You had a 250 Dr before? How do they compare? I know it`s first for one week, but how is the initial impression?
1 Like
Couldnāt agree more !
I have an old Porsche 911 - model designation 993. Registered in 1995, so 28 years oldā¦.
The latest incarnation of the 911 is model 992. No, I donāt understand eitherā¦ā¦
10 Likes
Are you really sure you are a Naim owner?
First things I noticed were a bigger, meatier sound that was faster and more agile with a much lower noise level letting more information through.
Day 2 was a bit mixed in performance as it was bright and edgy.
Day3, today, it sounds warmer and lusher and the bass is deeper and fuller.
When I was comparing speakers last year, everything was played through a 252DR and 300DR.
I would need to borrow a 300DR to re-acclimate with it to confirm but to me the NC250 sound is much closer to the 300 than the 250DR.
5 Likes
Every Naim component Iāve bought has sounded great out of the box and got somewhat better over time but the bulk of the goodness was there from the start. The only Naim components that didnāt sound good out of the box were the SN, 202, and 200. And they didnāt improve much. Was happy to move them on.
3 Likes
The Hum is a terrible thing when present. Received an atom he new it was humming like hell also listenable from 5 or 6 meters away, it was defective out of the box, was exchanged by a new silent one, no humming.
My supernait 3 is silent, and my NDX 2 sometimes hums to the point that is annoying and other times is silent. The supernait is always silent.
The only brand I had with Humming to the point that is annoying is Naim, and thatās annoying.
If any other of my electronics made an humming I could think this is normal, but no other audio electronics I have hums only naim.
3 Likes
I donāt know why Naim didnāt just call it Statement Classic Series xxx given their perpetual reliance on trickling down cost reduced features from their premium near 10 year old products.
Even the industrial design is of a similar vintage and has been again trickled out over a very prolonged period of time across Statement, muso, uniti and now Classic ranges.
The refresh is an opportunity to take advantage of a 50th anniversary, modernise the range with key power management features and simplify it significantly from an upgrades and manufacturing perspective.
If you break it all down in to itās material parts, theres really nothing fundamentally new to be found.
It does pacify the 272 install base if nothing else and give them the limelight for a few months, till the actual interesting stuff appearsš„³
4 Likes
Do your other audio electronics have big toroidal transformers?
I do not think so, the PMA2500 and The AVC X8500 have normal transformers, they are big but not troidal. I had in the past a levinson 383, a Nad S100 an S200, and some rotel michi, those had troidal and did not hum from what I can remember, and if they hum then I never noticed. With naim is something that I noticed easily.
3 Likes
Your evaluation of the new gear was interesting. Actually I think the decision of whether to buy preowned or new is quite simple. Given the price of the new line along with the mixed comments on performance, it seems that many will want to wait to hear the new separates however I imagine the price will be higher than for the new integrated. So for way less money, buying higher-line preowned Classic series would seems to make most senseājust my opinion.
5 Likes
Thank you! Now that sounds interesting.
Letā s see how it will develop.
Confirms just, that the next generation 300 might become monoblocks.
Iām really kind of stunned at how good it isā¦.
2 Likes
The old porsche is much more satisying.
Yes, I think it depends on small production variations between toroidal transformers units (normal and expected) that with certain electric supply condition, vibrate and emit noise (presence of some DC in the power supply).
To mitigate this, someone use an isolator transformer or a DC Blocker.
I personally use a DC Blocker. In my environment the loudest is XPSDR, then a NAP250-2 and finally a NAP250DR. My Nova instead is dead silent.
1 Like
All the transformers go through tests both at the manufacturer and at Naim where a special box tries to replicate the kinds of mains pollution artefacts that a transformer might encounter and a noise measurement is taken. Any that exceed a certain level are rejected. Of course, it can never cover every eventuality and itās perfectly possible that an otherwise quiet transformer might encounter a particular issue on someoneās mains supply where it might suddenly become noisy.
I have added a thread to the FAQ about transformer hum, here;
5 Likes
Whilst you may make a valid point, show me a single person on this forum whose Naim products have sounded worse or flat after time burning in! 
In what way? Do you / have you owned both?
Naim use the toroidal transformer for superior SQ, and the bigger the better, but there is a downside that means they can be effected (hence hum) by DC Offset which can be caused by a number of things, and possibly more things now that several years ago due to the number and type of electrical appliances we now run in our houses. In you case it might be the cause. The cleaner the mains supply, the less humming you get.
The New Classic does largely address this by turning off the toroidal transformer when in standby mode, and at that point just uses a small transformer to keep the circuits semi-active.
Edit - Just seen Richards earlier response
1 Like
Apologies, might be missing the joke?
Contrary to the opinion of a respected forum member, who claimed that it was possibleā¦