From Olive NAP250 to NAP350

Hi-Fi Corner
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Today has been a very good day… I’ve been planning some pretty major system upgrades for a while and today a pair of Naim NAP350 monoblocks arrived. This is only phase 1 and having reviewed the 300 series in great detail I thought I knew what to expect, but I have to say this has knocked me off my feet… Excuse the lousy phone pics, but as you can imagine I have been far too excited listening to faff about with the DSLR this afternoon! :wink:

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Naim 350 21200×1600 148 KB

My reasons for upgrading are essentially:

  1. I was so blown away by my experience with the Naim 300 series that it made me realise just how far Naim has advanced in the 25 years since my olive kit was current. I felt that the new range was the first Naim product to successfully balance Naim’s traditional strengths in timing, excitement and engagement with more round earth considerations like imaging, transparency and bandwidth.

  2. I’m probably a handful of years from retirement or less, so this is a final push towards where I always wanted to get to sonically while I’m still working.

  3. Running Naim olive with its DIN interconnects has made life a little more complicated when wanting to plug in kit from other manufacturers for reviews, that is resolved by the 300 which uses XLR and RCA too.

  4. I’ve never felt it’s entirely fair on readers to be running a review system that they can’t just go out and buy or hear. I was thus keen to bring the system up to current model status and crucially to do it at a level where I can plug in even very high end components from other manufacturers and there can be no question of my system being limiting. The NAP 350 can drive any speaker with ease and operate with absolute command and control.

There are some who will be surprised I have sprung for the NAP350 combination before the 332, but my decision was driven in part by the fact that my olive NAP250 has always been borderline for driving the ATC SCM40’s at higher listening levels. In that respect the NAC82 is less of an immediate bottleneck.

The amps only arrived this afternoon and so whilst they are ex demo and run in, they aren’t yet warm. Despite that I found myself genuinely astounded by the increased transparency, detail and timbre. On Bill Frisell’s “I heard it through the grapevine” there are a bunch of weird guitar sounds when he hits and drags his fingers across the strings and the increased impact, delineation and clarity of this took me by surprise. It didn’t just take me by surprise either, Chewie our Lhasa Apso who listens in on all my reviews (and is my Editor in Chief!) was absolutely transfixed and started barking at what he took to be something actually happening in the room. I’ve played that track countless times because it’s on my review playlist and he’s never reacted like that to it before… I make this observation of course slightly tongue in cheek, but I think that it’s absolutely true that the NAP350’s just make everything seem much more present in the room and he really was reacting to that, and not just on this track either…

I put on Matt Monro’s “This is the life” and was struck by how Matt was tangibly standing in front of the band and there was a shole lot more depth in this recording than the all olive system ever projected. The opening acoustic guitar on Del Amitri’s “Tell her this” revealed harmonics that I simply wasn’t accustomed to hearing and had a lot more of a sense of wire strings being strummed - it was simply more tangible in the room yet again.

Back in the 80’s some of you may remember the breakout single by American singer Tiffany “I think we’re alone now” and while my gang’s teenage hormones certainly loved the gal, we always felt she was slightly naff. Much later in 2011, she recorded a very nice piano accompanied version of Dylan’s classic “forever young” which I always find beautiful. She has a very unusual intonation/enunciation which really makes her interpretation of it unique and powerful. I found this song even more emotionally moving via the 350’s, the piano simply has more presence, timbre and dynamics and her vocals are somehow even more aching.

More dance orientated material like “Nevada” by Kerala Dust seems to have gained another half an octave on the bottom end leading to an increased sense of menace, gravitas and impact on basslines. The stereo image isn’t just deeper, but far wider too. Effects seem to come from right across the front of the room both beyond and between the speakers. They are also very precisely located in space in the room.

As I have played on through a selection of tracks this afternoon and the amps are warming up the top end is slowly losing its initially slightly cold demeanour. I’m expecting this to continue to change for a few hours yet. What is very striking is also how incredibly quiet they are. Backgrounds are so silent and black it has the effect of heightening one’s perception of dynamics and transparency. There’s just a sense of hearing absolutely everything more clearly.

Overall, despite my earlier experience with these amps (mostly in the context of a complete 300 system) I’m genuinely taken aback at how dramatically they have improved the sound of the system and just how much more realistic everything sounds in the room - even with the 82. This translates into more emotional impact from every song, and the difference is significant…

It just serves to underline what I felt over a year ago when I first encountered the 300 series, these are the best designed, most beautiful and most compelling amplifiers that Naim have ever made, taking value for money into account, and that’s why I’ve bought into them. It’s not a cheap investment of course, but the capability of these amplifiers is so far beyond olive and classic that I feel they really are absolutely outstanding.

The story doesn’t end here of course and my ultimate objective is to move to NAC332/NPX300 as soon as practical. In the meantime after being astonished by the capability of the SME Model 35 I have just reviewed, I have decided to move forward on one of those too. It is the third best turntable I have ever heard, after the Wilson Benesch GMT One and SME Model 60. Crucially, it performs within a hair’s breadth of the flagship Model 60, which considering it is around half the cost is truly remarkable. That’s a whole other story for another day though…

Time to spin some vinyl and pour a beer… It’s gonna be a long night…

JonathanG

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Agree :+1: Can just imagine what 332/350 do when i hear similar things with my nait50, 333/555PSDR.

But you are staying with NDX2? I found NDS bettered it rather easy and NSS333 with PS even better than NDS.

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Great review and detail, thanks. The only question I ask is to whether you had the chance to compare a 500 in the same set up?

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Great amps - a good choice, Jonathan.

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Hi bruss,

I didn’t compare the 500 in the same system, it was really a question of cost being out of the question. Also I prefer the styling of the 350 series, they incorporate all naim’s latest tech and they actually deliver more power than the 500.

So on balance the 350 was as high as I could go, and they’re darned gorgeous to boot!

It’s a comparison that I think would be fascinating though!!

JonathanG

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Hi Blackbird,

I will I hope eventually move to NSS333, but it’s a lower priority than the pre and turntable for now, I still need to put food on the table lol!

I am actually still really enjoying the NDX2 though I take your point…

Jonathan’s

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I think you do it in the right order :blush::+1: It will be an even more silent system with 332. The old boxes produce a lot of background noise. You are in for an exciting journey :+1:

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You’re so right, I cannot believe the background silence, it feels like they aren’t on!! J

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I have just went through this same journey but i did it in reverse…i switched the preamp out and kept the amp.

Olive 72/hc/250 → 332/nvc-tt/npx300/olive250

The benefits are the same you are getting. The prat is still there … no losses …but so much more is gained. You described it well.

I was thinking i was at end game but to be honest it has been such a great step forward i am considering the NC250.

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@JonathanG Glad the 350s are doing it for you. My NC250 is performing superbly with my Spendor D7.2 speakers. I am so glad I got the 332/333/NPX300(2) along with the NVCTT. Also better interconnects make a huge difference IMHO.

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Jaybar

What interconnects are you using?

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@JasVerlen Chord SarumT

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@JonathanG For a fleeting moment I thought about getting the 350s. My dealer advised me to go with the NC250 He felt the 350s would be overkill He also reminded me that with my two NPX300 units, I would not have enough shelf space

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Sounds like you have an excellent dealer… You’re right they do increase the pressure on rack space, although fortunately I do have just enough space to cope with the likely future system although I am contemplating a change of rack. I’m attracted to the idea of running a double width rack aesthetically, but the issue is having such a wide span and potentially using a very heavy item like the SME Model 35 on it which weighs 40kg.

Jonathang

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@JonathanG We were limited in choice of racks. We selected Solid Steel for what fit into our space the best and was also disability friendly. System upgrades often require compromise. Fraim was not disability friendly. Many rack possibilities mentioned on the forum are not sold in the USA. As I stated, upgrading to a whole new ststem involves. Compromise. Another limiting factor was rack height. My husband did not want any new racks to block paintings that hung above the racks. Since he is very tolerant about my upgrades, I felt domestic tranquility needed to prevail.

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Very interesting post, Jonathan. It is fascinating to hear that the significant SQ improvement moving from OC 250 to NC 350 is evident using OC streamer and pre amp. I look forward to hearing about your continued move into NC when you eventually get the 333 and 332.

I too am venturing into the NC world. I have just secured a move from NC 222/300/250 to 333/332/300/250. My only dilemma is whether the 300 is better on the 333 or on the 332.

I would be interested to hear any opinions on this.

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@NigelB The general consensus here seems to be that it is better on the 332. However, the official Naim position would suggest the 333. I decided not to wonder and did both. No regrets. I also tried my NC gear with suppled Naim cables and found them disappointing. I am using SarumT interconnects. I am very satisfied with my 332/333/NC250 system. I went directly from a SN3 NDX2 system, so I cannot comment on how the 222 sounds in comparison.

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Yes, I went to a demo at Naim HQ, where they demonstrated the incremental moves from bare 222/250 all the way up to 333/332/2x300/350.

When they go to a 300 on either the 333 or 332 they indeed suggested a ‘source first’ approach, implying that if you only have one 300, put it on the 333. I, however, thought the single 300 sounded better on the 332.

Of course the 300 on both the 333 and 332 sounds best, but I don’t want to get a second 300 yet, so want to get the best out of a single 300 first.

I will of course test the 300 on the 333 or 332 when they arrive with me, but am still interested in the findings of others.

@JonathanG have you any thoughts about the 300 on either the 333 or 332?

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Taking your point about upgrading cables on the NC system, I have indeed upgraded the XLR/XLR from my 222 to my 250.

Now I have the 333 and 333 coming I have the added complication of considering an upgrade to interconnect between the two.

This is further complicated by considering whether to go for the DIN connection (which Naim recommends) or the balanced XLR connection (which my dealer recommends) to make balanced connection all the way from streamer to power amp.

Any thoughts very welcome.

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@NigelB I compromised. I already had a SarumT DIN cable from when I had the NDX2, so I kept that. The rest are XLR.

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