Thanks Steve every your post is really source of lot of clear infos….I was assuming the beginning of your answer and I totally trust it. First time I heard the 250dr I remained shocked by the number of details hidden before.
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No I didn’t, but let’s face it, it’s ultimately your ears and taste that counts. All I would suggest is a dealer demo and ‘go compare’. Not everybody will necessarily like the difference ‘sophistication’ brings in overall presentation.
Just take a look at System Pics where there is everything from Chrome Bumper, Olive to today’s kit amongst members here.
I think what Naim has created with this new range looks excellent and makes complete sense for a 3 box system (and no I haven’t listened to it), and as I assume it’s genome is a result of a trickle down from The Statement, I have no difficulty in imagining how it sounds. This still doesn’t mean that it suits everybody’s taste as I said earlier.
In this long thread there are a lot of valued Forum members having expressed their opinions in favour or have already pulled the trigger. If I was in the market for some new gear, I would be on the phone to my dealer for sure. Good luck Peter
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The new 250 reveals even more detail than the 250DR. The noise floor is so much lower.
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They are likely to be a bit stiff. The storage for the gear isn’t climate controlled and swings from 36c in summer to 5c for most of Dec to Mar. And they’ve been there for three years.
I plan on settling all the gear in the new room and letting it acclimate like a goldfish for a week to let the condensation and drying cycle naturally complete.
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@Akron you are correct about mixing the New Classics with Classics. My 252DR/NC250 combo works fantastic.
@Jurgen with my experience with the NC250 and 300Dr I’d reckon it would be a sideways move to replace the 300DR with the NC250.
To my ears The NC250 does a few things better than the 300DR and the 300DR does other things better than the NC250
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Great post, perhaps @Richard.Dane could consider adding it to the FAQ as so many threads are started on servicing and caps?
As for Steve using SBLs he is in good company 
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Excelent post @110dB - thank you for taking the time to write this… 
I hope that people will take the time to read & understand this.
We can always learn more… 
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So funny,
I learned from Naim that a separate power supply is so important (and I agree). Suddenly with the new 250 an external power supply it is no issue anymore…….it seems to be a magic performer with……… an internal power supply…….
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I think he is right, in my opinion the NC250 is not “better” than the 300DR, just different, an altogether different sound signature. The NC250 has obvious Statement pedigree in its DNA the way it drives emotion with the listener. The 300DR is more laid back (more Naim old school if that makes sense). You may prefer either so worth an audition of the NC250 in a new classics set up, I would say. You may or may not prefer it to the traditional Naim 300DR sound signature.,
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The new 250 may not be better than the 300. But, just the fact it is being compared to the 300 says a lot about its performance.
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I’m not sure what other markets are doing but in NZ price of NC250 is $15K and currently the NAP300 is being discounted to just under $13K (RR$21.5K). For those with the classic kit 
unless the NC250 blows away the 300 the choice may very well come down to aesthetics.
At $13k for 300 - what a bargain imo
The NC250 would have to blow it out of the window not to take that offer up
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It’s is a bargain, and if I didn’t have one, I’d be buying it. In fact, it’s almost worth getting a new one, to replace my 7 year old one, just to extend the life before servicing. Almost, but not for me.
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In the States the 300DR is 12,799 and the NC250 is 8999. Also not much stock of 300DRs at dealers.
I am getting some real FOMO - fear of missing out because of this thread.
However fortunately or not, I simply do not have the budget to upgrade. Both my 282/HCDR/250DR and 202/200DR sound great to me anyway.
Maybe the new 250 NC is much better, but I am invested with the DIN/XLR SL between my HCDR and 250DR.
blimey
Progress is good. I wish to audition the NC range as soon as the Focal / Naim dealer where I live has one in stock (missing the 222)
However, having heard the mighty ND555/Statement quite a few times now, and being out of my budget, when I came home and heard my own system, it didn’t exactly sound broken either.
But a statement is out of my reach, maybe with trade in the NC222/NAP250NC is not.
choices and FOMO.
The prices of the NC are a bit more expensive than the previous range - but I do understand Naim has to be realistic about the costs they are incurring to make this wonderful kit available to the world.
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Same here. But… nothing becomes ‘broken’ or bad, because Version 2+ arrives… 
82/HC/250 - works for me… 
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Yes, and a hint of what we might expect with the performance of the upcoming separates. Exciting
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I’d give it about 20yrs or so then pick up the new stuff on eBay for about 1/4 of the current rrp. 
.
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Heard the NC 250 yesterday powering Harbeth C7ES-3 XD, source was Uniti Atom HE. Room is familiar to me as many demos over the years. No power conditioning or high end power/signal/speaker cables used.
Very impressive indeed and my wife (who’s also into this - lucky me!) agreed. Overall impression was “natural”, and gladly lacking in the obvious Naim signature sound, which is why I got out of Naim gear a few years ago. We go to live unamplified opera/orchestral regularly so anything unnatural sticks out. We also listen to a lot of gear, and very little of it gets that praise. We played a variety of music. To our surprise this system shone on classical and opera in particular. Rock/pop was also fine, but not that over-emphasised edge/PRaT, which used to make these genres artificially exciting on older Naim gear, at the expense of natural acoustic genres. All in our opinion, of course. YMMV and all that.
Particularly struck with excellent soundstage precision and depth, another big improvement. Bass control and texture was excellent. There was no edge we could perceive and we listened for a couple of hours with no fatigue. In essence, this got my biggest accolade of first doing nothing wrong and then doing a lot right. This puts it immediately in the top 1-2% of gear I hear.
The physical design, in the flesh, is so much better than in photos. Great build quality and a decent aesthetic, purposeful but with a touch of refinement. Absolutely love Naim adding the XLR in-out on these units, and the new Standby power modes, even on the power amp. Honestly, as with sound quality, it is these touches with Naim coming more into line with the 21st Century that piqued our interest again. The fact that sound quality is also matured/evolved might well have us picking a bit of Naim kit soon.
Pricing. Uniti Atom HE is well priced, in my opinion. The NC 250, though… ouch… it’s a good thing it sounds great, because it should at that price/power. But Naim is a high end brand and none of them are reasonably priced. It does have some serious competition from other brands at that price, some of whom have more power on tap, but the XLRs finally do allow it to be a better proposition in terms of competitors, as it makes it more versatile and more likely to be used with other brands of source, as systems change.
This aside though, we could happily go with the above and not really want more in terms of musical enjoyment, it really was that good.
And the volume knob on the Atom HE really is a thing of beauty.
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Question for those who, like me, own the NSC 222: when you set the Standby setting to Never from the Naim mobile app, does the display of your NSC 222 always remain on even when the preamplifier is not playing music and is in mute mode? Thank you!