The Naim New Classic range - Part 1

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 sense–just my opinion.

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Thank you! Now that sounds interesting.
Let’ s see how it will develop.
Confirms just, that the next generation 300 might become monoblocks.

I’m really kind of stunned at how good it is….

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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.

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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 it’s perfectly possible that an otherwise quiet transformer might encounter a particular issue on someone’s mains supply where it might suddenly become noisy.

I have added a thread to the FAQ about transformer hum, here;

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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! :wink:

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

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Apologies, might be missing the joke?

Contrary to the opinion of a respected forum member, who claimed that it was possible…

It might well be technically possible I suppose (although not without a fair bit of modification as the NAP250 and NAP250.2/DR have so many differences, not least a far larger Tx and very different layout in the latter), but it’s certainly not official Naim. Are you sure you’re not thinking of the Supercap or Hicap, which are internally quite similar between Olive and Classic?

@bruss - I had always understood that the CB and Olive 250’s were near identical.

As @Richard.Dane says - ‘technically’ its possible that a CB/Olive 250 could be DR’ed - if you had the DR boards. But it would be a ‘one off’ and is not something Naim have done - officially at least.

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I just, quoted a forum member who claimed that DR can be done for Olive Nap 250.
I personally did not do it, because Ilan Tamir, could not do it.

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The internals I have compared are the same. My confusion is with the forum reports of a few people who say they have had theirs done. plus the statement from the article Naiming The Future

" : But you didn’t discontinue the 250?

PS: No, not the name, but we did. It was in the olive shape before I put it into the new range with a new design.

CT: It was a new amp.

PS: It was a new amp. "

I may have misunderstood that statement.

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As I understand it, the big change is with the Black/(Old) Classic 250.2. Where in internal layout is significantly different - eg. bigger Transformer, more-but-smaller Caps mounted vertically, plus no doubt loads more.

So again (AFAIK…) the 250.2 could be DR’ed - but nothing before that could.

YMMV… Its the Interwebzzzzzz…

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RE: Classic & 993 post.

993 probably the best version of the 911! I test drove a 996 before I settled on a 993 C2….I found the 993 was like a go cart to drive, much more involving with a great soundtrack……the 996 experience did nothing for me, just felt like any German car, whereas every time I drove my 993 it was a pleasure. Enjoy, fab car. Rich

I had one of the pre-production NAP250.2s and even that was slightly different inside so I was told that a DR upgrade would not be possible on that particular unit - hence I purchased a new 250DR instead.

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Is it further confused because some customers of late olive 250s may have had those units re-cased to match the (then) new black classic look???

Yes, but easily identified outside by the feet and the rear panel, and still very much “first series” NAP250s internally.

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