Unity Nova overheating

OK thanks. With a capacitance three times that of NACA5 and with half the inductance, that QED cable is not ideal, even if it’s not on the extreme fringe of cables. Maybe the different lengths causes additional problems. Or perhaps it’s something else. Best for your dealer to determine I think.

The replacement amp Quad Vena II Play effortlessly played all night with the same set up. Not sure if it’s a superior amp ?

It may work better with that particular cable.

Best bet here is to see if you can borrow your Naim dealer’s demo NACA5 and if the problem goes away, or things stay the same, then at least you’ll have a better idea of where the problem may lie.

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Just so happens that the Naim sales manager is at HiFi Corner now, just waiting a call back :crossed_fingers:

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I still think that with a speaker where impedance drops to 3.1 ohms (as pointed out by @HappyListener ), that you are asking a lot from the Nova

Thank you for the advice, replacement amp on its way, my initial spec to the shop was loud music, good quality and streamer. Looked like the perfect package (would have got bigger speakers if money allowed).
Is there a recommendation to boost the nova somehow ?
It has pre amp out connectors.

If you are wanting to play music very loud via the B&W’s (which are ‘power hungry’ in budget-speaker terms), then I think you would be better served going the separates route,

A first step is to replace the speaker cabling as Richard outlines and see what happens. Sometimes, kit just doesn’t go together/match well.

An overriding factor is that if you are playing a Nova that far up the volume scale with a higher-energy streaming feed, it will be working very hard, which is not really what you want.

The doctrine is to get a strong/powerful amp which isn’t stressed during replay.

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Adding a power amp is certainly a solution that could work. A Naim amp would be quite expensive as you would really be looking at a 250, and being a regulated amp, even this may get quite hot.
A more cost effective alternative might be to biamp so that you use both the built in power amp and an external one which between them would give you plenty of extra clout.

Did you already have the speakers before you purchased the Nova?

As suggested by RD above you really need to try the Nova with some Naim NACA5 - although the Uniti series are less fussy than classic Naim amps the speaker cable is an integral part of the design of the output circuitry of the power amp sections, so cable that does not match the electrical properties of A5 could stress the power section.

Alternatively can you get the dealer to test it for you? Not impossible to have a faulty unit.

Recommendation:get another unit…maybe the one you bought is defective.

Not appropriate speakers cables can do that generally. And it’s apparently the case here.

No I purchased it all as a package, except the speaker cable, this was from an old system.

If the ‘package’ was from a dealer then you may have been mis-sold given that you asked for a system to go loud in the first place. And of course the bigger the room it’s in the worse it gets - how large is the room?

The Nova amplification is based on a Supernait but obviously more compromised than a standalone SN2 and with those speakers the current draw is too much hence the overheating.
If you wish to retain those speakers and stay with Naim kit then the bill is going to be substantial!

The cables aren’t doing any favours either so it may be worth borrowing some more suitable ones. I still don’t think it will fix the problem though but it’s cheap to find out.

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