The Naim New Classic Range - Part 2

Yes, I thought Acoustica’s system sounded very good indeed, and the NC fit and finish is tremendous too. I was a little surprised at the choice of speakers though, as I’ve always been a little underwhelmed when Naim and KEF are used together. Assumed a set of Kudos Titans would have been Acoustica’s logical choice.

FWIW, I spoke with Chris from Naim about the new 300 range and whether a 500 series refresh/upgrade was in the pipeline.

He mentioned that as far as he knows the 500 series refresh is not on the roadmap.

That’s all very well but IMO, compared to the new classic range, the current 500 series is looking somewhat dated and appears at odds with the new range.

Thoughts?

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Its not viable for the 500’s to continue indefinitely so it must only be a question of time.

Limitations are resources for development, which would be freed up now the 300/250’s are in production, then manufacturing capacity.

I would guess this will all sort itself out in the foreseeable future.

And after the 500’s Naim will look at Statement II.

Its the circle of life…

Naims circle of life is around 20-30 years. :grinning:

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@110dB Hi Steve, I’m curious on the technical aspects of how a NAC332/NSS333 pair with no NPX300 might have better sound quality than NSC222/NPX300 pair. We take the transformer noise out of the box on 222, so would the remaining compromise be the PCB temperature on 222 due to SMT?
The other question is if I were to keep the NPX300, would I connect it to 332 or 333 for greater impact on SQ?
We probably are months away from having the 300 series in shops for demo opportunity but these are questions I’d ask even after hearing a demo :slight_smile:

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I’d guess Munich '25 for launch of 500 series. :expressionless:

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As long as they don’t do a concrete anniversary version in the interim, ain’t nobody got time for dat.

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I reckon it’s more likely that in due course they will end of life the 500 series and not replace it.

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Why would they do that?

More likely the Statement which was not envisaged to sell in the hundreds or thousands ……will die as the trickle down overwhelms them.
Then hopefully……Steve Sells gets another shot as the 300 and 500 series to go to the next level to develop a new benchmark.

Because they will be too expensive to build and not give enough of an improvement gain over the 300 series. And predicted sales of a new 500 series would be too low to justify the expense of developing it.

You read it here first!

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Naim need a new 500 series to keep their wealthier customers with the brand. There is no way people will stop with the 300 series, it’s just too cheap. A new 555 streamer, new 552 preamp, neither with onboard transformers and requiring a new NPX500 each, coupled to a pair a 500 monoblocs would seem most likely to me, and be a logical step from the 300 series.

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Thoughts?
Well I certainly don’t think that the 500 series is suddenly “looking somewhat dated” compared with anything :rofl:

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The 500 series has a few issues: it’s not green, the 552 has the annoying volume control with all the power on the left hand side, and the anodised cases are hugely expensive with a high rejection rate. It can’t be long for this world.

It may be, but it certainly doesn’t look’ dated which was what I was getting at :+1:

You’re probably right though @HungryHalibut , if any 500 owners wish to dispose of theirs please get in touch with me and I’ll dispose of them ‘discretely’, without charge obviously :rofl:

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My 552 has a beautiful calm green light, has zero issues with the volume control and the casing looks like when it left the factory 13 years ago. And it sounds amazing too :star2:

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:thinking: well it’s a 2002 vintage so going on 20+ years… not dated so much in Naim terms I guess but is looking tired compared to the new range (is what I was getting at :wink:)

…I’m guessing all 500 owners will disagree of course! :roll_eyes:

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Or even discreetly.

Hi @Marty_SF

This is a question I’ve been thinking about as well. Hopefully Steve @110dB will give his thoughts opinions.

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