A little suggestion for Naim hierarchy

It’s probably possible - just look at the Statement. Make the box big enough and you can still separate the noisy bits like the power supplies from the sensitive parts. But of course, if such a size, then separate boxes may make more sense and will allow easier upgrade in steps. Which, strangely enough, is what we have now…

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My dealer had the very solution…Mark Levinson…preamp, dac, very powerful amp. A very limited market versus Naim and other brands, no longer offered. Difficult one to fathom…could Naim do a ground breaking amp…probably at risk

I was in the exact same mindset, albeit it with the NDX2 and SN2 (missed the 3 by 2 months). I wouldn’t under estimate how much adding power supplies and fine tuning power connections etc will bring to this system and you can end up with a maxed out non-separates system that is very high performing musically.

By all accounts it’s the same with the 272.

I think we’ll matched high-end sources and speakers with a SN or 272 can happily be an end system and get close or possible better separates depending on source and set up.

What I have learnt though, is that separating the power supplies brings significant improvements, well beyond what I was expecting, and I think that is just the science of it.

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Naim need to reduce the amount of boxes. Not increase. It’s a total mess nowadays.

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The Naim hierarchy of power supplies uses the formula that a regulated power supply can (potentialy) be improved upon. Hence why the DR spec Supercap (for example) performs better than the non DR version.
In power amps with off board power supplies, the regulation is done within the head unit. The off board PSU contains the transformer, AC-DC rectification, smoothing & discharge circuitry.
The idea being, that the PSU will always provide enough power above the regulated output to not allow the rails to droop out of spec.The ouput of the regulated supplies within the head unit is very critical (within 0.1VDC)
In order to offer a PSU upgrade path for a 250 (for example), the regulation would need to be done in the PSU.
I would imagine that potential volt drop along cabling from the regulated PSU during transients would be detrimental to performance.
It makes sense to keep the transformer away from the signal path (lower noise floor) & the regulated output as close the power amp stage as possible.

That is very much my own opinion & I am not an R&D engineer!

Regards
Neil.

Interesting point of view. :thinking:

You read my mind! I was going to say something similar.

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They have an ultimate one box called a nova

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Not sure how optional power supplies for power amps could work. The power amp stage is matched to the capabilities of the power supply. You can’t just swap them in and out.

The preamps and so forth all expect a standard fixed current so interchangeably is possible.

I doubt a 250 would work with any other transformer than the one it uses.

I think Naim covers this between the Uniti Series, the integrateds and the separates. You can have minimalistic and oil rig according to taste. I get the redundancy thing can be seen as a compromise but you can make your choices accordingly. All good as far as I am concerned.

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I think the old ONIX OA21s had a separate power supply option that boosted the power section of the integrated amplifier from 50 to 60 watts.

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