NOVAFIDELITY N25 AMP REVIEW

The NovaFidelity is a standard-looking bit of HiFi costing £1350 that has onboard DAC, streaming, WiFi (with a dongle) and a whole load of connectivity. Stuart Smith has a play.

I’ve waffled on a good deal about how I see the mass market appeal of units that combine pretty much everything bar a pair of speakers into one unit and this little box of goodies from Novafidelity (distributed in the UK by SCV) ticks a whole lot off my list of wants for such a unit, with my only criticism on the input front being that there is no provision to add a record player or RCA Line sources.

However, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here. Let’s have a look at what the N25 AMP is, what it can do and how it sounds.

BUILD AND FEATURES OF THE NOVAFIDELITY N25 AMP

The N25 AMP has a dual-core ARM Cortex 9 processor onboard as well as an ESS ES9018K2M Sabre 32 Reference DAC chip to deal with Digital to Analogue Conversion. If you do want to use your own DAC you can also do this by connecting it to the USB 2.0 output, the TOSLink output or the optical output. There are TOSLink and optical ins too should you want to connect a CD player digitally, though I would, as mentioned, have liked to have seen RCA ins to allow the connection of a CD player or record player with inbuilt phonostage. I think given the scope of this device and its clearly digital leanings, the exclusion of an onboard phonostage is fully understandable.

HiFi that looks like HiFi. The N25 AMP looks good and the screen is excellent.

So, if you want digital connectivity the N25 AMP has connectivity by the bucketload and the back of the unit is awash with inputs, and a few outputs to boot. If you store your tunes on an external USB drive or even a little pen drive the N25 has you covered with USB 2 ports. Want to connect to your network and use a NAS? Well then you are well covered and you can connect to your Network via the Ethernet port. For those wanting to stream from their portable devices, there’s an onboard Bluetooth receiver. If you have the desire to connect this to your television screen then there’s an HDMI output – and there’s an HDMI ARC input too. It has an onboard DAB radio and an FM radio too. As the name suggests, the N25 AMP has an onboard amplifier and so you really need to do is hook this box up to whatever digital source you want (including the network via wired or wireless), add a pair of speakers and you are off.

The N25 is also avaialble in silver which has the same nicely laid out front panel and good sized screen.

I love this kind of unit, I really do. This is not a rarefied beast of a thing that demands you have a million and one boxes all over the place or carefully placed on a rack that costs more than a secondhand car. This is a product for people that want to enjoy music, radio or telly through a decent enough pair of speakers, don’t want a load of faffing about and don’t want a massive box. The N25 amp will sit happily on a unit or by your telly and will become the digital hub in your home without breaking the bank – it’s just shy of thirteen-hundred-and-fifty quid. It even comes with a decent remote (with batteries) and all the aerials you need to get you going, bar a USB WiFI dongle which you can buy separately.

For those looking for audiophile credentials, it’ll deal with DSD, DXD, MQA and will decode high-def audio at 32bit/384Khz (FLAC and WAV at 24/192). Add yourself a subscription to Qobuz, Deezer, TiDAL or whatever your preferred streaming service may be and that’s you sorted for tuneage. The N25 does support gapless playback of MP3, FLAC, WAV, and DSD files.

Ripping of your CDs is possible with an external drive and external USB storage. You are able to choose the format you want to store your files from WAV through to MP3 and most points in between.

WiFi connectivity is supported and this is, I suspect, how the vast majority of folk will prefer to use the N25 and it is how I assumed I would be assessing it for sound quality. However, to allow WiFi connection you will need to buy a dongle as none is provided. Personally, I think for the sake of adding twenty quid to the price this would have been a very useful addition.

There’s no headphone amp but that’s not likely to put the prospective audience for this off one bit, I wouldn’t suspect. What it does have, however, is a Bluetooth transmitter that will allow it to connect to a pair of suitably equipped headphones so that the user can sit and watch telly, listen to tunes etc. in isolation. I don’t actually have such headphones, but I’m sure this will be a useful and valuable feature to many potential buyers.

The N25AMP looks nice in the black finish the sample unit came in, though it’s also available in silver and it came well packed with all you need to get going and a thick A4 set-up guide.  There’s a volume knob to the left and a control knob to menu dive etc to the right. Both feel nice to use. Apart from the LCD screen that sits central to the box, there’s an on/off button, five user preset buttons and some control buttons. Al is neat and tidy and I like the look of the Novafidelity; it’s unfussy, clean and well proportioned. Some will say it’s a bit utilitarian looking but I think it’s sort of what I expect from a HiFi separate.

There’s a whole lot more to the N25 AMP than I had the ability to explore.

An enormous number of connections including, Bluetooth, FM and DAB radio aerial and a whole lot more. Sadly you will have to buy a WiFi dongle to conenct wirelessly to your home network.

SOUND QUALITY OF THE N25 AMP

I’ll be honest, the N25 has more digital connections than I will ever have use for, but then I’m not a particularly sophisticated consumer when it comes to digital. For this review, I’m going to hook it up to the home network, play tunes from QOBUZ and our NAS drives, connect a CD player optically to give that a whirl and that will be it. I’ll also test the Bluetooth out though that is not something I would use in the house myself.

Speakers for the duration will be a pair of wholly inappropriate AudioVector R6 but I guess that the average user of a £1350 all in one is likely to add speakers costing a little less than this.

All the functions of the N25 AMP can be controlled by the remote.

CONNECTING THE N25 AMP TO THE NETWORK

I’d wrongly assumed that I’d be able to connect to our network wirelessly but sadly you will need to buy a USB dongle for this purpose. However, a wired connection wasn’t an issue in our main listening room, but it was in our second upstairs listening room. I’d suggest that the majority of folk will prefer to connect wirelessly and will invest the twenty quid or so and buy one. Personally, I think Novafidelity are missing a trick here and really should have included one in the pack; it wouldn’t have cost much but would have made this a  better experience.

Once the wired connection is made the set up is simple as. The unit fires up, and you follow the on-screen instructions. Actually, there’s really nothing to do here and it just connects automatically. By the way, the screen is of a decent size and easy to read whilst using the remote from the other side of the room – this is a good thing!

FM/DAB RADIO

DAB isn’t available here but you do get an aerial to plug in round the back of the N25 for areas where it is available. FM radio works ok here, but we were only able to pull in the local radio station using the provided aerial. This is not unusual for us as we live in a valley where reception is very, very poor indeed! I am assuming that in areas of half-decent FM reception this function will work fine.

BLUETOOTH CONNECTION

Works a treat. Turn on Bluetooth pairing on your phone, find the N25, press pair and you are done. Now, this is a feather in the N25s cap as we often have devices drop out regularly when using Bluetooth, but the N25 AMP connected and stayed connected. This is not a feature I would use regularly myself, but I do know that it is a highly popular way for people to “stream” from their phones or tablets. Using the BBC sounds app worked brilliantly and Radio 4 was a pleasure to listen to with the sound being actually very good.

PLAYING TUNES FROM NETWORK USING UPnP

I used BubbleUPnP to stream from the NAS drive but mostly I used QOBUZ. Connection was a bit of a faff but that was more down to user error rather than the N25 itself. Connection ws pretty simple really. Open up BUPnP on the phone, set the library as QOBUZ (or whatever), set the renderer as The N25 and you have music.

SOUND QUALITY

This is not an audiophile unit and that is not its intended market, but given the features you get on this little box of tricks, the sound isn’t half bad at all. Yes, it’s a bit compressed overall, but then I’m putting it through the aforementioned “wholly inappropriate” £28K loudspeakers and I guess that the kind of speakers most people will use on the end of this speaker will not be nearly as resolving and the sound will be fine.

You can actually tweak the sound with the onboard equalizer with a series of presets (Pop, Rock, Reggae, Classical…you get the idea) and these do change the sound a bit but it’s pretty subtle and by no means a sledgehammer approach. I actually settled on Rock being my favourite.

It’s not a very open sound when compared to our normal sound but it’s not horrible at all. Listening to King Creosote you get to hear all the instruments and his very individual vocal style comes across well.

On more techy oriented tunes (Booka Shade, for example) there’s not the real low end slam that I’m used to but it’s enjoyable enough to get my foot tapping along to the music.

Neil Young’s “A Man Needs A Maid” has Young’s voice a little muted and the piano a bit far back but for the asking price of the N25 there’s nothing to whine about and it’s certainly on a par with the other similar all in one units I’ve played about with. Yes, it’s lacking a bit of scale and dynamics compared to some of our other amps but what do you expect? Overall there’s plenty going on to draw you into the music and little to distract you from having a good time.

Drop Kick Murphey’s This Machine Still Kills Fascists opens up the sound a good deal and there’s good left-to-right separation. Now, this aspect of the opening up of the sound on this record interested me and I’m guessing it’s down to the way the record has been mastered with the piano at the end of the opening track 2 Sixes Upside Down drifting off very nicely.

Connecting the CD player via the optical connection gives pretty mich exactly the same character of sound, which is what I would expect.

Overall, I actually grew to like the sound of the N25 AMP. As mentioned, it’s a bit compressed but it’s enjoyable and gets enough information across to make me think that this would be a very good solution for those people that want a whole load of connectivity to listen to their tunes/telly/games and whatnot.

QUIBBLES

There’s no WiFi dongle included in the pack and I’d want one.

CONCLUSION

The NovaFidelity N25 AMP has a stupid amount of connectivity and far more than I could ever hope to use. In this respect, it’s likely to appeal to those that want a one-box, no faff digital hub or their home entertainment.

Sonically it’s actually not bad at all. Yes, it’s a bit compressed for the most part but it’s about what you’d expect from an amp at a grand or so…and you get all the bells and whistles.

Set up is a doddle and it does Bluetooth and whatnot.

What’s not to like? Oh, the lack of a WiFi dongle irked me a bit!

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality And Features:

What hasn’t it got connectivity-wise?

Well put together for the price

Good and clear display

Well featured remote

No WiFi dongle

Sound Quality:

A bit compressed for the most part

For the price it’s very acceptable

Value For Money:

Move away from esoteric kit and it’s very surprising what you can get for you money!

Personally, I think this represents excellent value for money

You are going to need to add speakers but I reckon a carefully chosen pair of £700 ish boxes would give you great results

We Loved:

Loads of connectivity

Very acceptable sound for the most part, though it’s not an audiophile product

Subtle EQ

Easy to set up and use

Good remote

Good screen

We Didn’t Love So Much:

No WiFi dongle

The sound isn’t going to wow hardened audiophile listeners

Price: £1350

Elevator Pitch Review: The NovaFidelity N25 AMP is a “just add speakers” streamer with an enormous amount of connectivity and an onboard DAC that for £1350 sort of belies belief. Sound quality is more than acceptable at this price.

SUPPLIED BY SCV

Stuart Smith