Wasn’t it called 911 to remind owners what number to call after they’d crashed it ?
I’ll get my coat.
ATB, J
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My thought was that Naim’s past use of DIN was a rather practical matter. They needed a connector with more than three pins in order for a single cable to carry both the signal and the power. Back then, DIN was the obvious choice based on that criterion. But today I believe that Naim pre amps have an internal power supply or are fed from a external power supply via the separate Bundy connections. It would seem to me that DIN is now essentially redundant but they have kept it as an option for people with earlier preamps/streamers.
Naim still recommend using DIN for best sound quality, and therefore supply a DIN cable in the box, so I don’t see how they could be doing so purely for the convenience of Classic and earlier series owners.
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That’s the SNAIC you are referring to. The interconnect DINs don’t carry power. The rationale is documented in the Naim FAQ of the Forum. A unified signal ground and impedance matching superiority to RCA play a big role.
DIN still has a large role in pro audio too. It might be rare in consumer hifi these days, but as a connection standard, it’s not going anywhere.
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The first topic of the forum FAQ;
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Thanks Richard. I read this a while back although had not remembered most of it. It does seem to cover the “practical” reason I mentioned and then provides a rationale as to why DIN is better than RCA. I don’t know if the FAQs are “official” Naim explanations but this struck me as an “either/or” perspective that might be a bit outdated.
This was basically taken from Julian.
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…and, today as well, is a cornerstone of hifi thinking. Thanks Richard to remember it to me.
Haha
Porsche in fact launched the 911 as the 901, but Peugeot objected, so Porsche renamed it. Legend thereafter.
Maybe a thread on Naim owners’ cars…
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The Uniti Atom HE has 3 types of headphone connector, none of which is the most common type of headphone jack.
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Sure it wasn’t Bose? 
These are the three types:
Headphone outputs :
- 1 x jack 6.35 mm
- 1 x Pentaconn 4.4 mm (balanced)
- 1 x XLR 4-pins (symmetrical)
For me, 6.35 mm /1/4" jack is the most commonest size for headphones.
DG…
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6.3mm is easily the most common headphone socket, followed by 3.5mm for portable stuff.
What headphone connection do you want?!
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I would guess that there are many times more mini-jack headphones, especially for consumer use, than there are full sized 6.35mm jacks. Bluetooth would likely push them down to third place these days. Still, for best quality you are not going to choose a mini-jack, and Naim are hardly best known for conforming to the mass market norm when it comes to their choice of plugs and sockets.
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Ahhh the 901s. I loved these and didn’t care what anyone thought. Even when I had Keilidhs, I kept the 901s in a second system. Probably the only person with a Linn source and amp to pair with the 901s.
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Which was precisely my point.
For me, it’s 3.5 mm, of which I own at least 3 compared with 0 quarter-inch jacks. I’m aware of the headphone connectors the Atom HE is equipped with because I own one but, in part because of Naim’s idiosyncrasies, never used it with headphones.
3.5 mm, so I can use it with my AT Ear Suit. Not that unreasonable a request.
Things like DIN and loose IEC sockets, aren’t unique to Naim, certain other high end hifi manufactures use and do this as well for performance reasons.
However the one area that sums up Naim’ eccentricities to me is the Snaic Shaker… a machine in the factory that shakes and flexes the Snaic leads sufficiently for max performance… clearly owners need to perform the Snaic shake manually every few years.
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Easy to add a 3.5 to quarter-inch adaptor, very compact. Not so good the other way round, so quarter-inch socket seems a good option.
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