What you like about naim gear(s) /What makes you a naim owner

Hi Guys , please share your thots … :smiley:

Hi this has been discussed before
Eg

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:sweat_smile: oops … Thanks

PRAT of course :grin:
But seriously, it is the quality of the build, the lack of gimmicks, the support service and British heritage.

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The sound. Not the price…

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We live a long way from the nearest good Naim dealer. After a demo CDS2 for my tube rig downstairs, I bought my first piece from NANA in Chicago, a NaitSi, and liked the sound upstairs. I upgraded that with a NaitXS and FlatcapXS, and added CD5X, and it was off to the races. Then I visited my nearest Naim dealer, 800 miles away, and after quite a few upgrades, over a quite a few years, including four pairs of Proacs, a NAP300, a NAP500, a 500DR, a 552, plus DR, a CD555, a ND555, SuperCapDR, Superline, multiple power supplies, NACA5, Superlumina, Powerlines, 11 Fraim levels, and the rest, ended up with the 500 setup we have now.

We have bought it all with confidence and visit the dealer every couple of years at most. Every extra dollar produces an improvement it seems. My lovely wife, who listens the most, can always hear the difference. In audio purchases, confidence is a powerful emotion.

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Easy answer to the question, we were demoing amps in the 80s, to move on from our Nytech set up.

When we first heard a NAC72/140 combination it was really no contest.

This was upgraded in 2018 - incredible longevity really.

:slightly_smiling_face:

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I went to upgrade my speakers to Linn Kans. They demo’d them with a Nait 2. I was sold.
Since then I’ve changed speaker makes but always kept with the Naim sound for HiFi. It first impressed me at a time when Pioneer/Technics/Denon were all a bit high and trebly in their characteristic sound. Naim was and to recently always had an earthiness and mid range that suits me.

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Get your own.

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:joy:

Thoughts…I meant :sweat_smile:

I have owned Naim for over 35years. I have built trust in the performance but also in the company (and dealers) to be professional, to produce a well designed, high quality and reliable product, and to provide good aftersales and support.

I started on a dealer recommendation, and along the way Naim products have never really let me down.

Bruce

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I chose my Naim system b/c it is easy for me to use, given my disabilities. Also the fact that my dealer has Naim at home, when he had other options was a huge endorsement. I am not dissatisfied.

Most systems today are solely LCD, which is difficult for us. My SN3 has buttons.

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I bought my first Naim system about 13yrs ago after a hiatus from hifi of about 10yrs. I previously owned Audiolab amps. I chose Naim after browsing the net for suitable amps while working away from home in hotel rooms. I chose the NAC92/NAP90 combo mainly because I liked the way they looked and the green lights :man_shrugging:. The eBay photos were particularly good. :blush:. Luckily they sounded great and after that started to properly learn about Naim and within a couple of years understood exactly what I wanted in the future (The clue is in my name :blush:). Never heard any of the kit before purchasing and never regretted a purchase which I think says a lot about the brand. Biggest lesson learnt, buy used/cheap, never open the box and send immediately to Class A. Works every time.

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Musically coherent, particularly rhythm and timing.

Servicing.

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It’s all in the timing man …

It’s amazing some folk just can’t perceive timing hence don’t get Naim …

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Chicks dig Naim…

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Its really does play music, its taken me years to get to the level im at but i feel i can just sit back relax and listen to music like never before

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I’m new to Naim, but always wondered about the ‘greener pastures’ promised (implicated?) by the many converts to Naim before me…

As someone who has ‘champagne taste on a beer budget’, I started to peruse the second hand markets for ‘better than average kit’ since the late mid to late nineties…

Whilst I have owned some ‘State of the Art’ (once upon a time) kit spanning across all equipment categories since the sixties (maybe not ‘DACs’); ‘downgrading’ to a basic Naim Nait integrated amp (as someone who seldom uses integrateds) has been quite a learning experience. (I thought it would be downgrade in every metric, but was bought for being ‘tiny’ and ‘power sipping’ and ‘versatile enough’ to be useful)

I considered Naim simply due to all the times I was purchasing really nice kit (second hand) from other Audiofools (audiophiles), and, upon asking "what did you upgrade to… ;being “Naim”.

When one of the ‘juniors’ in a fave hifi shop started his Naim journey, and we chatted about it, and aspects of the upgrade path he was planning, I saw what to me looked like a cult!
The cult of Naim, conceptually, has been a reality to me for two decades now…
(so I was very slow to the fold it is fair to say)

Upon bringing my (lowly) Nait integrated home I was excited. (Exacerbated by the wait times from initial order to delivery to my local hifi shop etc…)
I had been trialing a range of amps to use as a power amp in my den hifi setup and potentially Home Theatre accessory amplifier (AV Bypass to power the main speakers) ‘down the track’…

Being between a Musical Fidelity NuVista downgrade to ‘other amps’ I had rotated more than ten reasonable audio amplifiers into my Den hifi rig (a relatively stationary setup that helps me compare parts due to its’ consistency in build)…
Stereo amps from the ‘big dogs’ (mainstream/mass market ‘crap’) were very poor quality vs what I was used to (external power amps from decades ago, generally speaking) and having come from nice kit like valve mono blocks, the family had a hard time signing off on replacement parts (amps) as being equal to what we had been running over the last few years…
Even the 55 year old missus ‘not into hifi’ could pick that J.C. Superstar just didn’t sound as good as previously experienced…

The first amp I rotated into my Den setup that sounded alright (musical) was an ancient Marantz PM64 mkII. So long as we kept the volume dial low.

I recognised that build topology, to my mind, was a large part of the audio battle.
Seeing (/‘hearing’) this ancient wee beastie of an amp outplay many more modern amps, for musicality, meant I knew that not even the flagship surround (modern) amps could touch basic hifi amps from decades ago (that would cost pennies if found in a garage sale)…
So retiring a bunch of THX ‘reference’ TOTL surround amplifiers (as power amps) and ignoring all the modern integrateds that just seem to grate my ear hairs, I figured I’b be buying a valve or class A amp with a design that was simple, and to focus on build and design. (It was going to have to be an ‘audio first’ company I was buying from)

The Nait 5si seemed perfect for me (my shortlist had parasound, rotel and rega on it, having dismissed NAD and Yamaha and ‘a few others’ along the way).
I wanted to buy higher in the Naim lineup, knowing the upgradeability of the step up parts…
but, buying unheard it was a ‘lot of faith’ to have in a part to deliver a sound from a topology I didn’t think would be to my satisfaction (class AB design).
I could get AudioGd power amps that would use an ‘ACSS’ link from my DAC/Pre, and I trusted in Qingwas’ tuning, so that was my best bet. Vincent had proven themselves at friends’ houses, so they were another ‘class A’ at low volume design that was ‘very affordable’…

Still, based on decades of people I knew and respected becoming apart of a Naim ‘cult’ I had faith there must be something in the coolaid worth drinking…

So, unheard- I bought a Nait XS.

Whilst I thought the out of box sound wasn’t to my liking (forward, uncontrolled); a few hundred hours of being left on sorted that out. (I have power cycled the amp only ONCE since purchase)
The musical rendering that comes from this box is like a slap in the face to my ‘science mind’- this is a Class AB circuit that sounds as good as valve and class A in ‘many ways’ whilst it sips power (hence I leave it turned on).
Also - it delivers on a profile of sound that is associated with Naim equipment and THAT feature delivers daily, generally with one in four of the music tracks I listen to sounding ‘so much better’ due to some aspect of Naim circuitry delivering a ‘more musical enjoyment’.
It is a fast little amp, a feature that the venerable Sansui AU919 trained my ears to appreciate (fast slew rate = responsive)…

A couple (less than a handful) of individual music tracks have rendered ‘less than the best’ I have previously heard… they seem to run out of headroom and just resolve a version of the track that has less life (than when running through 1500VA behemoth esoteric kit), and given the price point of the stuff that bests’ this entry level Naim; I see Naim as an affordable reliable HIFI brand that can really deliver.
(as a Class AB amp design, I’d say it punches above its’ weight too; although given the new topologies flooding the market in recent years- Class AB is the new ‘black’)

I lost ‘a little’ in soundstage and gained EVERYTHING ELSE.
I agree that a Supernait would take most of my aspirations further, and probably is the amp that would have better matched what I was coming from (a ~300 watt two box affair powered from THREE TOROIDALs), I can confirm I am totally happy with the Nait XS, and likely would have been with the 5si just as much…

As of this week I started using the AV Bypass mode, and expereinced a huge uptick in sound quality, mostly with regards to stage space and imaging beyond the back wall of the den.

To say that the Naim integrateds make fantastic upgrade paths to those using a surround setup (assuming it has front left/right preouts); that can upgrade a users lounge setup to sound better than most of the worlds ‘den’ setups…
Naim is gem waiting to be discovered…

Sure they cost more than ‘mid eighties’ audio parts did…
but that is the market right now, and the good stuff is going stratosphere pricing…
But as someone who wasn’t willing to rely on a house full of decades old parts all talking with each other, having a Naim Nait piggybacking from an Anthem surround processor OR running in AV BYPASS from a nice Preamp is an easy way to true high fidelity sound.

That ruddy ‘PRAT’ thing (that makes the whole name Naim seem prattish to me) is ‘a thing’ and one worth buying into too…

Naim has earned its’ name being valuable in hifi circles. (well done)

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: