Surely it would be the UberNait.
Beyond Pre and Power.
Surely it would be the UberNait.
Beyond Pre and Power.
StateNait?
Or Naitment.
Yours for a modest ÂŁ50k.
And hopefully in a shoebox sized box. Made from 24K gold.
Sorry was being flippant, I know what it is (and loved how it sounded) but achieved zero penetration into the public adoption, let alone recouped its development cost.
Innovation is something that changes the status quo, and I donât mean makes Francis sound better.
I like that
Iâm trying to be constructive here.
Donât do this.
âInnovation is something that changes the status quoâ
Innovation for me is going for a better solution.
Even if general public is dumb to adopted it
i.E.: beta vs vhs.
If here ( in the forum) we seek a better quality of sound, then we should choose a better way. Not the mainstream/ fashion way.
Do you like mp3? I do. But donât adopt it as my main file to my end game .
Iâll take my sacd anytime
Cardoso, trust me, I am not baiting you, canât stand that, we are a millimetre from agreeing.
For me, Sony gave me some of my best days, spending serious money on the best Walkman I could ever own, giving me access as a kid to the best music when I wanted it, in a format that was accessible and the best there was when others had Sanyos, Christ I saved for that Walkman pro.
Walkman led to the iPod, rehashing a brilliant original concept, that, inadvertently led to streaming (missing out many steps in the way, including the music industry trying to shut it down).
Which bizarrely , led to a generation wanting to revisit their youth and buy vinyl.
Over simplifying I know, but you get my drift.
Not arguing brother, just different viewpoints, bet we share some similar music mate.
Thank you for your transparency.
Indeed we have similar footsteps:
1987 bough my first Sony sport Walkman
1993 bought my first Sony Discman
2003 bought my first Apple iPod Nano
2014 bought my first streamer ( Naim UQ2)
I just would like to know why do you âneedâ a SN â merlinV12â? Itâs philosophy of the company to go separates. 282/250dr?!
I just love a great integrated amp, Iâve owned;
Musical Fidelity b100
Cyrus 2 / psx
Densen beat b100
Naim nait xs2 / hcdr
Supernait 3 / hcdr
All of those in the integrated camp
In the pre power camp
Linn lk1/ lk100
Linn wakonda(not linked to marvel franchise!) / lk100
Densen b100/b300
In every case the integrated was like Marvin hagler or sugar Ray versus klitcho (whichever one, and letâs ignore Mike Tyson in these comparisons as it messes things up).
I love a great integrated and the pre power (Densen excepted) have led to chasing the technical advantage and leaving the music behind.
To chase a ten box system which 3 x power supplies etc just seems a little bit mad and futile.
Would rather have a killer integrated from experience, not criticising those that have it, fair play.
Best car I ever owned, 1969 Karmann Ghia, bloody beautiful, looked the best, drove the best, made me feel amazing each time I got behind the wheel. Sold her to buy two fiat 500s for the kids, but one day another will be back, or a Volvo p180âŚ
You have a good taste.
I have a Beatle 1302s from 1973.
Told you we were a millimetre from agreeing
Sorry, my point being it wasnât a Porsche 911 turbo water cooled full of bhp, instead it was simple light and agile (and beautiful) and most of all fun, and we could all use some of that now.
All the best
Oh absolutely possible. Just hard to justify. Given their firm belief in component separation, there is only so much you can do in a standard sized box. Cramming ever better parts into a SN box is somewhat like shooting flaming arrows at the sun.
So the solution might be to make a super integrated in a double height box similar to the NAP500. This would be in line with how nearly every other manufacturer delivers their $15K super integrateds. The only problem there is, how do you get people to go for it when they can get a pre-power in a regular sized pair of boxes that is effectively the same size but sounds better?
Thatâs not a rhetorical question. After all, others do just that and have no issue flogging the 40Kg integrated boxes. There are trade offs to both approaches. Pre/power gives much better physical isolation but introduces longer signal paths. Isolation in an integrated cannot be resolved - only mitigated via layout and shielding. But then the signal paths are short and coupling between pre and power sections is excellent. I think for Naim to go down that route, they would have to evolve their core engineering philosophy.
Part of what makes a 282 so darn good isnât the 282 itself but the bit of the larger puzzle it represents where power supply and power amp are all separate.
I, for one, love my 282. But Iâm not a flat earther. I love Luxman system too with itâs integrated amp just as much.
Everybody has their opinions I have mine. My opinion is although Naim could come up with an integrated amp that surpasses the performance of the SN3 on a technical perspective ie. larger box and better/improved parts, it may not be feasible if based on commercial aspects. They need to place the SN3âs performance at or below the 202/200âs performance. Otherwise nobody would be buying the 202/200 or higher level amp combinations.
Coming back to the question, a higher level integrated in a price range of ÂŁ5k to 6.5k is possible, or even up to ÂŁ9k. However, where will the integrated amp end up in the hierarchy? If the sound quality of the elusive integrated surpasses the 282 and 252âs performance, nobody would be buying the 202, 282 and 252 anymore
I believe other manufacturers also follow this philosophy. Usually the top of the range integrated is rated below the basic pre/power model. And perhaps this is one of the reasons Naim discontinued the 122x/150x and 152xs/155xs as the Supernait may have rendered these amps unnecessary.
I agree however, However good you can make an integrated, I would imagine you can make the separates even better.
Maybe this is when we shall see a new âClassicâ series?
The thing is at the moment Naim donât offer anything to compete with integrated offerings from Vitus, Audionet and friends. A SuperDuperNait would enable this even if it did cannibalise some separates sales. JV was dead against the SuperNait concept I believe, but it has been a success because not everyone has room for, or wants, racks full of equipment.
And also Goldmund, Dartzeel, Boulder, etc
Maybe thatâs a positive for Naim. They donât want to compromise sound quality.
For all you know, Vitus and the rivals have compromised by doing a one box and could make things better by separating.
We can all guess and speculate but we donât know sales numbers.
Naim have got their head screwed on, if it makes business sense, it will happen or it wonâtâŚ
For me, any one box system I would feel is a compromise no matter how good and would know it could be better if it was separated.
All an integrated solves is Space otherwise whatâs the point? Even then, 6 boxes vs one, on a rack takes up the same footprint.
I donât get it personally, at this level what I am interested in is sound quality.
They could pitch the Meganait integrated at ÂŁ8k ish so it falls below the level of say the 282/hi/250 intentionally, but is a quantom leap up from the SN3.
There would still be that gain in performance to be had from the separates approach, but a poor mans 282/hi/250 would be very nice and to avoid the 4 boxes required in that separates set up.
A 500 size box would not bother me at all , as you would have far fewer items in the rack anyway. Just two for the front end possibly , one for the luxury integrated and a Core if required.
The 272 has proved very popular it seems with the integrated approach, so why not with a reference integrated?
I miss my old 2 box Rega Isis/Osiris combo , but unfortunately, Rega are not interested in streaming and the Isis dac does not cater for Hi Res and has no digital inputs (apart from USB). They were sold on due to a property purchase and bought as a move away from multi box Naim. I do miss the simplicity of that set up, but not the back breaking weight! Great products though.
You do have to question the type of transformers Naim use and the noise that they impart and this need for decoupling everywhere.
Not knocking Naim, by the way , as their products have wonderful sound quality and a long serviceable life too. Just that the reduction of black boxes can be a good thing sometimes and off putting for some potential buyers.