The new NAIT 50 Limited Edition

No imbalance (even at very low listening levels) with my N50 :man_shrugging:

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Could you explain this earth grounding please. No insult or cockiness intended, I honestly donā€™t understand it! (my instruction manual is in the box and in the loft).
I just connect everything and listen to the music :joy:
Cheers.

No probs, not quite sure how I might think you are being cocky by asking a genuine questionā€¦ā€¦ when you connect Naim sources, you need to ensure one and only one is earthed grounded, that is its return on the signal output is connected to mains earth.
Now Naim CD players used to perform this role, but with more modern sources there is often a switch on the back that can be either ā€˜defaultā€™ or ā€˜floatā€™. You should have just one of the inputs connected to a source set to default such as a streamer, and the other, if present, should be set to float.
I am not sure of the status of the phono input however.

For non Naim sources, you may need to measure the earth ground resistance between signal output return and the mains earth on the plug ā€¦ obviously must be unplugged to do that.

I donā€™t think you can break anything not doing this optimally, but set wrong you might get a low level mains hum, or non optimal source signal connection to the Nait50 preamp , ie the source not sounding its best.

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Fwiw I have found my DNM HFTN interconnects between DAVE and NAIT 50 seem to sound the most natural and fluidā€¦ with lovely weight and tonal separations on busy passages, I felt my Hilines sounded a tad glarey on busy tracks with a lot of higher end energy. Listening to the Wall right nowā€¦ sounds really good and hearing details I hadnā€™t noticed beforeā€¦ astounding. Sure I think I have heard my first foibles ā€¦ lower level high treble like cymbals are not always as clear as from my previous higher Naim amps, and bass playing is not always quite as rhythmically punchy ā€¦ but I am being pickyā€¦however strings do sound nicely textured and weighted.
It drives the SCM19s really well, but it does get warm when itā€™s shifting the bass driversā€¦but nothing untoward.

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Iā€™m curious, and forgive me if youā€™ve stated in the midst of the previous 750 posts on this thread Iā€™ve not followed, how does the 50 fit in with your Chord amplification? That was already very small as I recall. A change already?

Just out of interest, what do you consider very low level in your case? (Mine is the previously stated 7:20 if scale starts at 7:00).

Hi - it wonā€™t fit in - if I keep the Nait 50 which is looking likely, I will trade in my Chord amplification. Kind of missed the Naim sound :slight_smile: and there was plenty of opportunity to miss it through the Covid years.

Also didnā€™t have a Chord preamp - and I also very much realised that despite some claims to the contrary the DAVE into the Etude DOES need a preamp to sound its best in a musical audio way, and I donā€™t want to have separates again, and without one I couldnā€™t enjoy my other analogue sources such as my NATā€¦

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Nice one @Simon-in-Suffolk the N50 really is superb especially with a great source like the DAVE. When I first listened to my N50 it took pride of place on top of the Fraim with DAVE / MScaler / ND5XS2 feeding it, for most rooms the N50 is hard to beat.

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Probably the same I guess.

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Ok, thanks. It seems then that I am unfortunately the unlucky one who received a not so optimal unit. The imbalance starts to gradually reduce itself after 7:30 and the balance is good somewhere after 7:45 (which is way too loud considering neighbours at early mornings or late nights).

I had a friend who had the same problem with some cyrus gear, ended up that the imbalance was at all levels and was in fact his ears!
I doubt thatā€™s your case if it goes away by ā€˜8ā€™. Iā€™d check with your dealer if it could be ā€˜re-calibratedā€™ or whatever. I do hope you can get it sorted :crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers:

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Even if the imbalance is the ears, you notice it less as the volume increases.

The hearing sure is not what it used to be :smiley: However, thatā€™s not the likely cause here since I donā€™t have this issue with SN2 (in the same setup).

The Nait 2 was made a classic by the people. Not by being the first as the Nait1. I have a Nait XS and bar the extra power compared with the Nait2 , it does have close similarities sound wise.

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Mine is also at 7:20 for low volume listening without imbalance issue. Have you tried to adjust the speakers positioning a bit?

Changing the position of the speakers did not unfortunately help. The imbalance at the low level is so severe that when I am standing right next to the quiet speaker I can hardly hear it since the other one is so much louder. Anyhow I put SN2 back to the system so all is good, I now have early morning music playing too :notes:. I am thinking about trying some in-line attenuators (e.g. Rothwell) but not sure what those do for sound quality.

What source are you using with the nait50?
I reduced the output on my dac v1 below that of fixed volume to avoid the channel imbalance at very low volume (thereby forcing the volume to need to be higher on the nait50).

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For low level listening I use iFi NEO Stream as a source. It has a software volume control option and I tried that but it did have an impact on the sound quality (if have I understood correctly bits are lost when using that and thus itā€™s not recommended).

I think you should take it back to your dealer, to go and be sorted out. It shouldnā€™t be like you describe and you will forever be slightly sad about it if you just put up with it. Naim will sort it out quickly enough in the scheme of things.

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You might be right. I will think about it. However, when reading from the local hifi forum about the experice concerning the local distributor (not Nait 50 related though) I am not too confident that the issue would be solved. I know that my dealer would be helpful but they would only pass the matter forward.