Show us what's inside

Looks like it was. The dr bits being those two? Boards in front of the silly sized capacitors.

1st prize for artistic merit ?

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What is it Toby? I think I need one.

I hope it has a Perspex cover.

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Remember this ground breaking power amp was on the market several years before Iron Man came out in the motion picture movies.

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Glass, Naim thick Glass.

Yes the DR modules are the two small circuit boards.

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Here is my Naim NAT 02 before I sent it for service…

The fascia is not bent, just some barrel distortion…

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Where so many of us started. The A60. Mine was ash black and no idea what happened to it.

Back then, even Arcam was DIN.

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Luxman L-590AXII

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For lovely Salisbury air, Flatcap 1 trumps.

  • 1x toroidal power transformer
  • 1x 10000µF capacitor
  • 2 power transistors

That’s pretty much it. :rofl:

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I’d say it’s a cork gasket.

The PSs are very expensive for what is inside, without a doubt. But the 555 is 2.5 times the price of the XPS and it doesn’t have 2.5 times as much inside either :shushing_face:

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True. But they aren’t selling bags of rice. Pricing has nothing to do with what’s inside. It’s purely the value to the customer and what they’ll pay for it. Take the Flatcap; $50 of components in a $30 case. But the lift in sound quality it gave a NAC92 was worth every penny on the price tag.

With non commoditised products, the materials cost is generally just used for the control comparison. Once marketing have figured out the market cost for what you are selling, you compare it to the production cost to see whether it’s worth getting out of bed for and manufacturing.

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The great thing about Naim in the UK market is that, over time, the brand and allied brand-strength, has developed to the point that used (pre-loved) values still remain relatively high compared to other major manu’s.

As you say, you either pay and enjoy what are sometimes called ‘smaller market’ products (non-commoditised) or you avoid. And the cost of the materials is only one function in determining ex-factory sale price and, for simplicity, what’s called ‘Retail List Price’. I’m just thankful to be in the UK and not be hostage to the additional costs a distributor adds to the mix.

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And in the right system Salisbury air and flatcap give a nice lift as mentioned. I was not mocking it, i luv my Naim boxes👍

Totally agree. Can’t really put a price on good sound! And there is a lot of beauty in consistency including dimensions and form factor of each component. Imagine if every Naim is of minimum size it needs to be. OMG. :scream_cat:

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That said, the pineapple, I mean toroidal transformer inside the Nova, like many other Naim units, is a sight to behold, screams quality, commitment and puts a smile on my face every time I think about it!

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Out of interest… NAIM are very into sharp right angles on their wiring. Reading the various electrical expert sites tend to suggest this is bad due to EM and voltage spikes. For example one quote…

  1. bending change the area at the bend location, which is directly related to resistance.
  2. bending will also change the path of electrons like say cars going on a highway, cars will slow down at bends. I know electrons are not cars, but, there will be more scattering at the bend site and hence will increase the resistance.

I know when I was a lot younger and used to build and design very low voltage/hi-res circuits then we paid a lot of attention to ensure nice gentle curves in the PCB tracks.

That’s right, but most of the right angle type harnesses seen in Naim equipment carry DC power to various points. For products where you’ve got a mix of low level analogue signals and high speed digital signals (ie the Network players), signal connections are at PCB level where location, routing and appropriate ground plane design, especially in the ‘digital’ section of the player, helps minimises EM problems.

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