Naim Chrome Bumper

Warming up a, new to me, Nait 1. Unserviced apparently. Sounds mighty fine so far. It will however be moved to the office due to the lack of inputs and be replaced by the CB Nait 2.

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How is it comparing to your serviced Nait 2?

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A little more ‘shouty’, not as refined which could indicate that a service is due but I’m going to live with it a while.

Now in situ in the office.

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To my ears, when both are serviced, the 1 is more transparant, purer, thinner and more coherent / musical. The 2 is warmer and fuller with a more refined top end.

I use a pre-Cirkus LP12 but perhaps your (presumably leaner) digital source is more suited to the warmer/fuller CB Nait 2.

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I love my DUO. It still can compete with other and more modern CD transports and external DAC sets

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Out of interest, what is the ‘mains’ input for on a Nait 1? I presume it’s not just so you can listen to 50Hz hum in glorious stereo…

Mark

It’s the on/off button. :blush:

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That would make sense! Just seems a bit odd, having it look so much like another source selector button…

Mark


Office set up update. Added a HiCap to my 62/140 back in May. Now bought a one owner 250 that I had serviced (& the fascia replaced) by Darran at Class A in between lockdowns & restrictions - brilliant!

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Looking good @Biglloydy

Do you really listen with the volume at twelve o’clock??

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With Phono, its possible…!!

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@Biglloydy Your photo reminds me of my original naim system - here is a print scan from the 1980’s!

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This is my typical volume setting for system 1, however, yes it can be even be 1 o’clock for vinyl!

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Very nice!

If you’re using MC then might be worth swapping the amps around and having the preamp below the cartridge. Unless I’m mistaken, a lot of PSU nastiness will radiate vertically and could impact the cartridge and its very weak signal.

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How do you connect a cd player to a CB pre-amp?

A normal DIN-to-RCA interconnect works fine.

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I’ve been using a little adaptor with my Nait for a few years. Just search “kontak din rca” on ebay. I guess a dedicated DIN-to-RCA cable might sound better but it would depend on the quality of the cables, adaptor, etc.

Thank you. A NAC 42.5 has audio input sensitivity of 75 mV for both tuner and tape inputs. A NAIT 5si has 150mV for a cd player input. Is this difference in sensitivity significant?

They’re very different in that the NAC42.5 is a pre-amp whereas the NAIT5si essentially has no real pre-amp, it’s basically a power amp with switching and volume control and just an extra gain stage before the power amp.

That’s interesting. How is this for other ‘integrated’ products the XS3, SN3 and the Uniti series?