I’m intending to purchase/use a Nova to drive Magico A3s, but I’m a bit stumped at what looks like a weird speaker plug that comes with the Naim (according to the brochure on the web). Magicos will take spades, does the Naim take banana plugs? or would I need to use their speaker plug?
The weird speaker plugs go into the Nova - you can put what you like on the other end of the speaker cable. Naim supply speaker plugs because they believe they sound better than conventional banana plugs etc. but you don’t have to use them at both ends. So for your situation I would terrminate the Nova end of the cable with the Naim plugs and the Magico end with spades.
Thanks.
Does that mean I will have to re-terminate whatever cable I get? None will come with that Naim plug fitted.
You can use any 4mm banana plug so there is no need to re-terminate. It will be fine. Running the Magicos with just a Nova is a rather extreme mullet though; maybe you intend to upgrade the Nova significantly further down the line.
Naim’s own speaker cable is sold off the reel, so you buy the required length, and your dealer should solder the Naim supplied plugs at the amp end, and whatever connectors are suitable at the speaker end. Unless you are splashing out on Super Lumina, which can be ordered with bananas or spades.
I agree with this. I just acquired Magico A3’s and feel that my 300DR power amp is about the minimum you’d want to drive the 4 ohm A3’s. I did audition them at home with a 250DR; the 300 is miles ahead.
The A3’s are happy to accept Naim banana plugs; I’m using mine with Naim Super Lumina speaker cables.
I have banana plugs going in to the back of my Nova. Never noticed a problem.
Thanks for your comments. I’m not planning to upgrade the Nova. I’m looking for a one-box unit to drive the A3s. I listened to the Devialet which drove them nicely but left me a bit cold. I had some recommendations about the Nova (including from some audio critics that said it was more than enough). I’ve auditioned them with he Nova and they sounded much better than with the Devialet. Granted, the volume wasn’t at party levels, but they will sit in an apt, where I can’t turn them up too much.
Any other reasonably priced alternatives I should listen to?
When I listened to Devialet about 3 years ago, they left me a bit cold as well.
“On paper” the Nova delivers 80wpc, and the 300DR 90. But wpc isn’t everything. If you like what it’s doing, that’s all that matters.
The A3’s were developed in part paired with a Hegel integrated, the H360. That includes a dac, but not a streaming front-end.
I bought my Nova around six months ago, lovely piece of kit, well pleased with it. With regard to the funny plastic speaker connectors that arrived with it, I did not use it. It required soldering wires onto the back of the pins, and with the large cross sectional area of cable I use would not be a nice connection. I used the solid turned banana plugs with secure springing which I had already terminated my custom leads with and the sound was epic. A few years ago I carried out a thorough assessment of cables and terminations and after trialling some exotic ‘twisted bell wire type made of un-obtainium’ at telephone number prices came to the conclusion that using a quality cable and solid turned connectors performed better to my ears. I used Van Damme 6mm twin flat oxygen free cable
https://www.vdctrading.com/uploaded/products/large/1357659183-268-506-000.jpg
Excellent product at around £10 per metre. At the speaker end I terminated in solid turned speaker ring terminal connectors machined with spades for easy fit. I used coloured heatshrink sleeving to identify. Lovely cables really pleased with them. I am a professional engineer so am fortunate in having capabilities to build up these cables. So a personal view, don’t always be convinced by extremely highly priced alleged exotic cables.
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The Naim plugs may look a bit cheap and basic, but they are chosen to match the sockets on Naim amps, and they do work well with them. They wouldn’t match your cables, as they are made to fit 4mm Naim cable. I would, though, use a properly soldered connection, as I’ve found this to work best with any plug.
Thanks Chris for the reply, fully agree, my main comment was that the supplied Naim connectors didn’t suit my needs and cable.
So I’ve read. I briefly considered the H360 but I gave it up since no streaming. The new to be released H390 comes head to head against the Nova, as far as I understand. Includes streaming, Roon readiness (eventually) and throws in MQA as well (not that this is essential). Priced at roughly the same level too.
Have you heard the Nova / A3 combo yet?
Yes - it sounded very good. I did not try it at very high volumes though. However, I won’t be in a situation where I can blast them (apartment in a building)
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