Naim Chrome Bumper

It worked when I dropped it off at my dealer but Tony advised me not to use it just in case. It was amusing because I had only just set foot in the showroom and Graham went and got it. He had just this afternoon been looking at the forum and this feed.

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Inside. I donā€™t think the cable ties are original and so probably not the mains lead.

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Oh wow! Another one saved from the scrap heap!

The cable tie around the mains lead would have been a Heyco bush & the rubber(?) bit on top of the transformer has been added. Otherwise, it looks original to me.

Regards
Neil.

This is the one available near me:

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Canā€™t read it very well - is it a NAC 22?

Not seen one before. Very similar to BD NAC 32 though.

See Richardā€™s reply at post 173ā€¦

Thanks - and I notice ā€˜Avalonā€™ written on the rear now.

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This is a photograph of the back - the serial number of the NAP120 is 1670 (I think - Iā€™m looking at the handwritten invoice), that of the NAC22 is 0359 (or 2? - Iā€™ll have to take the units out of the cupboard again if anyoneā€™s interested to know). I bought them in November 1978 from Studio 99 - and the units are NOT for saleā€¦

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How different is the Nap 180 to the nap 160

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I briefly had a 22/120, it was second hand when I got it in 1977.The 120 was different, it had the power switch on the back, (very unhandy), and the back panel was mostly ribbed heatsink. Itā€™s only just recently I learnt that there was a more refined version, (the one Iā€™m seeing here for the first time). Back in those days it was only a couple of years since the beginning of my hifi journey. But it only took me a couple of tracks to decide to ditch my Spendor D40 for the 22/120.
Things took off hyperbolically when I wrangled a job in a shop, and within months I had ripped through so much stuff my head was spinning. I remember comparing the 22 against a 12, and the 120 against a 160. Then my (evil) boss played me Isobariks and I was fully gone.
I do wish I had kept some of my kit from then, particularly my 42/100 and Kans.

Confession time. I added that bit of rubber. I think it must have buzzed or something. Otherwise untouched by me.

Thanks Sam for showing us your lovely NAC22 and NAP120. The serial numbers sadly donā€™t mean much on these early units as the numbering system was different to the current one and AFAIK the early records are lost.

Interesting. This one looks much more like a UK NAC22 than any of the other Avalon NAC225s Iā€™ve seen, which all had slightly different casework with a clamshell outer top and bottom.

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I recently sold a NAC22/NAP120. Great sounding set up, but the old 120 hums so loud it drove me crazy. Easily annoying from across the room during quiet passages of music.

Iā€™ll probably regret it at some point, but the new owner will enjoy it.

Is this a restoration project - it could certainly do with a bit of tidying up around the mains side of things.

Strange, I have two 120s; one an early one with the on/off on the back of the amp, one a later one with the switch/LED on the front.

Neither of them seem to hum loud. Maybe Iā€™m lucky?

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My NAC22/NAP120 hum when the two units are too close to each other. I remember sending a letter of complaint to Naim a couple of months after I bought them (no email in those daysā€¦): Iā€™m still waiting for the reply, which probably got lost somewhereā€¦

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The hum is physically coming from the 120ā€“not the speakers, preamp placement doesnā€™t change anything. The transformer is extremely loud. It absolutely could be an issue with this particular 120.

Definitely the transformer, the manual said that the transformer hums. So we need to make sure they are apart to decrease the hum or completely eliminate it.

The hum emanating from the 120 case remains the same regardless of where the 22 is placed. The issue is not related to preamp placement.