Good point. On the other hand I spent a good 30 minutes listening to the new trio in Acoustica Chester on Saturday afternoon, feeding Focal Kanta 3s and played music via Qobuz from Steely Dan‘s Aja and Hey Nineteen, Deacon Blue, Fleetwood Mac‘s Songbird, then Fink This is the thing (live), Eagles Hell freezes over live version of Hotel California, to Ted Nugent‘s Stranglehold and a few others, and found it a delightful and truly visceral experience. I had to tear myself away! It is brilliant. No doubt about that.
But I am very happy with my current setup and although the new stuff is brilliant, it is not enough to make me want to trade them in for it. Yet!
Dan tells me 282/252 are no longer being made and new 350 series is due later this year! According to the Naim rep, it sounds bigger and better than the new 200 series. (Well he would wouldn’t he?)
So 252 also set to go and Dan made me an offer to upgrade from the 282 to a brand spanking new 252, that I very nearly took! But having read the various opinions about 282-252 upgrade on the forum (), and the fact that the upgraditis itch will inevitably lead from the 250DR to the NAP300 and 300PS, means that I am still cogitating on that……however one good thing about the new series is that there will be some good deals on the way for the old stock!!
While the opinions were varied on the 252 in the past, from what I can tell this was more so back before the DR upgrade to the amps & power supplies. Don’t recall many saying they prefer the 282 vs the 252 when paired with DR gear. As someone who went from 282/250DR to 252/300DR recently, the later is far superior all around.
The 252 is a class act and I never really understood the view that a 282 was ‘better’. If the price is right it might be your last chance to get a new 252 and save a few quid. I had a similar dilemma recently and traded a Supercap for a Supercap DR for mine. My 252 is 19 years old, serviced and sounding great…
The new 222 series was the trigger for me to go after an XPS-DR for my NDX 2, as they are discontinued by Naim.
I‘d likely might have waited a little longer, but here we are and running in. Not planned, but that‘s how it always happens.
I think, they will sound as great as they are looking. I didn‘t consider going for the new ones, because i am pretty happy with my streamer and spending 5K instead of
21K was also an argument.
If it itches, go and have a listen, if you like it, pull the trigger. No one says, you have to.
As another option, the 252DR is Brilliant with the New 250. So much in fact all thoughts of getting a 300DR have vanished. I originally auditioned my D7.2’s with the 252DR and 300DR.
Once again, the mixed messages coming from all angles, “my dealer said X”, “ohh my dealer heard that Y was happening next week”, “I read on another forum Naim are doing Z already”
One can only hope they are clear and honest with existing and future owners and don’t keep people waiting on orders for Old Classic upgrade boxes for weeks, months, maybe years?
The food chain are clearly motivated to focus everyones attention on the new shiny stuff, Naim and their dealer network make good margin on new box sales and the reality here is the cost of manufacturer is likely lower moving forwards so everyone wins.
The Old Classic range is costly to build and has too many products overall, they’ll likely reluctantly officially state they’ll make power supplies for a period of time but inevitably that window won’t just run and run and eventually ordering anything will be difficult if not impossible.
If you do want a factory fresh box you’re almost certainly best sourcing it now, I’d be looking around and making speculative offers on ex demo kit tbh, probably a bit more leverage in that sense than usual!
From what has been reported as said by dealers, and the new range starting to appear with the 222 et al, it is clear that their is a major equipment change in progress. How long that will take to feed through to all of the range is unclear. It may even be unclear to Naim until existing stock and parts to make kit are dwindled down. If anyone is looking for new kit at the moment I think it is only reasonable to shop around for discounts on dealer stock items. My concern, hinted at in an earlier post, is the availability of DR caps/boards for future service. The new range has been pointed out as containing ‘tweaked’ DR items running at a different voltage. Whether they can be used for service or replacement on old items hasn’t been stated ( or asked as yet).
Doubt you’ll get an official response on that one way or another, but certainly share your concern regards servicing relative to DR.
They stopped the DR Upgrades and EOL lower rungs in the Classic range in particular the 202/200, putting these things down mostly to “supply challenges”, perhaps they’ll default to that reasoning again, they seem to have weathered it before at least.
I read that, he does also clearly point the finger at Marketing as opposed to saying it will categorically happen. It’s not his decision ultimately, someone above his pay grade will have this in a LRP spreadsheet somewhere one would assume.
Outside of the forum bubble, if you were looking at a global demand forecast for say HiCap, you may be surprised at the volume, by country and for all regions. If they’re making a priority call on resources and margin/EBITDA they’ll be using that to make more NPX’s one would expect?
We obviously read this statement differently. “The existing PSUs will continue to be made for those wanting complete system goals.” I read that as a clear statement that the existing PSUs will continue to be made where you don’t see it as a categoric statement. It isn’t for an indefinite time period and the timescale for how long will be announced by marketing.
Just out of interest, did your dealer discuss the use of the NPX300 supply with the NDX2? There are reasons to not use it, different case style, price of £5,700 as opposed to a discounted XPS-DR, need to wait for connecting cable to be launched (although you could get a 3rd party cable I’d have thought), was it one or all of these (or ones I haven’t thought of)?
Apart from a passing historical reference, operational and manufacturing considerations are very different when comparing the two.
They won’t do anything fast, it’s taken them nearly 10 years to trickle down to the 200 Series (from Statement) and even those new boxes took 5 years of work to bring to market.
), and the fact that the upgraditis itch will inevitably lead from the 250DR to the NAP300 and 300PS, means that I am still cogitating on that……however one good thing about the new series is that there will be some good deals on the way for the old stock!!