I hope you’re all doing well. I’m hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on an issue that’s been puzzling me.
I’m currently using the pre-out of my Naim Uniti Atom HE to feed a Violectric V550 headphone amplifier, as the Atom HE doesn’t have quite enough power to drive some of my more demanding headphones.
Since the Atom HE doesn’t offer a dedicated line-out mode, I’ve been setting its volume to 100 to simulate a fixed output. However, when connected to the V550, I’m encountering what seems to be a “hot” signal—resulting in audible clipping during playback.
I’ve tried adjusting the V550’s pre-gain settings (ranging from -18 dB to +18 dB) to better match the input level. While experimenting with 0 dB, -6 dB, and -12 dB settings, I consistently encounter clipping when the Atom HE is at 100 volume, regardless of the pre-gain setting.
When I reduce the Atom HE’s volume to around 92, the clipping disappears—but unfortunately, so does a lot of the dynamic energy and punch in the music. The drop in dynamics is quite significant and has been bothering me lately.
I’m wondering if anyone here has experienced something similar or might know why this is happening. Could this be a case of output impedance mismatch, gain staging, or something else I might be overlooking?
Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!
However I’m not an expert on this matter, I found that the cable connecting a pre to a poweramp makes a difference. I’ve had oscillations with a simple nap 200 in the past and replacing the cable made all the difference up to the point that I could max out volume and it still behaved correct.
It was not about taste or a different sound but replacing the cable ensured that the nap 200 got the right signal somehow.
If the HE is only used as streamer into another amp, I would consider replacing it with a nd5xs2. This could be done near cost neutral.
Im using a V550 fed from the RCA output of my Lumin P1 Streamer/DAC/Pre-Amp and have the input gain on the V550 at 12db.
The V550 Volume control is set at 50% and I then use the P1 volume control to set the volume going to the headphones on XLR output.
What volume setting are you using on your V550 and what output connection to your headphones?
I use the Atom HE into a ZMF Aegis headphone tube amp and leave the HE always set at 82. If you do a search you’ll see that’s around 2v output, a normal line out level of a typical dac. Then just use volume of the headphone amp.
The other option is to set the HE at 82, adjust your volume on the headphone amp to a comfortable level and leave headphone amp volume alone. Then you can use the remote on the HE. However, I’ve read it’s better to have the constant 2v input in your headphone amp so I only do the first method.
Just to note, when set a 82, my ZMF Aegis is extremely dynamic. If I lower down to like 70, which is only around 1v output, then I notice big shift in dynamics. If I go above 82, it actually too dynamic with loss of mids so 82 is the sweet spot