The Naim New Classic range - Part 1

Lumin have the same and it has created great goodwill in their community getting direct answer to tech questions and not to forget for R&D to get direct feedback from their customers on issues, needs, thoughts. Might be bit to much keeping up with this long term for Mr Steve but now around the release at least is :+1:I personally believe it adds great value and USP to the brand in a world where the distance between customer and product in general become greater for each year.

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Same here, might be eating ā€œpieā€ for dinner.

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Multiroom is digital, so no, the analogue signal remaining analogue means that it canā€™t be multiroomed.

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Three products have created 1200+ messages in little more than a couple of days - imagine having to deal with questions about a completely new range!

(And phew, Iā€™ve caught up with the thread.)

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Yeah that is what I assume but was wondering if there was some kind of clever calculation making it possible.

Hi Steve I really appreciate the time you are taking answering the queries from the forum membersā€¦from a practical and technical viewpoint your input is fascinating ā€¦ :blush:

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We have a white paper coming out soon to explain.

We use balanced impedance outputs and balanced inputs.

We moved to balanced input because we had 5 different inputs connection sockets on our power amps (see earlier post - RCA, XLR stereo, XLR mono, XLR balanced). We wanted ā€˜oneā€™ to make life easy for customers.

Statement has balanced XLR - we have chosen this as the input for all power amps from now on.

We worked for about a year designing the balanced input. Tried all sorts of sophisticated electronic balanced circuits, transformers and then a simple zero feedback class A buffer powered by DR regulators worked on 250. Sounded better than it is was not there. Due to the buffering and where signal currents from from pre-amps to power amps flow.

Balanced is compatible with single ended pre-amps too (via legacy lead sets). We already used the XLR for tens of years.

It is also the industry standard on high-end amps.

all in all it was the clear winner from the feasibility study.

ā€¦Single ended is best for short runs and audio generally IMHO. This is why we have chosen balanced impedance outputs. The WP will explain this. It is to do with harmonic structuresā€¦i.e. two equal but opposite signals will have their even ordered harmonics cancel leaving odd orderā€¦too much detail for this thread.

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Can I echo the posters that have stated how great it is to have input from knowledgeable Naim engineers on the forum as it really does create an ā€usā€ feel rather than an ā€œus and themā€.

Also great to see white papers being created and made available.

Thank You.

.sjb

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Yes, Roy + others (and myself) worked on this and tried many kilometres of different cables (when you design cable you have a minimum order quantity! - we want 10m but have to make 1,000m).

It felt impossible to make a flexible cable that sounded better than NACA5.
It is not just one thing that makes a good cable sing

Too much for this thread

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@110dB just to echo some of the earlier comments above, your input from a technical standpoint has been fascinating and most informative. Thank you so much for taking the time to participate and give us the benefit of your knowledge. Like many forum members, Iā€™m sure, I am really looking forward to reading the WP when it is released. Canā€™t say Iā€™ll understand it, but I look forward to trying all the same :joy:

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It depends on what do you want to achieve-
A quality source or a reduction in boxes, otherwise I would not purchase a new and expensive box compared to a much higher quality and cheaper solution in the form of-
52PRE+S.C
Ndac+555ps
to be connected to the active speaker.
I wouldnā€™t be too excited about the new toyā€¦
Naim also does not have magic solutions in one box. For reducing the boxes, you will always pay, in the quality of the soundā€¦

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ā€œStill waiting for NCC 1701ā€

It will be a ā€˜universalā€™ player. CD, SACD, Blu Ray, Streaming, Beamingā€¦

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I agree entirely. I have a 52, Supercap and 135s, and theyā€™re not going anywhere.

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Now that this long and hard work for you and the team has come to an end, whatā€™s next? Besides a well-deserved holiday thenā€¦:wink:

if the New Classic 250 now produce 100 watts/ch, the 300DR is 90 watt/ch (if Iā€™m not mistaken).
So if they ā€œupgradeā€ the 300DR, wouldnā€™t that make it too close to NAP500DR, while the price difference (currently) is quite far.

Might be wrong but I hope no one chose between the 250, 300, 500 due to some 10ā€™s of watts :slight_smile: All boxes will likely be updated eventually and higher watts does not equal better in my book at least :slight_smile:

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@HAS - The NAP300 lists at 90W per channel into 8 ohms - the NAP500 is 140W. The 500 is also a Bridged amp - whereas the 250 & 300 are both conventional.

I would imagine what the same ā€˜tweaksā€™ (as done for the 250) could be applied to both 300 & 500. If Naim wished to do soā€¦ :thinking:

@Blackbird - Precisely. I do not find my CB/Olive 250 lacking with its ā€˜mereā€™ 70 W.

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I have a question regarding the new 300 psu, on something like an ndx2 using a single input from a 555ps technically would that still be the best sounding option? or because of the new trickery in the 300 would that sound better

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Yes the Apple Music statement is misleading. Once again a new product that didnā€™t support Apple Music natively and no way to play hi-res at all. Real shame. Was thinking this would have been a nice upgrade. But understand itā€™s not Naim but Appleā€™s fault.

Maybe 222 is cool streamer, assume it is cool. I canā€™t understand why to buy an NDX2 if there is a more generic solution?