I wouldn’t give up hope on a next generation 272. If a planned launch of the new product has been postponed because of the cancellation of the Munich show, Naim still have to give notice (or have already given notice) to their own suppliers to cancel future orders of components unique to the outgoing 272.
Exactly… I have the HD659s…
Though suprisingl I have found the Dragonfly Cobalt drives them well
So my N272, DacV1/NAP100 are now all vintage 
maybe soon to become collectable 
Luckily my 250 designed around 45 years is still up to date and current 
CK
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As a native English speaker - and I do think it might be a language issue - that is not at all how I read that. “Can’t be upgraded” means something very different than “can’t be bettered.”
I read the “can’t be upgraded” as meaning that the streamer hardware does not permit ‘re-programming’ with software that supports the additional online streaming platforms and/or the protocols that the new hardware in the new streamers are compatible with. So they’ve reached the end of the line for the 272 hardware. It . . . “can’t be upgraded.”
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Without an updated 272, the Superlumina Din to XLR becomes obsolete too. I used to own both, got out while I still could. It was annoying to me that my expensive cable was only useful on one product, lost money on that one.
Doesn’t the SL DIN-XLR work for a HiCap or SuperCap connection to a 250?
250 uses a stereo DIN-XLR and 300/500 use mono pairs of DIN-XLR for connections to preamp PSUs.
And the cull continues. The pace of new products has not remotely kept up with the great products we’ve lost over the last 5 years. I understand market forces being what they are but it is still a shame.
And now officially R.I.P. for full shoebox systems for the first time in Naim’s history.
My concern here is that Naim have satisfied all right price points into the Naim lineup, but all for different types of customers. If you want entry level separates rather than a Uniti, Naim has nothing for you now. Uniti is a good way of getting people into the brand and then upgrading but a lot of people want to start at Atom price point with separate units (or something without a volume knob on top!).
I take the point that we don’t know what is in the pipeline, but as I said, the cull has outpaced new offerings by quite a bit.
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I am not sure about that JDP, I had it between the 272 and 250, perhaps Richard can clarify what it works on.
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They cannot keep the current 272 up to date due to hardware limitations. We all know this.
They can of course release a successor called whatever that can do everything the current 272 cannot. I would be very surprised if they didn’t.
The really fancy screen you mean? 
Fine, but if you visit Naim you discover their ‘DNA’ is about separation and decoupling… which means separate boxes. Naim don’t needlessly follow the fashion herd.
Sure they do combine some of their products such as the 272 but the designers will readily admit that is a compromise in SQ, but of gain for some suitability for some customers in certain domestic environments …(hopefully I have avoided using that horrible cliche world beginning with L and ending in style)
So if your primary aim goal is consolidation and integrated functions in a single enclosure, then I would recommend you look elsewhere if you want the top SQ that manufacturer can provide.
From an engineering perspective and my ears tell me separation and decoupling works best… and that is what I do… and one reason why I use Naim as key parts of my decoupled and seperate audio replay solution
I do apologise… can tou re explain what you were saying then about the rest of the market moving tom’all-in-one-boxes’ then… evidently it was not clear to me.
The DIN-XLR can be used on any Naim pre-amp+power supply into a NAP250.
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I dont mind separate boxes. Its not integration I am looking for or I woulld bought a Klimax DSM long ago. The amp I have loan now has a dual-mono preamp (one box for left and one for right). But it is small, light and energy efficient.
In fact for upgrade reasons I prefer simpler’ one function boxes. As in I dont like oversampled DAC:s, I want a real multibit DAC. The trouble with Naims modularity are the dependencies and they are quite big. I cant use my supercap on the 272.
Linn proved by the latest DSM and KDSM products that it’s possible to make a one box streamer / Dac / preamp with fabulous sound.
A lot of brands do now pre/ Dac / streamers in one box, like Dave, Bartok, Emmlabs…without compromise of the pre.
However the sound signature is different from Naim, which is a bit apart, and the reason we prefer it globally here.
I probably worded my initial response to this thread poorly, there is a space in the market for all these things and demand for both plug and play solutions as well as more optimised solutions which typically involve decoupling and isolating subsystems to give overall improvements to the performance of a product.
I think in part it’s why a product like the 272 from Naim creates such intense debate as for a long time it was considered as a very capable 2 box solution that positioned it nicely between something like a Supernait with an ND and something higher up the ladder with more boxes and incremental improvements overall.
The main constraint that Naim have in designing a product like a streaming preamp is physical form factor. They can’t make a bigger box to improve performance so they have to somehow isolate, screen, shield or otherwise contain the noise between subsystems in the product as a whole.
It’s a lot easier to make a streamer without a noisy power supply inside it, like the ND555, or to make an amplifier that doesn’t have a streaming board in it generating noise from all the network interfaces.
That’s not to say Naim aren’t up to the challenge but given the complexities it puts some logic behind why the 272 has stayed in production so long and why it’s taken them so long to design, build and make available a viable replacement to it.
Any level of integration comes with compromises, you can get so far but you’ll always know that better is possible just by putting the components further apart from each other and ideally in separate boxes.
Whatever they end up replacing it with, in a years time we’ll be commenting on “what’s the best” type threads on here as it inevitably gets compared to alternative systems like a SN3 + NDX 2 or a 282/250 + NDX 2.
I’m invested in a SN3 based system so whatever that new product is it’s not likely to be a product for me but I’m sure it’ll sell well as the 272 has done and fit a segment in the market that remains in demand and would benefit from a newer version of the 272 for those looking for the Naim sound.
Inevitably the part of any modern Hi-Fi that includes some element of streaming or networking will see the streaming part hardest to maintain and update and for it to be the part that depreciates first.
I’d rather buy an amp I know with confidence I can use for 10-15 years if needed and if my streaming requirements change then it’s a smaller outlay and will still integrate to that solution much in the same was as the solutions I have today.
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And no-one other than you has said Naim will not bring out a new platform product to replace the 272!
It won’t change my mind however…
I could solve this issue really easily, if i go out and buy a new 272 today, Naim will release its replacement within two months, it always seems to be the way.
But, Im not going to, so you can all wait a little longer! :0)
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If they are going to launch a new streamer preamp it might be sensible to let the dust clear from the corvid 19 fallout. They wouldn’t want to launch it when there’s a good chance they’ll likely have staff shortages and can’t get them out the door, if anyone’s buying that is and if they’re not it will blunt the impact of a new product.