Evening, I’m afraid I’m not as Jazz fan so don’t really have an opinion regarding the Atom / Star /Nova. I do find with older Rock, Punk and Alternative its the Nova that shines.
As a Nova owner for almost 2 years now that was new to Naim at the time that listens to a lot of jazz along with lots of rock and lots of acoustic guitar instrumental music and the Nova handles “jazz” and all of the above great if you are using Naca5s , but really shines when you add a Powerline (FF) into the mix. Once you do that there is no going back. I was all set to get an Atom, then thought about a Star and at the last minute decided to wait a few more months and get a Nova waiting was the best thing I did because of the performance on the Nova. But will say that i am now looking ahead in the coming years to upgrading to Naim Separates because I really love the Naim sound !
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Cewheelock
Some background. I own more Naim than you can shake a stick at. Equipment includes a peamp, two amps, an integrated amp, two CD players, two HiCaps, a Supercap, a SuperLine, two Stagelines, Fraim, and a lot of cable. I own other stuff as well. I mention this because I need to be in Audiophiles Anonymous or at the funny farm and because you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. One, how much money do you have? Two, how much space do you have? Three, are you anal retentive and just love to have the latest greatest that you can afford. Four, do you just love to tweek and enjoy the hobby you select. So, if you answered, I have lots of money, I have lots of space, yes I am anal retentive, and yes I just love to tweek, then separates are for you and Naim makes some world class examples at several price levels.
If, on the other hand, you purchased your Atom because you just love music and for you that’s all that’s important then stick with that Atom. It’s brilliant as is the whole Uniti range. It is great sounding, flexible, and easy to use. If you change speakers and need more power or more connectivity, the Nova is awesome.
For Naim and for others, Uniti like products are the future. Older crazy people like myself are, shall we say, transitioning.
Sorry for the long response but as soon as you asked, well meaning folks were moving you to complication. There is an alternative.
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I had an early Atom, the Nova was unavailable.
The Atom developed an unfixable dispaly issue and was RMA’d.
By the time a replacement Atom was available at the dealer they had the Nova in stock.
I demoed their Atom vs Nova with my own speakers.
The difference was substantial in so many ways, but primarily significantly more detail on the Nova as well as consdierably better handling of complex musical passages which were muddled on the Atom.
I think this has less to do with power output than simply the fact that the cost difference has allowed a better power supply and accessory circuitry to lift an already excellent platform on the Atom to a different level.
Don’t get me wrong, the Atom is excellent value, and much of this may depend on your starting point as having always had high-end analogue playback which digital still doesn’t match in my view, apart from convenience, the Atom and Nova were the first digital players at a moderate pricepoint I’ve been happy using instead of vinyl.
With the Nova I’d probably describe it rather than ‘lifting a veil’ that it adds an extra layer of sound and tidies up what’s already there.
YMMV, but I’d really recommend an A/B demo if you can with your own music.
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In my case the Naim Atom sounds so amazingly good on my Dynaudio Contour S 3.4 LE loudspeakers, that I cannot imagine that it can sound that much better. Of course I hear that complex music sounds a bit muddled now and then. Also I do hear that adding more power would get a stronger grip on the loudspeakers. But boy, does it make music! There will be a point in time where I will audition a Nova, but until then I am just afraid that I will trade musicality for detail and resolution. Any thoughts on that?
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Traded my Atom for a Nova and never regretted it. Soundstage increased considerably with much better bass control and no loss of musicality
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No I’d be surprised if it was less musical, as I mentioned it almost felt as though it added a layer of detail onto excellent bas performance and sorted out muddy bass lines and complex rhythms were easier to follow.
Ideally try to A/B them with you own music if you decide to look at an upgrade, though the Atom is highly capable and had my display not failed I might still have it!
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I have found claims from several Atom owners that Atom is the most musical of the Unity series.
Well Atom owners would say that, wouldn’t they!
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You are Atom owner?
I did have an Atom but now have a Nova. Both v good pieces of kit but would not say Atom is more musical than Nova. As Nova owner I would say that wouldn’t I !
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Does anyone have experience with sound quality between the Nova and Star?
I’ve heard them both, own the Star. I’d say they sound very similar, Nova being slightly better in every respect. But for me it wasn’t worth the difference in price. Nova does have a bit more power, so with some speakers that could be a factor.
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It is so hard to demo anything now with lockdown. I have an Atom, and even when my dealer came over (a brand agnostic place and the best in town in my view), he was blown away by my system synergy, my extremely quiet electricity, and how well it meshes with the room. He kind of discouraged me from touching the system, but you know, I really want to hear the difference with the Nova.
I wonder, in part because of the electricity, whether part of what distinguished the Nova for some is better power filtering for dirtier juice? I mean, I imagine that it is all around better, but sometimes the areas of improvement may not apply to the use case.
I wish Naim were more forthcoming about what they put under the hood. But that is not their way.
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If you are happy with Atom, and why wouldn’t you be, I would wait until you can demo a Nova. The Atom is v v good but I just found it a bit lacking in bass which is why I went for Nova
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I just bought an Atom, and I agree that adding in a full-fat Powerline does give an ‘uplift’ in terms of wider range and general sound quality, not a lot but the improvement is definitely there.
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It’s not just a CD player but a very good CD ripper. I have the Star and have not listened to one single physical CD playing. I rip everything I have to an attached SSD. The quality of the rips are claimed to be exact bit perfect copies and I cannot complain about the quality that comes out at all.
In all honesty early firmware had some issues where there ended up a small gap in a file every now and again but it seems that is solved. And it is sometimes (for me it was single digits in 100 discs) overly picky about not reading a CD that does not appear to be damaged or exhibit any CD rot at all. But aside from that I am very happy.
If you want to stick with the all in one solution and like the CD functionality, get the Star. The cash is not just for the CD functionality, you are almost doubling your RMS power as well.
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I dont have any experience with atom or star but I have just bought a nova and paired it with a core to rip my CD’s to. It was going to be a second system but a box in my main system has had to go back due to a fault and so the Nova is on main system duties. When I first powered it up I thought it was OK but nothing special. I had it on a fraim with a powerline feeding some neat SX7i. after about a week and it really is starting to come alive I must say. I can now understand a lot of the posts about one box solutions etc as it is very very good. If you compare it to a multibox solution the cost is really good. I dont think it sounds that much different to my old 282/250DR (but my sources are not the best so that could be the issue there) If you sell your Atom and buy a good used nova the difference will not be huge and I am sure you will like the nova very much.
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I have had demo of both, side by side, and owned both. On the demo, bought Star, as could not hear any real improvement, besides loss of CD player and £700 more. Now at home, with a good matching speaker, the Nova begins to show it’s paces over the Star. However, in my opinion it is not night and day and also whether the potential owner requires a CD player built in.
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