Loses and old Nait and ends up with a brand new one. Disaster indeed. But … all is not lost as (apparently) every Mills and Boon story has a happy ending
In the soft glare of the blue LED, their eyes met over a knurled tractor wheel…
You’ve not had the pleasure of a powered up NAIT 50 in a dark room yet Chris
Things go wrong sometimes and this seems like another example of Naim and one of their dealers acting promptly to give a good resolution. But I can understand the sadness at losing the Nait.
Might be worth keeping an eye on Ebay - just incase it hasn’t been completely ‘lost’.
I suspect you will absolutely love the Nait50… perhaps one of the last ones?
It really is superb, I’m listening to mine now… I just can’t get over how superb it is… insight, timing, beautiful timbres, great sound stage and positioning… voices are to die for…
I use a DAVE source with NDX2 digital streamer, DNM HTN interconnects, on Fraim, NACA5 cable to RK RED50s on SS60 stands with some modest room treatment… and seriously it’s the best sounding and most enjoyable hifi I have ever owned… and I have been up to the 552DR and back.
You will enjoy it… I’m sure.
Hi, I have both CB nait 2 and nait 50.
Heared them both A/B … congratulation to this marvelous refund! This is a fine gesture from naim!
nait 50 is soooo good!
I can’t help feeling there is much more to this story but we’re unlikely to find out.
Skeptikal
Wow such a first world problem.
The Nait 50 is a superb piece of kit.
Very annoying fault.
I would say LP12 and NAT01 are good matches . Naim recommend the NDX2
I had a Nait 50 in my system for 4 days fed by ND5XS2 - nDAC/555DR, into SL2s (and plugged in with a Powerline).
It is a lovely and excellent little integrated.
But not a patch on NAC 52 - 135s in the same system for sound quality.
(It’s great how much you’re enjoying your Nait 50 though, which is what really matters for you.)
Yeah I might have a good sample… and an optimum setup, but it’s almost spooky how good it is… I can now follow lyrics (most of the time) from Thom Yorke, though he uses a lot of repetition, and notice little recording and performance errors in many recordings, so I guess it’s out resolving the studio setups. It digs deeper into the musical performances from musicians.
But yes it’s clearly the best for me, and provides a better more natural performance for me than my previous 552/250 setup… but not all other things are equal so I will stop short of saying one is definitely technically better than the other SQ wise … now it might be the synergy thing… the RK speakers and the DAVE really add to it… after all the DAVE is arguably one of the best DACs out there. I guess the other thing that really naturalised the performance was keep all wiring copper… and using DNM parallel spaced interconnects and avoid silver plated coax cable… things like upper mids and presence info becomes real and not hifi sounding highlighted.
Now I’ll agree my setup won’t provide a thenderous performance at ear splitting levels, but our ears don’t work best at those levels anyway because of natural compression. I also suspect the simplified layout has a lot to do with it… and the absence of control electronics from the amp. I notice some other super high end esoteric manufacturers have similar philosophies so there might be something in it.
But thanks I am enjoying recorded music again, as I had fallen out of love with it… and to me that says it all.
It is a wonderful system you have with the Dave. But why do you think a silver digital coax cable would be a disadvantage? I thought BNC 75Ohm cable have not so much influence of soundquality?
Do you feed the Dave with a bare NDX2, Qobuz and a NAS?
What are the main cables you use?
I’ve got an old CB Nait. I’ll swap it for your Nait 50 if you like. If it makes you feel better.
Always willing to help out a Forumite.
Yep, powerlines on Naim, and the provided IEC cable with DAVE.
Only in my evaluations in my setup… I have a whole box of standard and esoteric interconnects. I have found copper twin line sound most natural, and NACA5 is also copper twin line. If I use silver plated I find I get a brightness, what I call highlighting, there is an un natural brightness around the edges of sounds.
I also think coax (shielded) audio interconnects when not transmission lines can add a degree of reactance which seems to slightly muddle the sound… but it can add a degree of excitement or accentuation which on extended listen starts to irritate as to me it just doesn’t sound right… and I hear things like smearing on sibilence etc, which to me can become objectionable.
But hey we all want different things from our audio. Some what excitement and a tad of exaggeration to emphasize rhythm and drive and high end fizz… absolutely fair enough, I personally love neutrality and a natural sound.
Also my experience, recently again with the AO tonearm cable, will be switched out soon.
I think the OP is very lucky indeed. They seem to have won the Naim lottery. And let’s not forget, the orginal Nait still legally belongs to them. If it turns up, they’ll have two iconic bits of kit.
Shoebox super integrateds are a thing of immense joy regardless of the manufacturer. There are integrated amps at $30k yes. But in a shoebox size, the $5k mark is about the price ceiling and the reduced functionality shines through in the higher performance of the few functions they do provide.
This is why, relative to other bits of hifi, fewer shoeboxes of anything hit the second hand market. They elicit affection from the owners in a way more exotic bigger components often don’t.
The 50 is by far the most appealing product Naim have released in perhaps the last two decades. You really lucked out.
I’m with you feeling_zen on your last 2 sentences.
It’s brilliant