Love the 272 please update - 1 click like post

Yeah but i wouldn’t have the cost of getting a 202 and PS. Also there’s the box number factor. Id just prefer the one extra box to be honest. I’ve been thinking about all the extra boxes with the 202/200 and i’m just not sure i want to do that.

I need to have a separate power amp to allow for a potential speaker mod that requires a high pass filter between pre/power amp but i won’t go into that right now. Thats why i couldn’t go SN3+NDX2.

Yes, there’s no getting away from the fact that Naim preamps come in 2, 3, or even 4 boxes, and really require a proper rack to set them up. Some people like that, of course, which is fair enough, but to me all that cabling tends to make it look like you’ve spilt a plate of spaghetti down the back of it. So I can see the appeal of a streaming preamp. Whether that turns out to be called a 272 or a Nova HE, or something completely different, who knows.

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Yeah just adding the Nap 200 to the Atom has stretched my cable tolerance! I know it’s not much but once you get used to the simplicity of a single box it is hard to go back to the spaghetti.

You need to build bigger speakers, then you could hide the whole mess inside them.

Yes, but sometimes the improvement in sound with multiple boxes makes spaghetti tolerable.

…with that said as I age and if either the hearing loss begins or it becomes necessary to downsize from a house to smaller living conditions then a one box solution may be the way to go.

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If customers behaved more like grown ups and the forum wouldn’t be full of complaints and gnashing teeth whenever there are delays, maybe they would have :wink:

That’s very true, but the reality is they are missing out and other manufacturers are still releasing new stuff.

Maybe they do - but maybe they have data that we don’t have, saying that Naim customers don’t jump so easily. Take my example and, I think, yours. :wink:
In any case, it is tough. Say nothing and make people unhappy, but say something and then delay and you risk making people even more unhappy.

I posted elsewhere that Tesla/Musk refused to announce anything, stating that whatever they announce would be totally meaningless in the current situation. And Elon is not known for being easy to shut up.
Opel just announced a factory shutdown in Germany.

As for other products, you can’t really compare a small number of 500 TTs that are not even built in Salisbury (or only in part, I guess the black boxes are). I give you the Atom HE, but its unexpected success may be making it even harder to build something else

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These are troubling and difficult times. I’m sure most electronic related companies (as well as many others) are struggling. It’s definitely highlighted that our reliance on one or two producers is a problem that needs to be addressed.

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Patience, all ye above, and you will be rewarded.

When I bought my 272 I pondered what I would do once/if the streaming platform became obsolete. I decided during my extended home trial at the time (2015?) that with a PS this was simply a fantastic pre-amp. As I now use it with a 555DR I have no issues with sound quality, and no desire to particularly look for a sonic gain. I’m fairly confident in my assertion of how good a preamp it is because I use a high spec LP12 into the line in RCAs and CD5XS/nDAC/XPSDR/Highline in the Din input. Both sound excellent and show how good the preamp is compared to onboard streaming.
If a new 272 doesn’t appear, even if it does, I may go to NDX2 if the CD5XS dies as the main digital music source.
I like the 272 user interface and screen/naming so much, that personally I think this is how the Naim preamps should be first as these are long overdue an update beyond PS DR upgrades quite a few years ago.

Very true words.

As noted elsewhere, we are committed to the streaming pre-amp concept: the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition is the most recent example of that. (And has also allowed us to address the huge market for ‘head-fi’.)

As an adaptation of an existing product, we were able to get the Atom HE relatively quickly to market - but with COVID’s intervention, it was released more than a year later than planned. And getting components for it to keep up demand has been tough!

We are in a perfect storm of high global demand, component shortages and even now logistical issues (if you do not follow UK news, check the BBC website).

The factory is in full production - hundreds of handmade Naim products are leaving Salisbury every month - and research and development teams continue to work on future products.

But now is not the time to announce more new products. Once we are confident we can launch and fulfill demand we will look at new launches.

Also worth noting that the year-plus delay to Atom HE launch allowed the R&D team to engineer some extra performance and features into the product. We are not sitting still here….

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Clare I don’t think anyone thinks you guys aren’t working hard and most appreciate just how difficult conditions are. I guess the problem is that no one was ready or considered just how long this mess would last.

While some maybe inpatient the loyalty that’s on show on this forum is priceless, lots of companies can only dream of this kind of support.

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Totally agree!

I’ll continue to update as I can.

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@Naim.Marketing

I think a simple Yes or No from Naim regarding the 272 successor wouldn’t be too difficult :wink:

Just read my post above again!

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@HiFiman I don’t think @Naim.Marketing could have written it much clearer. She said they are committed to the streaming preamp concept but aren’t going to announce and release anything new until they are sure the supply chain problems are sorted.

If she said any more than that then it would amount to her announcing it. I think it’s pretty clear it’s a “yes but not yet”, but she isn’t going to be able to confirm or deny that.

Best

David

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Don’t get me wrong I’m not knocking Naim for their commitment in developing new products and as a previous 272/555DR owner I would have waited if I’d known a new product was on the horizon but in the end moved onto a 282/SCDR using an ND5XS2 into MScaler but with the added problem of extra boxes, fraim etc

Sounds fantastic though :ok_hand:

Keep it up Naim I think we all would love to see an NDX2 with a volume knob :grinning:

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There a few people on here with Auralic products - I have the Altair G2.1 (DAC, Streamer, Pre). Auditioned it at home against a few other options and preferred it to everything else. I like the all-in-one solution and the software is good. SQ wise I wouldn’t describe it as boring, it’s detailed and precise.

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That’s all I need to know. Thanks. :+1:t2: