Morning everyone, new to the forum and seeking a little advice, currently running a Uniti Nova and MA Gold 300 5G, Audiolab 6000 and Rega P6, While the soundstage is quite decent, I am wandering if it’s worth adding another amp as I’m not sure the speakers are getting enough power, sometimes the high range seems a little harsh, it’s been running for around 6 months and haven’t taken the volume above 50 so far.
I have seen some comments and contacted the retailer who suggested a NAP 250, would this be overkill or would something like a 150 or 200 make much of a difference
I am pleased with the simplicity of the nova and am open to any suggestions regarding an amp and doesn’t have to be Naim
Thanks very much
Can you give a bit of info? How are you using the Audiolab integrated and the Nova together? Speaker cables? Speaker and equipment stands? Room size? Which source is harsh, or does the harshness apply across all?
Adding a 250 I am sure was intended to use the Nova as a preamp, not bi-amping (maybe do a bit of a search on the Forum re biamping etc). This might work out better but the Nova has a reasonable power output alone and I am not sure a 250 or other additional power amp would definitely fix the problem.
Maybe your speakers are an issue but I am not familiar with them. Others may be, but from the specs alone they don’t look hard to drive. They might not suit high volume in a big room?
Bruce
Morning Bruce
Thanks for the reply apologies it’s the Audiolab CD player as I have over 1000 CDs.
The soundstage seems harsh on poorer quality recordings or older recordings, at the moment I am predominately using TIDAL-streaming
The high range can be quite piercing at times, it’s a real coin toss, some albums I believed would sound awful and some I thought would sound awful sound fantastic
I have the speakers around 5 - 6 feet apart, but will be moving to Spain in the next year where the room is much larger so wanted to be prepared.
Hope that makes sense
My inclination is to look at the speakers.
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I once owned a NAP250DR. The person who bought it added it to their Nova and basically found no improvement. They were ultimately going to use the 250 with a separate source and preamp, so it didn’t really matter in the short term.
So I wouldn’t add any amplification to the Nova; a 250 is too good for it and the others are less powerful anyway. I’ve owned a Nova and used it with small PMC speakers and the results were excellent.
I don’t know the MAs but they do have a bit of a reputation for not being the most sophisticated speakers. You are getting an awful lot of speaker for your £2,500 which has to lead to questions around ultimate quality.
Something like the PMC twenty5.23i should work well, and while I am not a big fan of Focal speakers, others have used the Kanta 2 with the Nova to good effect. The Nova is a good piece of kit, but does seem rather picky when it comes to speakers.
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Do you mean the treble?
I doubt bi-amping, or even using the Nova through a power amp would cause that. More likely a speaker and/or room effect. It would also help if you gave history - has your system ever sounded right, with existing components or before? If yes what has changed since?
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Some information regarding your room would be useful - ideally a picture. It might be that, with the MAs being such large speakers, room interactions at a range of frequencies are making things sound harsh/uneven. Issues in the midrange in particular are often misdiagnosed as treble problems.
Also, looking at the specs, though 90db efficient, the MAs are a 4 ohm load and, according to MA, they require an amplifier between 100 - 250 WPC to drive them. Couple this with MA having a reputation for being quite a bright sound (not heard them so can’t confirm) and there may be several reasons for the issues you are having.
Speaker size would only really affect the lowest frequencies, not the midrange or treble, so I don’t think size of speaker has anything to do with the OP’s problem. Also I believe the Nova’s spec is 155w into 4ohms, so within MA’s recommendation. But of course we don’t yet know anything about the OP’s room, nor whether he(?) auditioned first to vrify that they re truly to his taste.
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Bi-amping is more often used to enhance bass with difficult speakers or to cope with a large room than tame excessive high frequencies. I’d agree with others that a change of speakers is likely to be the best solution. It’s a good while since I’ve heard MA speakers, but those of old did tend to exhibit a somewhat harsh treble. If your listening room in Spain has lots of hard surfaces, that could exacerbate the problem.
Assuming your budget allows for new speakers I’d go along to a few dealers to audition some alternatives. The recommendations on this thread plus a read through the forum to see what others are using with a Nova should help you to draw up a shortlist. Given the size of your new listening room it may be wise to exclude particularly inefficient speakers.
Roger
Biamp is usually a waste of time, money and effort.
A Nap 150 or Nap 200 would be like shooting birds with a canon.
Do you need more power buy higher separates or a more powerfull device.
Or choose easier driven loudspeakers.
Check up your source for issues, the signal in the chain is important.
Your setup looks “speaker heavy” - the MA loudspeakers seem to be a very expensive flagship model, never heard them but guess a little Nova is not the most obvious match.
Look at something from Naim 300 or up. These boxes would however demand a very good source.
Mind you there’s other brands out there if you need 200-400W output in a very large room.
The MA speakers sold for £2,500 when current, so are very much in an appropriate price range for a Nova, maybe just not a good match technically.
Thanks for all the comments
As I mentioned it’s the treble notes that can at times appear to be quite harsh, however this very much depends on the type of music I am listening to and the quality of the recording.
I did get a demo before buying and several retailers do sell the MAs with the uniti nova.
All in all I am pleased with the package but as some of you have mentioned the speakers do appear to need quite a lot of power to get the best out of them, hence I didn’t know if it was worth bi amping, but it would appear not.
Thanks again everyone, maybe my ears are getting a little old.
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Try your speakers in various positions to see where their optimal placement is best. Isolating the speakers given they are floor standers may also be worth investigating - IsoAcoustics Gaia Series Threaded Isolation Feet comes to mind, but there are other options.
Bi-amping is best avoided.
Nova is a nice all in one, but it is no substitute for the control separates bring. Tried Nova + NAP250 here with spare amp, it showed it will simply move the problem, essentially showing the Nova limitations - pre and streamer against a much classier amp.
If none of that works, one or other may have to be changed.
Spendor are largely neutral and go well with Naim; ymmv.
Above all, try and audition in your home, before deciding on any permanent change.
I would have thought harsh treble could be a source issue.
Wonder if it appears on all three sources ?
Maybe its mostly on high volume ?
There was a mention of soundstage, never been a strong point of Naim, at least the older amps.
While I agree in theory, I have tended to find that when bass is ‘too much’ for a room it has a very negative effect on the rest of the frequency range, though I assume that the higher frequencies are effectively unbalanced by the ‘out of sorts’ bass.
Where that might happen, the effect on the higher frequencies surely would be one of muddying /loss of clarity, rather than harshness? Anyway the OP hasn’t complained about the bass end so that doesn’t suggest itself as an issue. (We don’t know the size of his/her present room, nor the future room other than larger, nor furnishings etc, and just because the speakers are floorstanders and go reasonably low in the bass doesn’t mean they necessarily would give excessive bass in smaller rooms.)
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