The Sic Safco capacitors have gone

Adjustments are made during the lifetime of a product, according to availability.

The first one with the yellow bits is definitely an r&d unit as it has an 88 serial number; so not a production unit.

Itā€™s smaller too.

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Yes. I heard the yellow capacitors are crucial to Naim sound, but Iā€™m unsure if it is true. I can see the original sites were designed for the yellow ones.

I think thatā€™s something that has been said before about Naimā€™s use of Tants (the little yellow bead-like caps), but really no single component can define what makes Naim kit sound the way it does.

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Could @110dB please give a short introduction on what design changes have been made to adjust the sound?

Coughā€¦err scaling of photo?

Is it relevant? This is a pre production unfinished model listened to by Gary and the collective decision was to change capacitors; for a reason that could be sound quality or cost or availability or long term dependability, or something else, and a combination of those attributes. And probably many other changes, after all, this is an iterative process of making it, listening to it, adjusting it, until itā€™s deemed finished and ready for production.
What you can buy from your Naim dealer is what has been signed off by Gary.

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Those particular caps, and their contribution to SQ, were called out though

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Just curiousā€¦

Who is Gary? Your mate?

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Gary Crocker - for many years one of the great R&D ā€œnamesā€ behind Naim kit

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You can clearly see that the cable dressing in the bottom unit is vastly tidied up and thought out wheras the top pic is merely ā€œwired upā€.

Iā€™d not read too much into the changes at all. If youā€™re interested in how it sounds in practice, ask for a demonstration. I rarely if ever open up any gear to pass judgement on the parts unless I have to for some repair.

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I sometimes open up a box so I can see the music moving along the wires, that big black burger, little metal bugs and those green biscuits.

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To check that the Fairy Dust is still thereā€¦ :smiley:

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Iā€™d be pretty p*ssed of if Iā€™d purchased based on being misled that it contains the same components that are used in the Statement.

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Do we know where that second photo came from? might not be real and to be fair to Naim the production one might sound better

Good point. An AI generated fake photo. :grin:

do you know what made me think this? the holes in the boards would have to be in a different place for those caps, so in a way a different board. thats quite a bit of effort surely

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Although the PCB might have been designed to take either axial or radial capacitors.