Let us know how you get on. Just remember, if it’s not meeting your expectation after a long evaluation there is a simple alternative: high end MM.
There are some very high end MM carts out there. Often the perception of the superiority of MC to MM is warped slightly by the fact that nearly everyone who does the comparison goes from something like a $400 MM to an entry level $800 MC and then never looks back. It’s not a meaningful comparison. There are MM carts out there brushing the $12k mark so it should be possible to find a simple no extra box solution for any high end turntable into a Nait50 (or similar).
I’m not for a second claiming MM is as good. But given any high end deck, it would be wrong to consider MM as not a valid option for serious replay.
Opinions differ there, as you’d probably expect There’s a What Hifi review linked somewhere where the NAIT50 and XS3 are compared.
Plus all the posts in here about the 50. I suspect if you want to change to the 50 for aesthetic reasons that you won’t be disappointed with the SQ. If you can listen to them side by side, great, give that a go. If you can’t then I wouldn’t worry too much about it. By all accounts the 50 is a blinder of an amp.
Yeah the Whathifi review was rather poorly written (in my opinion) and its descriptions didn’t seem to particularly resonate with quite a few on this forum including myself. I think there are better reviews that align better to the characteristics of the Nait50 out there.
I think with magazine reviews you do need to be careful, use them to whet your appetite, but for suitability you do need to listen and decide for yourself. Yes after a while across a range of magazines and blogs, you discover specific authors whom you learn to trust and they hear things in a similar to you, but until then I think you need to tread carefully with reviews… treat them like reading posts on this forum.
I think the biggest adaptation for the Nait50 which is its strength as well as its weakness, is no remote control. Ensure you can live with or work around it.
I have the Nait 50 and SN3 - since I purchased the Nait 50 I haven’t bothered to reconnect the SN3 back up, the Nait 50 is that good, very impressive
However I’ll be doing that over the next few weeks just to see how it compares
The SN3 has more shall I describe - weight and probably more depth but that’s not everything in the enjoyment of music
My view is the Nait 50 is perhaps one of the “best” Naim purchases I have made in almost 37 years of Naim gear, it’s a bargain and will go down in history
Well at the higher end of MM but by no means on the price level of of truly high end MC, you have things like the Ortofon 2M Black 250 LVB, Sumiko Amethyst, Vertere Sabre. All in the $800 - $1200 range. If you want MM in the serious MC price category you start getting into some very niche brands. My dealer has a few in that sort of $5k plus range I am unfamiliar with. I can make a note when I pop in if you like.
Most expensive MM I saw was something in AudioUnion in Tokyo. About $13k. Brand unfamiliar. Visually similar to a Koetsu.
Indeed in the limit the more you are paying for is evermore intricate mitigations to the inherent limitations of moving magnet… that is there is more mass and inertia to be handled so as to be compliant with the groove compared to moving lighter coils which are easier to track the groove and the lesser inertia makes finer detail recovery easier/possible, but that is also moving coil’s challenge, you need higher quality mechanics and electronics to stop distortions and noise becoming too prominent compared to moving magnet because of moving coils typical greater sensitivity.
A lot of the really good MM have much lower iron mass though and consequently their output is much lower than a standard MM and closer to a high output MC.
But I’d like to reiterate what I said before. I’m not claiming they’re as good. But I am saying that writing them off out of hand for serious listening is short sighted. For example a lot of audiophiles write off anything that isn’t class A amplification. Don’t want to know about. Don’t want to discuss it. But as we know by now there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Indeed the best MM cartridges have intricate designs of cantilever, pivots and suspension filaments as well to allow better compliance tracking of the weight of the tiny magnets… which as suggested can be made relatively low mass.
Yes I think it would be churlish to write them off, but I suspect you can get better performance per pound with moving coil… up until perhaps the truly exotic.
2M Black or Bronze are both very fine carts and should work optimally into the loading of the Nait 50. After that, put spare cash where it brings the most benefit - upgrading the turntable.
As good as the Nait 50 phono is (very good!), at some point if going somewhere in the MM carts stratosphere it might make sense to use an external (better) phono stage too. Even with just a good AT MM, with the NVC TT I can hear a fair bit more joy and improvement that I find difficult to ignore. I still think though that the Nait 50 could justify cartridges up to the 1k mark on its own.
There’s a What Hifi review linked somewhere where the NAIT50 and XS3 are compared.