The new NAIT 50 Limited Edition

Has Naim paired the Nait 50 with any speaker from the Focal range? Any recommendation at all for speakers?

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I watched that ,
Donā€™t know how show display stuff is normally treated, but that front edge looks rough :confused:

Belt sander failure. :thinking:

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I would certainly think that pretty much any of the DeVore Gibbon range would be an amazing match with Nait.

More likely a pre-production unit that has done the rounds a bit.

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To be honest it was just a bit of educated humour. :wink:
It looks like a light reflection itā€™s on the top rail as well at an angle.
Proper retro product well done. :+1:t2:

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I was there. I touched the nat 50. It was nice, but it was not possible to listen to it. I have to say I felt that the naim guys were slightly unfriendly.

Wondered the same thingā€¦

Now we are all waiting for the answersā€¦
for me the best reasons to buy - nice looking, to the point (no dac, no remote, no Display, and for sure great sound.
not everyone has it is a plus :slight_smile:

I am not patientā€¦

Iā€™m a Naim newby - I have only a few months history with Naim. Certainly, I have read with interest the various articles praising the Nait 1 over the years in Stereophile and other magazines. I kind of remember seeing them ages ago in HiFi shopsā€¦ remember them? Oh, Iā€™m in the US and HiFi shops all started specializing in TVs 20 years ago and most have closed when TVs became mass market commodities.

I have a delightful Supernait 3. Iā€™m enjoying it very much. I certainly donā€™t have any desire to get one of these 50th Anniversary Naims. But Iā€™m curious. Would the Nait Anniversary model sound any different than my SN3? I realize it has fewer features and less power. But is it all nostalgia or some other reason to lust after this integrated amp?

Why?

Your Supernait 3 is a more advanced integrated amplifier. It can also be improved with a HiCap or Supercap power supply. I have a HiCap DR on my SN2 and the improvement was substantial.

The Nait 50 represents the best Naim can do in a shoebox sized component. Iā€™m sure itā€™s greatā€¦ but itā€™s no SN3.

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Like so many of you I adore the new Nait50 and itā€™s clear itā€™s going to be a rip-roaring success for Naim! Itā€™s also reminded me that I always preferred the old ā€œnaim audioā€ logo to the newer ā€œnaimā€ one.

I genuinely have no inside knowledge of Naimā€™s future plans but I would have thought one possibility is that they re-case the Nait 50 into the new clasic case and launch it as the Naim Nait 6. That would then leave the way open to launch a matching shoebox streamer. The net result of all that is that Naim would be offering an entry level separates system, a lower level entry point into ā€˜proper Naimā€™ for new converts. Iā€™d love to see that as Iā€™m sure would many others.

It does create an interesting issue though. The popularity of the old ā€˜wraparoundā€™ style cases seems very enduring and when I think of Naim at its most iconic itā€™s the chrome bumper or olive kit that I think of. That might just be a function of my age and the fact that is what naim looked like when I got into hi-fi, but I think itā€™s deeper than that. The old styles were more distinctive I think - they are the Porsche 911 of hi-fi. A design classic that has had its edges smoothed with the passage of time but Porsche have never really managed to improve on the looks of the original. I think Naim find themselves in a somewhat similar place really. Should they just bite the bullet and market a heritage range of shoebox separates in chrome bumper style or should they re-case any future Naits into the new design language? Itā€™s a tough call!

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Its interesting how we view these things through the rose coloured spectacles of age. I dislike the Olive because it constantly reminds me of Austin Montego/Maestro dash and is very dated to my eyes. On the other hand my Conran years lusting after black ash furniture makes me view the CB as classic, and yes I can lust after the Nait 50 in a way that makes no sense when considered against the current offerings from Naim. I do think it strikes a chord for simplification of aesthetic though. The new classic has for me taken a wrong direction in not being able to turn the horrible white ring off completely. Otherwise I think form following function is the key and I hope that is what the NC has done.

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Thatā€™s the thing though, nobody knows! Whilst the Naim engineer I spoke to thinks it is at SN3 level weā€™ll all have to wait and see.
I can understand SN users not wanting it to be though :joy:

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Well in terms of internal real estate, the Nait 50 is a double decker PCB with half as many inputs and no balance pot.

I suppose, transformer size aside, if you were to trim off the pre-relay circuits for half the SN3s inputs and then trim off the balance control, the PCB size actually wouldnā€™t be substantially different at all.

But hereā€™s the thing: PCB size and number of components donā€™t tell you how good or bad something is. I can totally believe that the 50 is in a similar league to a SN3, albeit requiring selection from amongst a totally different group of speakers.

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Iā€™m not sure it has. For instance, the heat sinks on the sides are superfluous for some of the products, but have been included for commonality of style.

Which heatsinks would you say were superfluous? Power amps, transformers and digital sources all generate heat which needs to be dissipated. If Naim have moved on from their previous approach to using the case as a heatsink I canā€™t think of any boxes that wouldnā€™t need it.

Bear in mind that in some units the heatsink also has within it the aerials for Wifi, BT etcā€¦ which is a much neater solution.

I canā€™t recall which ones, but interestingly Steve Sells agreed with my point when I asked him about it in Bath.

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