Hello. It has always been goal of mine to own a naim hi-fi and I have finally taken the plunge. I am upgrading from an Audiolab 8200P and M-Dac combination to a the Uniti Nova.
I have an old set of Focal 826V speakers and have always assumed that they would work fine with the Nova; but on an email with a dealer, he was concerned that the 80W from the Nova maybe an issue as the 8200P has a rating of 100W.
I was wondering if anyone had used this combination (Uniti + 826V) or similar? Did they work well together? Any advice would be most welcome. I was not intending on changing my speakers just yet.
I really wouldn’t worry about it. Just get the Nova and see how things work out. In the scheme of things there isn’t much difference between 80 and 100w, it’s how amplifiers cope with real loads that matters. People use Novas with all sorts of speakers and I very much doubt you’ll have a problem. And if you do, you could try alternative speakers with your Nova at your leisure.
Hi Gulprit, welcome. I’m with HH here, I wouldn’t worry about your dealer’s advice. You don’t need to match the amp power to the max power of the amp. Just find a set of speakers that sound good with the amp and that between them go as loud as you like.
Having said that, having had a quick look at the specs of your speakers, they’re incredibly efficient, 91.5db/W at 1m, now all these stats are only a guide, but that suggests to me that a Uniti will be able to get them to go painfully loud if you wanted.
In one system I run PMC25.23s from a Nova, they are nominal 86.5db/W at 1m, so crudely your speakers will be about 4 or 5 times as loud for the same power input. The Nova sounds great into the PMCs, it’s a wonderful piece of equipment, and in my 4.3m*4m room sounds very loud with the volume on 45 (on a scale up to 100).
I’ve had a pair of Focal 816SE speakers for many years, now residing in my home theatre system. As Eoink says, the Focal speakers in this range are super-efficient and an easy drive. You’ll be absolutely fine with a Nova driving them, and probably better than the Audiolab (I’ve had Audiolabs amps in the past, too).