Morning all.
I currently have a Superuniti BT using Nac a5 cables feeding a pair of Dali menuet SE speakers, which sit on Solidsteel SS-6 stands. Most of the music I play comes via a Bluesound Node-X. Tidal HiFi used mostly with the odd stuff played over Airplay from my iPhone.
The sound quality is pretty amazing as is it, beautifully open and engaging, with vocals sounding lifelike and placed bang between the speakers themselves. The Menuet SE’s are excellent speakers in my opinion.
My question is with regards to upgrading the Superuniti as it’s getting on a bit now. The in-built streamer is now redundant thanks to the Node-X, so I really just need an amplifier. I’m torn between the Nait XS 3 or the Supernait 3. My room is relatively small at 3m x 4m. Volumes have to be kept at a sensible level due to adjoining neighbours. Has anyone upgraded from the Superuniti recently or similar? Any advice and experience would be welcomed. Thanks.
You’ll need to demo an xs or sn, but the amp in a superuniti is pretty capable! I suspect you won’t find an xs to be an improvement (or an improvement worth the spend).
If going for an XS3 or SN3 you’d really want something better than the Node as a source. You may be better looking at the Nova, which is much better than the SU had has the latest functionality.
If you’re looking for an economical upgrade from the SU consider a 272/250DR. Prices are great now and for little $$ you can take a big step up from the SU. It’s the path I took. And with a XPS DR or even better a 555DR you’ll have probably the best vfm setup there is. The SN is a great product but I never got on with them, there’s just something about naim stand alone amplification (and a PS) that overcomes the shortcomings of the 272 to makes it punch way above its weight.
It’s still a cracking amp. Currently feeding it Tidal hires via our SMSL box/SPDIF and it does an excellent job.
Are you currently using Node as a transport into SuperUniti DAC? If you go for an naim amp only, you’d have to start using the Node DAC and you might not like it at all.
Our current options for SU upgrade would be ND5XS2 into SuperNait3 or alternatively a Nova. But we’re in no rush.
To do this is stages we’ll most likely get the ND5XS2 first and use SU as amp only. That leaves options open on SN3.
@ElMarko - I agree that for sound per £ a 272/ 250 is a great choice. However, a 272 uses old architecture and does not include Tidal (there are ways…), which will put off some.
I also agree that replacing the Node is probably going to be wise if looking at a general upgrade.
The hardcore choice for sound per £ is probably to go entirely second hand - ND5XS2 (ideally with nDAC too), 82, Hicap, 250. It’s what we took to Tasmania and all those boxes are second-hand bargains today.
If that’s far too much bother and far too many boxes, the suggestions above to try a Nova probably point in the right direction - they are very good.
Why upgrade a SU? SQ was top notch in 2012 and still is. Buffering for streaming isn’t great for Tidal, but all you need is Spotify 320 kbs is my opinion, and that works great.
Tidal works fine on my 272 and over Wi-Fi too. Agreed it’s not perfect and has the very occasional drop-out hiccup but it can run for weeks without any hitch and is nothing that worries me.