Not to my mind. Same meaning 
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And I read somewhere that the fans in the 350 purify the air in your listening room as long as you play loud enough…
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With all due respect Dan, you probably need to rethink. There are so many technical changes that have been implemented with the new Classic series that trying to insert the new series into the old hierarchy and thinking that the steps should be the same probably won’t work. Therefore, the new 300 series may well be as good as the old 500 series. Things change, that’s all…
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If people are getting wound up it’s b/c they choose to. Their kit doesn’t sound any different now than before the NC was launched. Naim have launched an improved product and it shouldn’t be surprising they’ve achieved improved SQ with the lower tier kit. They have a history of seeding new tech down the line over time. I’ve owned and demoed multiple old classic and DR separates, integrated, and all in ones, up to the 252/250. For me in my room I much prefer the NC over the DR up the range of my listening experience. It’s different and better in multiple ways but mostly about the presentation of the music. Listening to music is exciting again, something I haven’t felt since the olive days. My opinion, one that’s shared with everyone I know personally who’s demoed the NC as well as many here. I’m sure some will prefer the DR boxes and that’s fine. And how great is that for them? They can upgrade to their heart’s content at heavily discounted prices. Sounds like a win for all involved to me.
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Price point really isn’t the question.
The new tec handed down finally from the statement is here, why it’s taken so long i don’t know, but at last it looks to be hear.
Remember the classic gear is decades old with just the dr as an upgrade in all that time, its well overdue.
But the good news is, because it’s such an old design the new kit is such an inpovement and so with that comes lower price kit that out performs the out going higher models.
You really should be all very happy as you can now have much better gear at a much lower price, what’s not to like.
Any 500 owner like i was certainly could see it coming as i did, it was one off the reasons i sold all mine earlier this year, and happy i did really. Also dealers been selling there 500 demo gear etc. The signs have really been out there to see.
Anyway getting back to the new gear, so far from the 2 early reports i have been told, that it’s certainly good, and both own 500 gear.
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You are not being entirely transparent with your wording here. You had a 252 non dr which a number of people have posted may not have been the best thing Naim have ever done. You have never owned a 252 and SC DR.
Having owned a 282 and HC DR and now a 252 and SC DR I can see that some would prefer the 222 to the 282 (I don’t) but 252 is so far above the 222 as a pre I cannot see how anyone would prefer it on SQ alone.
Note I am not using a power amp and my feeling is that the new power amps are the star of the range
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Price point relative to older Naim products is not too relevant, but overall in the current market it’s fundamental. I’m sure Naim would have evaluated the market, selected an appropriate price point where they wanted to compete and then developed the product to meet this price point, which is ideally class leading. So, the real question is, are there any other recent competitor amps at the 12K price point that one might consider superior to NAP500. If the competition can do it you better hope that Naim can.
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There is so much great kit available these days, really it’s a minefield trying to sort through it all.
But it’s great to see new tec inside the naim boxes, and hopefully they will be able to complete with the completion
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I think some Naim devotees forget that there are numerous other manufacturers in the world creating products and making advancements. To assume Naim only has to compete with themselves and should hold back performance gains in some way is foolish. The separates lines haven’t had a total from the ground up refresh in 20 years. From owning the 222/250 for the past 4 months, I’ve been totally surprised at how much better the products have gotten for the price. I really didn’t expect such a vast improvement. I haven’t heard the 300 series (yet), but if they end up surpassing the older 500 series in some regards I would not be surprised this time around.
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Okay another analogy. I lose track of how many iterations of the VW Golf there were, and no doubt each version was an improvement, but devotees of the Mk 1 GTI will forever claim it was never surpassed. C’est la vie.
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It was a bit noisy Lindsay😂
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No inky black……
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You’re right, I’m not being transparent, I’ve listened extensively to the 252/282DR and while I found them improved I didn’t find that improvement to be enough to warrant the trouble and $$. It’s a big reason I went the route of the 272 which is/was a steal for the price point and box count reduction. I stand by my comment the NC has moved on from the DR, both from the streaming implementation and power amp side of things.
Exactly.
I think @Dan_M is saying the same thing…or have I had too many cocktails n beer when I caught up with the thread 
I expect the new 300 series preamp to demonstrate some of the same characteristics as the 200 series and demonstrate the influence of Naim’s learning on the Statement. Some will like it and say it’s better than, or at least better value than a 552, I expect, but I doubt it’ll be a straightforward comparison with any of the previous preamps, as they’ll all have their strengths and weaknesses.
I enjoyed the hour long comparison Alpha Audio video someone posted on the Nait 50 thread; it compared a Nait 1, and XS2 and the new 50. All had their advantages and disadvantages and in the end, although the new amp was sort of the best, the guy who owned the XS2 said he still preferred his XS2 because its presentation was just better ‘to him’. Sorry for the spoiler.
In the end, 282, 252 and 332 will all be great preamps, all a perfect choice for someone looking for a certain something from their music. My 552 was once the preamp Naim built without compromise, now that’s the S1. My 552 still delights though. The 332 just adds another option to a very fine line up of preamps, past and present.
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Not sure if answered elsewhere, is a Nac 332 preamp with build in power supply ?
Hardly
Must say the new Classic range looks the business
Lucky I can’t afford them
Photo above even looked a bit like they were half width boxes, but stacked is a big failure in my opinion.
Why on earth are they doing that ?
Some might say they are short of shelves…
Yes
Yes when the 300 was announced a few months back I had a thread asking about all the Naim design ideas that is more or less given up. A ps in a 282/252 preamp. Mono amps without external psu over 300 level. And what I did not pickup at the time the use of more than 1 output transistor for each channel in the 350 power amps, and no more extra cables used for grounding among components, and of course the use of balanced connectors now with standard balanced cables so no need to be sure on getting the cables that will work with e.g. the 300. And the new or not so new volume control that hopefully will make the balance problems at low listening level a thing of the past. And no external psu in the 350.
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