Pre-Amp for NAP 100

Hope this isn’t too off-topic: I’m currently pairing a NAP100 power amp with the pre-amp stage of my old Creek 4330 integrated amp. I’d like to upgrade to a dedicated pre-amp and for budget reasons was looking at some of the older NAIM pre-amps. Does anyone have any recommendations / experience of pairing the NAP 100 with older NAIM pre-amps? My main source is an Arcam CDS50 which has a good built-in DAC so I’m just looking for a really solid pre-amp stage as a step up over the Creek. Thanks

One problem with using the NAP100 is that it can’t power a Naim pre-amp - its natural partner was the DAC V1 - so whatever pre-amp you choose you’ll need a Flatcap or Hicap to power it. Perhaps consider a Naim integrated instead. A preloved Nait XS could work well.

Thanks James, that’s helpful to know. I’m fairly recent to Naim but I’d detected from other threads in the forum it wasn’t completely straightforward to hook these things up.

Another thing to consider is your CD player. While I’m sure it’s very nice it is an entry level machine and not really an ideal match with a Naim pre/power. You could get say a 152xs and flatcap 2XS, or go vintage and get a 62 and Olive Hicap. Either would match well with your 100. What I’d probably do is sell the 100 and the Creek and get a used Nait XS2. You can buy them new at a knockdown £1,299. On the other hand you could pick up a NAC-N 172 streaming preamp, which is self powered and would match happily with the 100. You could connect your CD player to it, or rip your CDs to a Nas and let the CD player go. Lots of options.

Hungryhalibut - thanks for the generous and thoughtful reply. Tempted by all of those suggestions, but you may just have persuaded me it’s time to dump the CDs and embrace the streaming pre-amp. Thanks again.

You are most welcome. If you are feeling flush and do go the streaming preamp route then the 272 is a lot better than the 172 and can be got for under £2,000. That’s a lot of money of course and the 172 is jolly good.

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.