The Uniti Nova DAC and Spendor A4 Speakers

I recently replaced my standmount Linn Majik 109 speakers and sub with Spendor A4 floorstanders. So far, my experience of this supposed upgrade is mixed. When streaming (Tidal etc.) the sound is good but a little more shrill and congested than it was with the Linn speakers. When I spin vinyl (Rega P8) the sound is fabulous, even better than it was with the Linn speakers. I did not experience this discrepancy with the Linn speakers. I’m trying to put my finger on why this should be, and wonder if the DAC in the Nova just doesn’t play nicely with the Spendors. Interested in thoughts about this, including how good you think the Nova’s DAC is and whether bypassing it (if that is possible) with an external DAC might be worthwhile.

I had A4’s with an Atom and then a Nova, they were a bit shrill alright for a good while, not sure if it was the Atom running in but things improved with the Nova. The spendors need a fair bit of running in too but overall I really liked them, chopped them in for A7’s for a bit more scale but I reckon the A4’s are the sweet spot in the A range

I tried a few of the Chord dacs including Qutest and Dave into a Nova. The Nova takes any analogue input and then converts to digital and back to analogue. For me there was no improvement over the Nova.

This doesn’t really make sense, as you can’t take a digital out from the Nova. So you would bypass the entire streamer/DAC section, effectively using it as an integrated amp. Better to sell it and get a Supernait.

When I upgraded from B&W CDM 7NT to Spendor A5, I too realized that some songs / albums sounded inferior (most sounded much better, though).

I finally realized that the B&W “masked” poorly produced records while the Spendors where more true to the artist’s / engineer’s job.

I know it can be an endless debate but, to my taste, I like the Spendor philosophy much better. Too bad for those “inferior” records (I don’t mean that on a musical perspective of course).

Yep I’d go along with that, my A7’s pretty much tell it as it is, both good and bad.

This is my exact experience, i also use a pair of A4’s with a Nova. The A4 tweeters take a pretty good while to loosen up, i’d say 200 hours or so, but once they do they sound really nice and detailed with the Nova.

That’s a nice balanced combo - leave well alone! The Nova does take around 9 or 10 months to run in fully though.

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