All things being equal (condition, speakers that could be driven by both etc) would you go for a superuniti or an original Nait XS with an ND5XS? I’ve got a superuniti but might have a chance to go for the XS/ND5XS combo and the attraction is separating out the amp and streaming/dac side of things.
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SuperUniti 80 - Nait XS 70
I’d keep the SU and get a 250DR if you want to get on an upgrade path.
I am at SU and NAP 200, where do you go from here?
250DR then get a 272. From there you can split out the 272 to separates if you want to go the separates route.
SuperUniti is a very competent unit, I’m sitting listening to one.
Our upgrade path was:
SuperUniti
SuperUniti, 250DR
272,250DR
272,XPSDR,250DR
Then we split out the 272 to get current system which is still in boxes other than NDX2.
The amp in the SuperUniti is good but the NDX2 digital output into SU blows away the SU streaming stage, although the DAC in the SU must be decent.
If you want to upgrade streaming side of things maybe add an ND5XS2, leaving future route to replace SU with 282/HiCap.
Sorry to kidnap this thread, but this may be relevant to the original question:
From the above, should I deduct the best part of the SU is the preamplifier?
If so, is it efficient to upgrade up and down the pre and wait?
I have been running an SU into a NAC 300 dr up until quite recently!
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I certainly don’t think the preamp is the SU’s strongest part. Nor would you expect it to be given the degree of compromise involved in squeezing it into a box with a huge number of other components. The fact that Naim won’t even put the preamps own power supply in the same box as it’s separate preamps should tell you enough.
As an example, when I upgraded my Superuniti I added a 200DR, then an NDX, and finally a 282. I can honestly say that the first two upgrades were more or less a waste of time, and only when the 282 arrived did the system start to make music.
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It’s an all in one player, the whole thing is a compromise of sorts. It’s still a fine player on it’s own.
A very fine player I would say. Probably I will keep it in any case.
I do not understand well the upgrade from SU to 272, I thought they were very similar or identical, apart of the amplifier and the 272 ability to take a PS.
Having gone from a SU to 272/XPSDR there is absolutely no comparison. The 272 with PSU is streets ahead as it should be for the price!
So yes, whilst a lot of the underlying tech may be similar, the 272 does not suffer from quite as many compromises as the SU (i.e. no power amp for a start).
272/XPSDR/250DR was a very very fine system and we could have lived with it long term. We were in the fortunate position to be able to move up to full separates at 252 level.
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