Hi,
I bought my first hifi setup being a pair of b&w 603 S3 floor standers. I was looking at the Atom but thought I’d need a bit more power so opted for the Star. After a hour or so of loud listening, it’s cutting off and going in to a safety mode due to high temperature.
Is it worth trialing the Nova? Is there a great difference in overall spec? Star 70w per channel whereas nova 80w. Should I just accept a power amplifier is needed to drive these speakers?
Thanks in advance,
Chris
Hi Chris, that doesn’t sound right to me. The Star should be capable of driving the 603s with no issue. What speaker cable are you using?
Hey!
Cable is Chord epic X, I’ve taken the star back to the store and they’ve given me the store demonstrator to test (we were thinking it was a faulty unit) but same result.
Chris
OK, that’s not one of the cables that has problems with Naim gear, there are posters here using it successfully. If the speakers are also new they’d be the next thing to look at. (Unless you have a mains issue causing power problems, but that’s really unlikely.)
I suspect he is just playing them too loud. I doubt the Nova will be able to sustain that much better than the Star, although it is in my opinion a much more capable unit than the Star overall.
How loudly are you listening?
Yeah, I’ll switch these out incase this is where the fault lays. I’ll try that before committing to another Amp product.
Thanks, always helpful to talk! 
Possibly, but like my 804s they have a nominal efficiency of 90db (1W 1m). The Star should get seriously loud in all but a very big room.
Wow, I’m struggling understand why it’s cutting out unless there’s a technical issue with the amp section. I do hope you get this issue sorted…
If it gets too hot, the thermal overload switch turns it off. So not a technical issue, it’s just getting too hot, which almost certainly is that it is being played too loud.
My Star has got too hot a few times and gone into shutdown mode when just played at modest levels when it was running of our TV temporarily a while ago. It seemed to be some kind of intermittent fault and was possibly defaulting to server mode occasional, but it was hard to track down a specific cause and it’s been fine back now in the garage.
Hi Chris. There shouldn’t be a problem with Epic X as many people use them with Naim gear. I’ve used them with Naim power amps.
Where have you got the Star situated? Does it have a reasonable amount of space around it to allow for air circulation? Not near any heat source ?
How long are the speaker cables? If they are very short, that might be an issue.
Hopefully your dealer will sort the issue!
Only 60-65 on the volume control, unsure what that is in db.
In fairness, it’s loud but I’d expect to be able to push beyond that for a sustained period.
One more thought Chris. It looks like your speakers present a relatively challenging load for amplifiers. The impedance drops down fairly low, with some large swings. It may well be that a combination of that and other factors like the cable and / or localised heat may be contributing to the overheating.
My Nova goes seriously loud without getting hot - when I demmed it the salesman said it was the loudest dem they ever had!. I speak as one who had to get rid of a NAP 250 as it couldn’t play loud enough for me. It sounds like a fault somewhere rather than an inherent inability to play loud.
Hi Chris. Fwiw I run an Atom into B&W 603S2 floorstanders (the predecessor model to your speakers). Never had any issues with overheating - I normally have volume at 40-50 for extended periods and the Atom only gets slightly warm. I would have thought your Star should drive them easily even at higher volumes.
Thanks! It must be a fault in the speakers as I’ve switched out the star for another to get the same result.
I would be listening normally at similar volume but for those times where you want to push them a bit and hear their potential, I don’t want to worry about it cutting out.
Lovely view for listening btw!
What happens when you have one speaker connected? Does one of the two speakers not have the issue whilst the other does?
My experience with b&w is also that it does not create a difficult load on the amp.
Did you put the unit in exactly the same location?
Be useful if you posted a pic - think you have already been asked just how much ventilation there is around your Star.
Before considering a Nova - best to identify why the Star overheats.
Your dealer should have the necessary experience; that’s who you should be addressing!
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