Naim Olive

It looks great. The 500 head unit is not a power supply so it may well sound better to have it at bottom of left stack. Choice is yours of course. I had CB 135s then went 500DR and had a 52 with it for a while. Wonderful combination.

Both set ups look amazing.

I have also had a couple of CDS2s, lovely player and a Tom Evans The Groove +SRX power supply so have had lots of the same kit as you!

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I’m pretty sure that’s an Origin Live TT, possibly a Sovereign, looking forward to hearing about it from @Mr.J !

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Thanks!

The TT is a Sovereign by Origin Live, with their Illustrious tonearm. For me it’s great - fabulous sound quality and being of a certain age I like the vinyl rituals, so it’s taken over from the CD player as my main record source.

The speaker wire is NAC A5. I have a few Chord interconnects but mostly I just use the standard Naim cables. I like an easy life - as long as things sound good then I’m happy. Hence 20 years with the same system.

We moved house recently and that prompted me to review my system, get it serviced, and then go for the 500. And the TT. And the speakers (Wilson Benesch ACT 1.)

The result for me is a richer, more detailed sound without losing the drive. I’m pleased with it. Worth doing? Who knows?! :grinning:

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Did Naim make any improvements to the 72/HC/140 in its lifetime?

The NAC72 was revised part way through its life, losing one of the interchangeable card phono inputs (replaced by a CD input on DIN).

The HICAP went through a few changes during the Olive era. The first was a change of transformer. Holden & Fisher went out of business in '93 and so Naim then went to Nuvotem (as did many from H&F). In the interim, in order to maintain supply of products, Naim briefly used transformers made by St.Ives. Also around this time Naim dropped the single rail supply via one of the DIN4s. This gave an improved performance via the dual-rail supply on the DIN5. Many early HICAPs have had the single rail supply removed as part of a factory service update (unless, of course, you wished it to remain intact).

The NAP140 started out using Sanken 2SC2922 output devices. In 1990 it was improved by replacing the output devices with Naim’s own custom NA001s.

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I have a late 110 with NA002s

I was going to ask, but then decided to do a search first! Why my CB has 002s, but olive 140s started with Sankens. Seems from a search that the 110 moved to 002s mid way through it’s life (1982?) but why did the olive 140 start with Sankens then move to 001s if the 002s already existed? And what’s the difference between 001s and 002s!?

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I don’t know why the different choices of output device. I could speculate; Possibly down to availability? NA001s were used on the NAP250 and NAP135s so maybe they couldn’t make enough for the NAP140 initially? Perhaps @NeilS knows the reason?

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Lovely set-up :clap: :clap: :clap:

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It was a good day at the office today - not
often NAP 135s get delivered to you! :grin::sunglasses:

Here is one of @Mr.J ’s 135s:


Now, shortly off to Chris West for a voltage conversion! Hats off to @Mr.J for such a great packing job to see them safely across the Atlantic.

Oliveamps

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@OliveAmps - Chris rebuilt my 135’s when I was running a 52/135 combo. He did a great job. Peace of mind is priceless with these older boxes and Chris will make them right. Enjoy,great amps!

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I have a late 110 (1987) that has 001 output transistors and an ‘84 one with 002 transistors. They both sound pretty much the same (wonderful!) and IMO superior to the 140 (in any guise). Ymmv.

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Friend of mine just bought a one-owner-from-new unserviced olive NAP 160. He’s sending it to Naim for a service. Anyone got an idea of how many of those there might be?

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I’m also curious if there were even any olive 160’s ever made? I saw on the Naim site this chart with their history and I see there shouldn’t be.

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Wasn’t there a period when some CB kit was given a factory facelift to Olive style so it would match in an otherwise all Olive system.

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When olive was first brought out,Naim offered a re case service ,chrome bumper to olive,I had a hi cap converted.
The 160 olive would have been a chrome bumper re cased in this manner.

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There was one on eBay last week. I thought it was strange at the time, but David’s explanation makes sense.

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Yeah, this was re-cased by Naim. I wondered if Naim kept a record of such things but probably had better things to do.

My first naim amplifier was a chrome NAP160, and it sounded excellent, it gave many good years of enjoyment. After I was given an NAC82 by Julian V and Paul S (long story) I had the amp serviced and re-cased at HQ to match the preamplifier / olive HiCap I had in the system. Here it is below.




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Yes indeed, you are absolutely correct! I’ve been using Chris and AVO for a few years now. He first rebuilt an 82 about 10-12 years ago for me. Most recently he performed a very special service on a lovely 72 for me. That same 72 will pair with these 135s.

Earlier this year when I picked up the 72, he gave me a listen on his system. It was then I first heard the 135s - through my 72 and his SL2s. It was a fantastic sound, and it more than piqued my interest, as you can now see! While I don’t have SL2s, I’m sure my passive ATCs will love the extra power / control versus my (excellent) 250.

I’m dropping off the 135s tomorrow, and I’ll let him know it’s on account of him letting me hear his 135s that’s put me into this predicament!:rofl:

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Listening to my first Olive amp in a long time. Picked up a lovely condition unserviced NAC 72 from 1990. It’s taken the place of the NAC 12 whilst I wait for an olive HICAP and NAP 140 to partner it. Then off to Naim for a service. Sounding very good with Naim serviced bolt down NAP 160 in the mean time.

Office is a bit of a mess at the moment…

Strange thing is that I’m not really sure why I’m doing this - I just wanted some olive amps again for some reason.

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