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I am very happy with the sound …
Especially as I don’t need to use a sub … always found it difficult to integrate properly
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I’m looking at adding a March P252 Power Amplifier, and they recommend running that straight off the pre-amp out for more extra power and dynamics.
Mike, that’s the only possible way to connect the power amp, and is exactly what Fred is doing with his 250. Based on reports from users, some speakers can really benefit from biamping while with others it makes little if any difference. It’s also entirely possible that using just the power amp to drive the speakers can actually be better than using both the integrated and the power amp together. Maybe it’s because not using the integrated’s power amp allows the preamp to work better because the power supply has less to do. Whatever the reason, nothing is certain in this area and is amplifier and speaker dependent.
It’s worth noting that some manufacturers add biwire terminals as a marketing ploy rather than for quality. I remember when I first got my Naim - and this was in the context of active rather than passive biamping but maybe it applies - my dealer telling me that one big power amp is always better than two little ones.
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I might have misunderstood what Fred said, I though he had the 250 connected to the pre-out on the Nova with the 250 wired to the bass wires on the speakers, and the Nova speaker outputs connected to the mid/high speaker? Anyway, the March chap suggested just running straight of the Nova pre-out, which is much easier and leave room for a sub… instead. A friend had the next level up P502, which I could ry out - assuming I keep the volume low!
Yes, that’s right. Fred is using the 250 off the Nova’s pre out, and that’s what you’d do with the March, or any power amp. It’s the only way to connect it.
Yes, and he also said that the power supply was still active on the Nova when the 250 was connected to the pre-out, and that he also ran speaker cables from the Nova speaker plugs at the same time - that was what I understood anyway, though I hadn’t heard before of that being a possibility. In any event that would run into problems with differential gain, so power amp straight of the pre-out is the way to go and I’m keen to look at a sub as well, as it’s a media set up for 4K movies as well.
That’s what he is doing, yes. The Nova’s power amp cannot be switched off. With a Nova and 250 it’s ok because gain is the same on both.
How are you getting on with the biamping? Did you get a chance to try the 250 on it’s own. I’m in a similar situation in that I’ve a Star and considering adding a 250 (or just switching to a nova), my SF speakers have two sets of terminals.
Previous experience of biamping with B&W speakers made a tremendous improvement although in a different system, however the Naim world seems against biamping? Why do my speakers have two sets of terminals then? Who’s right, the amplifier manufacturers or the speaker manufacturers? Would be very interested to hear your thoughts as you can test.
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I think it’s a bit of a myth that Naim are against passive biamping as such. They are against biwiring because it conpromises the performance of their amps, and they have traditionally favoured active biamping in that they produce a series of active crossovers.
Sure, if you want more power it probably makes more sense to buy a better power amp than a second one at the same level, but if you have an integrated and don’t want to climb up the upgrade ladder, just adding a second power amp to drive demanding speakers might make sense. Naim clearly believe so, otherwise they wouldn’t have put a dedicated biamp output on the Supernait.
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If I’m trying a power amp of my SN2, what happens with power amp stage in the SN2, does it switch off? As I have a HiCAP powering the pre-amp in the SN2, does the SN2 still require the mains lead?
I’ll be trying a March power amp directly of the pre-out rather than bi-amping as the March amp has different gain, meaning the volume will be difficult to match with bi-amping.
The SN2 will still require a mains lead, although how exactly the various components are powered I wouldn’t know.
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Thanks, I’m just wondering as I currently have Powerlines on the HiCAP and SN2 and wondering if the one on the SN2 won’t be beneficial if running a separate power amp.
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