I recently purchased a fantastic Naim “Chrome Bumper” system consisting of a NAC 32-5 with matching Hi-Cap, and NAP 250 amplifier. Fully gone through and serviced, ready to sound wonderful for another 40 years.
On research it looks like the Naim NAT 01 Tuner plus its NAPST power supply is the missing link to make my 1980’s Chrome Bumper system complete.
However in searching I’ve not found many of these for sale so far in the USA.
I have however found several in Europe - UK, Italy, more - but they are all 220V.
Does anyone know if the NAPST can be modified from 220V to 120V internally? I have a professional repair shop available that can make the changes.
IIRC it’s possible but will likely need to be done by the factory to ensure the head unit is properly aligned for use in the US. Only the factory has the necessary equipment to work on the tuners. I’m sure @NeilS can give more details here.
The person I work actually has the equipment and knowledge to test and align tuners of all vintage makes and models. It’s one of his specialities and quite rare these days.
That sounds like he’d know what was what in the head unit, but you need the PSU dealing with - it’s not a tuner and his expertise might not help there.
Can’t see why not, it’s a standard 5 pin DIN(180deg) “lavender” interconnect. In fact, our 03 is plugged into my wife’s Meridian 101 preamp using the self same lavender.
Having purchased a 220v NAT01 in the past, the conversion of the power supply to 110V is quite simple as the Holden and Fisher toroidal transformers used do have 120v and 220v taps on them. Takes all of about 10 min for a qualified person at a Naim service centre to complete the conversion. The fuse should be changed as well.
As above - the PST transformer has dual primary windings & can be converted to 120V (in this case).
As for adjustments to the head unit, something to do with pre/de-emphasis. As you can probably tell, tuners are not my forte!
Hopefully your tech guy will know what to do. If any of the ferrite cores inside the coil formers break during adjustment, you might be in trouble though.
I run an NAT03 through my 32.5 with a standard SNAIC…works great, underestimated tuner. Listen to it all the time. There’s a healthy thread on it. I have not listened to the NAT 01, 101, or 02, but I understand the 03 may be a bit better at pulling in longer distance stations, more our listening situation in the US. My NAT03 does pretty well with pulling local stations in. Its circuitry is such that it only brings in those stations that sound decent, so don’t expect to use it trying to pull in marginal, distant stations, unless you want to invest in a big FM antenna on a rotator.
One thing I like about the 03 is that it seems to suppress stereo noise pretty well - on my other tuners, I regularly reach for the mono button; the 03 not so much.
I had the 03 recapped by Naim North America after I bought it…their work is a very good value.
Contact Chris West at AV Options. He can do the voltage conversion, no problem. He can also tell you if the NAT01 has a switch to change the de-emphasis from 50uS (UK) to 75uS (USA) or if it will require some component changes. Most people won’t hear much difference but if you have a good ear, the UK setting will sound a little dull here in the US.
Also, to be clear - there’s no stereo/mono button on the NAT03. I meant the impulse to push such a button is more limited with the NAT03! It’s another thing I like about it - for example with my Yamaha T-2, there are about five buttons - muting, DX, stereo/mono, etc. that all can be messed with in search of the best sound. Sometimes useful, but often just a hassle.
BTW, I prefer the sound of my NAT03 over the T-2 by a decent margin.
