With Naim it’s a cumulative - there’s a huge knowledge base that’s carried forward of what has worked well (and what hasn’t) over the years. As technology changes some things get revisited, and new opportunities arise. And as an evolving team, each member brings new ideas and things that can be tried and tested. I guess an important part of that is knowing what is most important in the sound and what is less so for engaging you with the music performance. Naim is lucky to have some very experienced “ears” onboard who have been instrumental in developing Naim products over many years and continue to do so today.
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I have often wondered why there is such a thing as a ‘house sound’ - presumably the intention of an amplifier designer (pre- or power-amp) is to reproduce the incoming signal exactly (except for phono, of course) only with gain - Quad’s famous “straight piece of wire with gain”. So in theory all amplifiers should sound the same. I assume that the problem is that there are so many compromises in trying to achieve that, which means the designer has to choose which compromises to make and which to try hard to fix.
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Is the NAP 350 Naim’s first mono amp since the wonderful NAP 135?
(I believe that it may be possible to ‘tweak’ the NAP 500 to produce a single channel of sound - or have I imagined that?)
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I’d love to know if it’s deliberate, engineered, explicit, or if it’s just an emergent property resulting from all the various design choices and materials associated with a particular generation of kit. Or both! Richard seems to suggest that there are deliberate aspects to it, which is great to hear. There is a continuity/retention risk with that, as the staff change over the years, which maybe manifests particularly when a new generation of kit comes along?
The “why” is even more interesting, sorry I didn’t pick up on that part! I was mostly wondering about the “how”
No, Naim had the NAPV145, which was essentially a single channel version of the NAP250.2.
In the past some in the US had reported good results running just a single channel of the NAP500. Tests at the factory when running a pair of 500PS units were more equivocal; There were some seemingly apparent gains, but some important losses too.
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As I remember, Richard, the NAPV145 was intended for use in an audio visual/ home movie set up, was it not?
It was intended for multi-channel AV system use, specifically centre channel amplification. Of course that didn’t stop a few people using them in pairs for stereo use, although really you’d be better off with a NAP300 for similar money. I remember doing the listening test at the factory. A pair of NAPV145s was a little bit ahead of a NAP250.2 but not by enough to close the gap between that amp and the NAP300.
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Thanks, Richard.
This is at least the second time Richard has called out the V145 as a forgotten instance of a particular type of Naim amp. The other time was in a listing of regulated amps
Poor old V145!! Can we all be a bit more respectful of its place in Naim amplifier lore please? 
edit: with apologies, it was not Richard, here’s the actual post! Regulated / Unregulated Amps - #4 by anon4489532
Ah that’s HH in an earlier guise I think…
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Some manufacturers explicitly play up their “warm” sound in product marketing material so I expect it’s totally intentional for some. For others they aim for neutral but when no one was in the recording studio, knowing whst neutral is is quite hard. A test tone generator isn’t complex overlayed music. So they give their version of neutral. When users declare something is neutral, they often mean (though they don’t realise it), “this matches my imagined version of neutral, which I agree with.”
Speakers are another matter entirely. Some major brands freely discuss their colouration rationale. It’s often based around compensating for an average room of their largest demographic. A lot of guesswork and when they guess wrong it fails in your room. They don’t know for sure what your room will be but they do know it won’t be a perfectly treated recording studio with a flat response.
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they do this already, its called 500 series
I’m in Wellington and the Linn Selekt as a streaming preamp is excellent with the 250Dr. Both in Katalyst,and even more stunning with the Organik DACs. Plus you get RM backup.
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I suppose that’s true, but I was thinking of all (or most) of the other kits, including the NC series.
And, of course, the 500 series cannot be bought with built-in power supplies.
So, you have gone with the Linn with your 250 DR in the end?
There is also the NAP S1.
If you don’t mind me asking IDAK , the approx price of the Linn Selekt in NZ ?
Thanks
It unsolicitedly makes me think of Audiovector…
Hey there - great to hear! Very interested myself…there might be a couple of 555DR’s for sale in Weller’s soon??