A certain Central London dealer put out some very evocative pictures last night of the 300s with a Vertere TT. If the old adage “if it looks good then it is good” is true then listeners there are in for a treat 
No, 3 singles. Replacing a 300 and a 145 as I use my system for AV duties too and want to match all the front amplification as have matched speakers also.
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Obviously you can it singly then
Thank god I’m fully cured from the upgraditis bug
Looking forward to seeing the reviews though
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Enjoy Nick!
It will be fascinating to see how the new 300 compares against the 500.
If I’m understanding the pricing right the 300 sits a long way below the 500 (around 50%?), so I think it’s a bit optimistic to hope the 300’s will sound better or even on a par. Looking forward to finding out though.
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I think that with the recent increases in the price of higher level Hi-Fi gear, the relative price points is very indicative of where performance sits. I guess we will hear lots of feedback soon enough.
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I am looking forward to the potential of upgrading to the 300 but have no expectation that it would come close to the 500.
Apart from future comments on these forums I doubt that I will ever find out - I won’t listen to the 500 series for fear of what I might hear!
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But isn’t the new 350 amp’s using the same design from the statement amp’s? Rather than a doubling off the way naim has been doing it for decades in the 500.
If that’s correct i can easily see the 350 being better than the 500 should be far quieter just for starters, then also better at driving, and controlling speakers, especially hard to drive one’s.
I know the 500 kit is what most naimie guy’s look up too with star’s in there eyes, but really the truth is it’s old kit, and mostly lagging. The new kit naim is bringing out is just highlighting it.
I am sure naim will have left a good chunk under the table still for the next 500 series kit that will be along after sales off the new 300 kit dies down, as you want to sell as much 300 kit as you can before you announce something better.
I can certainly see the 500 kit that naim has now just stop selling, not that its selling much anymore anyway, as for the new price it’s just simple out priced it’s self against other kit off similar performance in my opinion. Then with the new 300 gear that’s certainly going to inpove on the outgoing 300dr, 252 level kit, and so must be around the 500 level but at half the price, why would you now go buy any 500 kit ?
As you know you will only lose a huge amount off money on it in a very short time.
You know new and better is coming and probably at the same or maybe even slightly cheaper price.
You can buy the 300 now at much less, enjoy that and trade up if you wanted to the new 500 gear and not lose anywhere near as much money doing so.
That’s now i see it all right now.
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Some folks might just prefer the sound signature of older kit better than what’s been heard so far with the new series. I’ve really tried to like the 200 series myself, £4150 per unit here down under atm, so quite a bargain.
But as much as it betters my old 272, 555DR and 300DR / X300 Signatures on all metrics (noise floor, details, imaging, slam) it just sounds …boring. Clean and boring.
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I have to agree, we have been listening to a sound voiced by Roy George, but the baton has been handed over to Steve Sells. The new kit is sounding more like other brands that i have listened to and not bought. I can see myself just upgrading the front end and speakers. I have a demo of the 300 series later this month, fingers crossed it ticks my boxes.
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Well, it’s not (ar least for my ears)
I listened to the NC300 two days ago at my dealer’s store, it’s the streamer (333), pre (332)+NPX300, and a pair of 350. The rest of the system I asked them to have it just like mine, TQ Diamond Silver as speaker cable onto Sopra2. I still prefer mine in terms of musicality, although mine has the weakest link at source being just a bare NDX2 into 552 and 500. But yes when it’s not singing, I don’t hear any gentle hissing sound as I have at home (I read somewhere that it’s the signature of 500).
And I don’t know, but I guess it’s more of the room factor or the setting, the 332 volume button needs to be at 12 o’clock level for my level of enjoyment, while I only need 9 o’clock on my volume level at 552.
But then after some break I was stunned that the sound suddenly changed for a hell lot better, the clarity, the power, the musicality…as it turned out, the storekeeper changed back the speaker cable to TQ Statement into Maestro Utopia, thinking I was done listening 
…end result…I’m still thinking to replace my source into 333+npx300, or just add PS555 to my NDX2. Guess I’ll need to go back to the store 
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For me personally I would not be able to stretch to the NAP 350 - I am thinking of the 333/332 and new NAP 250.
The 252/552 likely have higher gain than the 332.
One of people’s complaints about the classic pre has always been the lack of usable volume range.
If we had our 252 at 12 it would blow our speakers with NDX2 as source. With Stageline, 11 is very loud.
This has never bothered us as we control volume via NDX2 remote and system automation. A few taps either way is really all we ever need.
When we changed from 272 (digital volume control) to 252 it did take a little getting used to.
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@HAS
If you like, noise floor can be reduced substantielly. In my system noise floor dropped as I installed Chord Powerhaus M6 with Chord Music Powercables and Burndys from the same Company for 500DR and Superline/SupercapDR. Each time I installed one of the above mentioned items the noise floor dropped . Other changes in sound you may like or not, but noise is dramatically reduced.
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Same here. Dramatically lower noise level adding Puritan 156 in my home and system.
The naim gear has always made a hiss though the speakers, and whatever you did it was always there.
The new gear looks to have sorted this, and that can only be a good step in the right direction.
My system is 100% quite even on full volume and a 6 volt input into it, nothing at the speakers at all, and that is how you want it too be.
Unwanted noise just helps to distort the sound
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Thanks for the tip 
But actually the noise floor is not disturbing at all. Not audible from my listening position, in fact I have to turn up the volume quite a lot and put my ear like an inch from the speaker driver to hear it clearly.
What I’d like to point out in the case of Naim NC is, the noise floor is non-existent, at least I didn’t hear that despite turning up the volume button to 12 o’clock position. I guess it’s true what other said, the NC sounds is very clean!! Whether that means better sounds or not than the legacy classic, I guess that’s up to the ears of the listeners. I for one, wouldn’t mind a cleaner sound, tho’ like I said, I still prefer my current system (just upgraditis is nagging me to improve my bare NDX2).
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Well at least 2 dealers have events on today. Bet it’s warm in there!
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I believe it’s the naim pre amps that hiss. My former 272 and 300DR was dead silent even at super loud volume. My 552 is like high throttle all the time but fully manageable with Puritan 156. Speaker dependent and distance to speaker also of course.
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