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Compact DAC + Amp

All

recently moved to NY and need to downsize my HT. Right now I use 3.1 channels and planning to move to 2.1 channels. 

For speakers i am considering Focal 1028 be or kanta 2. 1028 is on sale at $5000 and lowest price I have gotten on Kanta is $8500. 

While most practical option is to get a soundbar (looking at Martin Logan or Golden eat), I considering a second option - a small footprint amp placed on a small wooden floating shelf under the wall mounted TV and feeding speakers through speaker cables run through the wall vertically. I need a small footprint DAC + Amp for that. 

Options so far are
1. Sonos amp - major advantage is it can feed Sonos Sub wirelessly 
2. NAD D3040
3. Peachtree Nova 150
4. Naim Uniti Atom

I heard Naim and liked it. But would like to stay under $2000 ideally. If size wasn’t a constraint, I would have probably considered used H190
Any othee options worth considering?

marrduk24
15 responses Add your response
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
1,076 posts
 
Seems like a waste to buy great speakers and average electronics....   I have said many times, " Buy once , cry once"   The Naim is the only one on that list I would consider.   It feels like a quality piece and the volume control is slick...You can buy a wireless adapter for your sub,  Rel makes one and so does Velodyne and others.  I use one and it works great.
marrduk24 OP
26 posts
 
Thank you. I guess other options would be Sim 240i and Rega Elex R, though their footprint becomes larger. 

Of the discontinued Naim models, what would be a great buy?
jeenam
80 posts
 
Job INTegrated
soix
2,133 posts
 
Yeah, I'd have to agree with @oddiofyl that this is a bit of a tough ask at that price point and not be a mismatch in quality between speakers and electronics.  Two that might work and are available here now at a bit over your price target are the Devialet 120 and Micromega M100.  They don't really have a small footprints, but they are only about 2" and 1.5" in height, respectively, so they don't take up much space.  I believe one or both could be hung on the wall if that's an option.  Anyway, best of luck. 
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gdnrbob
2,421 posts
 
You could do what I did:
Buy a couple of McCormack Power Drives and have Steve upgrade them to monoblocks (about 120wpc).
Buy an Ayre Codex DAC
If you can find non working amps, all the better as Steve guts the amp and practically rebuilds it from scratch. Perhaps more money than you wish, but at least you'll have a decent power source.
Bob
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
How about the Mytek DAC and Amp?

Talk about tiny powerhouses!

Otherwise I can strongly recommend the NAD mini integrateds. I own the D 3020.
marrduk24 OP
26 posts
 
Thanks guys. Tried Simaudio Moon 240i today. I think I liked the sound of Naim Atom better with Kanta 2. 

But on Wilson Sabrina I liked 240i better than McIntosh 252. 
austin_jeff's avatar
austin_jeff
32 posts
 
you have deep pockets...now try something in your living space
yoby
290 posts
 
Hi marrduk24: I would recommend the Exogal Comet Plus DAC with the Ion amplifier.
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gdnrbob
2,421 posts
 
@austin, 
+1
Better yet, put some more money into an amp and DAC.
Bob
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
1,621 posts
 
Marduk,

We agree with the poster before, the Micromega M100-150 sounds amazing, has room correction, does streaming and you can WALL MOUNT it, so all you would have to do would be to run speaker cables from the amp, and add a wireless to wired bridge. Simple and elegant.

The Micromega sounds fanatstic we play it with the Persona 3F and the sound of the combo is fantastic as it warms up the 3F quite a bit.  That would make a very discreet and compact NYC apartment rig. 

We have both products on display along with many other speaker systems from Dali, Kef, ATC, Quad. The new Quad Z4 are fantastic and an unbelievable buy.

We are located 15 mins outside of NYC 3 miles. 

Please reach out to us if you would like to come in for an audition.

Good luck with your search.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
Post removed 
Post removed 
nitewulf
277 posts
 
I had tower speakers and a Dehavilland pre with a Macintosh 250 wpc solid state in a tiny studio at Fort Greene.

But I am a bit nuts.

I'd suggest at least getting a good integrated amp (with an internal dac) and putting it on the floor under the TV. An amp on a floating shelf is just asking for trouble.
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