I only ask because I have seen many similar reports with the Ania. That may be the first thing to look at? The other thing is that I am surprised that the Superuniti lacks bass richness. If possible ( and affordable) take your superuniti to a dealer and try different speakers. The amp/speakers/ room combination is sometimes hard to get right. Obviously spending more on better kit will pay benefits but I’m not sure you have the best from the kit you have just yet. A bit of patience from both you and your dealer should sort the simplest and most cost effective solution.
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Many thsnks for this bruss!
I’ve no experience of the Supernait3 myself, but that might be a good place to start auditioning I’d guess. The high quality sound I got from adding the 250 suggests to me that there’s not much wrong with the streamer/preamp section of the SU. Maybe auditioning the SN3 vs SU2 with a separate power amp would be informative?
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You’re telling me what I’d hoped to hear KJC!
There’s a NAP 250 servicedd by Naim in 2018 on eBay and I’m sorely tempted to make a bid. Catch you later.
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Before spending, how about experimenting with the loudspeaker positions: distance apart and from corners and - despite the rear port - from the rear wall, plus toe-in. It could be just the tweak you need and beats aerobics……
Does your SU sound a little ‘shouty’? Mine did, it was quite a forceful sound presentation, at least with my set up. I replaced it with a nova, which sounded more refined, which I think you could describe as ‘richer’…. Hard to say though. The SU is a fine piece of kit though. The addition of a nap250 could by a significant upgrade.
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+1 on the sub.
I have, what many people here describe as, very solid bottom end speakers, the PMC 25.23. Contrary to the consensus though, I found them lacking, especially coming from various Dynaudio models.
A small Rel T5/x not only fixed the shy base but added a wealth of information to the mid-range and helped taming the top end. Dialed in very subtle, a sub can indeed work wonders.
When I had my Special 40, I never felt the 250DR was enough for them. Just something to think about.
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I have a Nait 50, built in phono stage etc , it sounds warmer than my previous Uniti product and is available with substantial discounts
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Tried NAP250DR on both my SU and Nova - it quickly reveals the shortcomings, namely the weakness of the preamp/streamer, when a separate NAP is added. It may well be a non-DR doesn’t create that effect so significantly.
Which doesn’t follow the best possible advice, to audition first with a dealer, as @IanRobertM mentioned early in this thread.
There was also a mention of removing TP-link over ethernet, which will be doing you no favours.
Hard wiring is not difficult to achieve and the results will likely be much improved.
If necessary, purchase basic long lead patch cables and experiment, before throwing hard earned dosh at the issue.
You have made no reference to listening room, nor any trialling of different positions for speakers and even listening position. Small changes may reap significant reward; making a significant change with a NAP may create different issues.
Similarly, do your concerns apply equally to streamed music from your US as with TT?
A good dealer will help you resolve the issues you believe you have. Deals are out there so buying elsewhere doesn’t provide advice or opportunities. Trusting that you don’t utilise a dealer for advice and then go and buy on an auction site.
I have an early SU, recently serviced, which I have used with a variety of speakers, but lacking in warmth isn’t a characteristic I recognise. It might lack a certain finesse, which the Nova does better. Consider auditioning a Nova as well as adding a NAP.
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Lacking warmth is very likely speaker/room interaction. Warmth is usually characterised from around 120 Hz to 400 Hz. This is an area that small speakers usually rely on a degree of room boundary reinforcement, and for stand mounts, suitable stands for the speakercdesign.
Lack of warmth can also be the perception gained when you have overly prominent mids and upper mids, again this can caused by poor room speaker matching. Excessive reflections off walls can create a lack of warmth sound.
In my experience this is very unlikely, assuming you have quality electronics, to be caused by the electronics. The electronics can expose or mask this more if you have poor room/speaker matching, but not fix it. Best get this done or you will likely always have an unnecessarily comprised replay.
If you have a sound engineer friend, you may get some good advice on remediation.
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Two perfectly reasonable points in my opinion.
Richer in what? Bass? Detail? Lower midrange? Dynamics? Dynaudio speakers are usually not very ‘warm’ sounding, but surely they are accurate. What do you miss? Listen to other amps, other systems, different voices. We often have no idea what we like most until we hear it.
Best,
M
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Indeed. Paying attention to curtains, carpets and even ceiling coving can reap dividends…
There may be no need to spend on new equipment.
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It’s your S40 speakers. If you like them, then you would need a lot more (I mean way more) power to drive them well or they will sound recessed, distant and bland at usual normal listening volumes.
Alternatively, change speakers and start from there with ideally home auditions. You may or may not need to change electronics depending on where you land. E.g. while Harbeths mentioned above will still require a lot more power, they would be on the sweeter side but with heavy emphasis on vocals, little versatility and (to me) not quite naturally sounding. I might try Stirling Broadcast, Spendor (even the modern series), JBL and many others.
But unless you have a large volume to fill, when using quality speakers, you really don’t or shouldn’t need much power at all unless the speaker has a horrendously uneven impedance curve or be massively inefficient (ie less than 83dB). Power can’t fix poor speaker/room interaction…
Yes I we were considering poweramps of between 5 and 10 Watts then power might be more of a consideration with speaker efficiency with average rooms and listening levels.
That’s nominally true and I don’t know the op’s speakers, but the Kans and the Rodgers ls3/5a both benefit from more power, even at low volumes. I think though the first and cheapest port of call is the speaker/ room interaction. Just move the speakers around and see (hear) if there are any immediate benefits. I wouldn’t be applying room correction at this stage though.
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Well yes Rodger’s LS3/5a are quoted from around 30 Watts with a max of 80 Watts (though these are approx guidelines and not clear how this is calibrated)… but the key consideration is its nominal impedance of 15 ohms. Many amps are designed for nominal loads of between 4 and 8 ohms… one might need to check the amp is comfortable driving such a relatively high impedance load… and if so I suspect you don’t need much ‘power’, but that is simple component compatibility which I assume has been done. You wouldn’t operate a 240 volt designed load with 120 Volts unless it was designed to do it…
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OK I succumbed, it’s mine! If I have the same experience as you had, I shall be ‘over the moon’. I’ll keep you posted.
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I guess things become clearer once you listen to the S40 … I have owned them briefly : )
Be careful, better quality amps and speakers are often better at showing up/revealing a problem if the signal balance/quality is not what you like in the first place.
I believe your deck and particularly your cart are quite forward sounding.
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Room correction is out of the question. The room in question is difficult to tweak. The listening positiion is fixed, but there is room for repositioning the speakers somewhat. At present the speakers are 250mm from the wall/ window recess and 4m from the listening position. They are toed in so that the axies intersect just behind my listening positiion. The right hand flanking wall is 5m from the axis. Perhaps the photo’s will clarify my situation.