Blending ‘old’ Classic/or XS boxes with the new 222 (and thereafter)

Hi-Fi Corner
1

I’m not technical, I have no idea what powers the light in the logo of the black Classic/ XS boxes. As simple a swappable LED?

With the introduction of Naim’s new 222 etc with its white colourway lighting, might it not be nice if Naim were to offer a simple colour change for the Classic/XS logo from green to white, as a potential service to customers who want/have to blend pro tem, because (say) budget doesn’t permit the whole 222/250 leap all at once!

To think, once upon a time, Naim old Naim offered to re-fascia cb 250s and 135s (etc) as olive, and later olive re-fascia’d to Classic, and even now (I’m led to believe) Naim new Naim can by butchery reconstruct long over-the-hill types CD mechs if there’s a spark left…

A simple logo colour change seems (to non-techies like me) to be a far more easily achieved thing in principle, so that if there are none left in the parts bin, would even be worth the very modest outlay of a re-run of the plastic logo insert…

2

I have the 222 and 300 less turned down to the lowest setting and don’t really take much notice of the difference in colour between them and my 250DR. I also think it could be expensive and possibly technically a challenge to change from green to white, requiring a return to Naim or the change. When I mixed CB and Olive shoe boxes I never really worried about the difference so maybe I am less concerned about this than most are.

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3

There was more too it, but Yes to the CB to Olive conversions. I have 2 of them. Never heard of Olive to Black conversions - @Richard.Dane ?

Another easy swap was between Red & Green LED’s, on CB units.

4

There were some Olive to Classic cosmetic updates. It was a lot more involved than the CB to Olive cosmetic update and so was rather costly to do.

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5

If I recall, the fronts could be changed but not the feet, as CB and Olive feet are much nearer to the corners than the Classics. You therefore ended up with a box that was neither fish nor fowl. That’s what I understood at the time anyway.

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The green light on a Classic box is quite blurred, whereas the white light on a New Classic is very clean and well defined. If it was possible to put a white LED in an old Classic box it would be difficult to get a perfect colour match to NC, and even if you could it would look like a gone wrong, blurred white logo. Better to contrast green and white than to have two completely mismatched white-ish logos in my view.

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Yes, it was just the fronts but to fit them the U chassis needed to be disassembled and machined.

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8

Thanks for your interesting thoughts, everyone.

Once quite a prolific contributor to the mk1/mk2 Naim Forums (Top 20, apparently!), I don’t visit this iteration of the Forums so often, cos I haven’t got that much new to say! ie. The newer kit is beyond my budget! But I am half-seriously considering the new 222, even though I’m not so keen on its looks…!! (I’m firmly in the camp of architect Louis Sullivan (d. 1924), Frank Lloyd Wright’s mentor, “Form follows function”.)

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… it’s the sound that counts; the NSC222 + NC250 definitely delivers!
The design is an evolution of what has gone before;
the new design is sharper and suits the white logo / controls imho; ymmv.

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