Me too - but my cd player then was a meridian 206 with separate 264 (I think) dac
Mine was a Naim it was Olive with a pull out draw.
Mike, I have a Nap 500 in my system atm. Thinking of buying it. A good friend of mine is down sizing his whole 500 system.
The Nap 500 seems to work really well, effortlessly works the SL2 speakers has more headroom than the 135’s but not a whole lot more, keeping in mind the 500 has almost 2x the power of the 135 mono’s. Really very similar sound signature like wow (really Kool) more detail/grip both ends of the volume control knob.
I don’t think my lp 12 prefix/52 really allows the Nap500 to shine like ive herd it before. part of that I guess is the noise floor, my old lp12 prefix 52 just cant do what his cd555 552 superline setup can do in that respect. But when it comes to enjoying the music it’s not that far away. Im actually having second thoughts of going ahead on it. Ive always dreamed of a Nap 500, now one is in the house im thinking “you know what that big Olive system is also very very good. I really do love my 1988 Chris Murphy serviced 135 amps. Just amazing a 35 year old amp is still hod ing its own. Oh first world problems….what to do? Nope i can not afford the serviced 552.
He he, was that the 500DR with only 100 hours on it? It eventually went to the north island. The dude got it for a very good price like wow that was a very good deal he also picked up the 552. I must say i do have a friend or two that really do/did love there Naim boxes! Just wish i had the bank rolls like they do.
Happy Birthday mate, ive just moved over 50 and everything hurts.
I note that my dealer is selling a pre-loved NAP500 DR, which looks like a steal. I’m not in the market, but I mention it in response to the comments above about scarcity etc.
(Apologies if mentioning this contravenes any forum rules)
Thanks! Getting closer here… Everything already hurts
When the NAP500 was first launched it was demonstrated with a NAC52, although I cannot recall if it was with a CDS2 or LP12 as source. If it had been the LP12, I’m fairly sure that would have been with Aro, Troika, Armageddon and Prefix - not far away from your spec. The. NAP500 is a superb amplifier and delivers so much more scale, or presence, than a pair of NAP135s. IMO of course.
Hi Clive, yes it is I do agree. Only for me is it worth the extra $$$. The system you described is exactly what I have (which has been serviced), cart is a Lyra Kleos SL.
I’m probably detecting what the folks at Naim did back in the day need a better preamp. The sl2 are an amp demanding speaker and really do need a 500 to let them shine at there best, maybe an option to move the sl2 on and replace them with something more modern and easier to run. (These are the things I’ve been thinking about)
Another consideration is the ownership of these lovely old antique olive boxes which is very kool imo. So to keep the big olive system or brake it up🤔
Nice post, active SL2’s are very good as well and it is worth trying. We have 2 x 250.2, I think it may be very slightly better than 135 passive.
Oh, you poor chap! Did you trip over something?
Sound performance knocked me to the floor
I thought that, just perhaps, there might be just a little bit of hyperbole creeping into your purple prose?
But I’m glad that you appear to have found your ideal amp. It certainly looks a beast!
I have never regretted going to the NAP500 … the pre DR blew me away - such delicacy and whallop…the DR upgrade just added to it. This is an amazing amp - it stood up to the Statement power amps pretty well when I listened to the two at Salisbury. I can’t help but think if there was a mono version of the 500 it would surely really push the Statement amps…
Has anyone ever tried using two NAP500s as a stereo pair, with just one channel of each being used for LHS and RHS? Would this make any conceivable difference? Or just drive the amps into into danger of being unstable?
The 5-series to me ask for hyperbole to explain how different and great it is. If I earlier on knew what I know today I should have went for it years back and prioritised different in life
That is beautiful (in the ‘boy’s toys’ sense) and very impressive-looking kit, but I can’t quite identify what it all is/what it’s all doing.
This picture is from a review made on 500 vs 500DR so nothing do to with what you asked for more than how it visually could look like
You may get better performance by using one 500 for stereo HF and one for stereo LF…just a thought. In theory the HF would be far cleaner…