Anybody experienced the difference between a NAP 150 and a NAP 155? I’m trying to find a 155 to replace my UQ1 that’s currently powering my 172 but they seem to be incredibly rare. Have seen a 150 available, but then the anticipated FOMO / buyers remorse kicks in…
Haven’t seen much action on the topic in the forums except for a bit of 100 vs 155 vs 140…
I know age / condition / service is a always a factor, just wondering if there’s any noticeable difference. It’s going into my office system with a pair of Neat Iotas.
I can’t comment on the differences between a NAP150 and my NAP155XS.
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s what Naim say on the NAP155XS’s product page: “Improvements over its predecessor, the NAP 150, include: a new toroidal transformer for improved regulation; separate windings for each channel and preamp; and an up-rated preamp power supply to improve the performance of the preamp.”
When I sold my 152/155 at the beginning of the year they both went to a Chinese registered bider who easily outbid anyone else. Looking at his bid history, he was hoovering-up loads of stuff. He used a forwarding agent at Gatwick so it was no bother for me.
The 155 xs sounds a lot better than the 150, like a 200 would sound against the 155. As mentioned above I’m waiting to be paid on the usual auction site from a Chinese bidder for my 155, if there’s no reply to my asking for him to pay for it I’ll be cancelling it.
I liked the 155 it’s a good amp.
This is rather interesting & pretty much the exact opposite of what I experienced. I had the 150X, with a 202 & HCDR. At the time I did some research on here & the majority seemed to think there wasn’t that much difference between the two. I preferred the look of the 200 & the slight OCD in me wanted the matching casework, so I bought one just for that fact (& that the 200 was the natural 202 partner). I was rather shocked how much of a difference just swapping amps made, as I wasn’t expecting anything. I think this may be related to what order you upgrade & where the weakest link lies. In my case with having the 202/HCDR, the amp was likely the limiting factor, so when I swapped amps, it removed the bottleneck in the system & everything worked to its full potential. Swapping amps improved the sound more then adding the HCDR did, now had I swapped the amp first with just the bare 202, then added the HCDR, I wouldn’t be surprised if in that case the HCDR had a larger impact on sound.
I’d be surprised if Naim ever shifted many NAP155XSes in the first place. Soon after the XS range came out and the Unitis were launched, the downsizers here were always quick to denigrate separates. But separates in the lower range especially have always represented terrific value. Personally, as someone who has owned a NAP200DR and now a NAP155XS, there is something rather beautiful about Naim’s lower range power amps. Was probably always the case, with shoebox NAP90s and NAP110s too.
Right? I should have doubled down on that beach time to get this sorted!
But the reality is that, as mentioned above, there are so few 155s out there it’s becoming cost prohibitive to make this work. I’ve seen one on the Bay in Italy but at an (in my view) insane price. TomTom have one but #thanksBrexit, not efficient to get it onto the continent.
More importantly though, is the revelation I had this week - I really like the 172 and the fact that the screen lights up when I manually adjust the volume.
It sounds so stupid, but I think I’d miss it if I had an integrated and streamer vs the power and pre/stream in one.
