Naim Audio: a little history

Naim Audio were incorporated in 1973. Company founder, Julian Vereker, had a unique approach to gutsy and spirited amplifier design and some rather clever thinking in terms of presentation. Having established that power supplies lay at the heart of his products’ unique character, he developed the concept of the upgrade path.

A basic Naim preamplifier could be powered by its partnering Naim power amp but substantial gains can then be made by adding a separate power supply just for the pre-amp. Various performance (and price) levels of pre-amp and power amp, and power supply, most of which were cross – compatible, allowed for the birth of what has probably been the greatest addiction in audio. Electronic Lego, if you will.

Naim products have an extended life, usually well beyond the initial purchaser. Their build quality and attention to detail is the stuff of legend. Naim still support everything that they have ever made, with the limited and fairly recent exception of the very oldest CD transport mechanisms and the earliest streaming tech. Loyalty amongst owners is remarkable. For sure, part of the appeal is the male collecting thing, but a large chunk is the painless ownership experienced coupled with a unique, musical and compelling sonic character.

Naim understand system synergy and, by controlling all of the elements, right down to cables, are able to supply synergistic combinations right out of the box.

Visiting the Naim factory does nothing to undermine faith in the company values. Excruciatingly well organised, impressively busy and amazingly friendly. We’ve seen the famous cable shaker and machinery where the components are pair matched prior to assembly. Consistency between products is a subject close to my heart as an audio dealer and it is impressive to see Naim taking such care.

Should you wish to mix your music system with your cinema one, the pre-amps have the ability to hand control of the front stereo power amp over to the A/V processor but control the power amps directly for music. Simple, elegant and logical. The iOS / Android control of the streamers also allows control of (existing, even 20+ year old) preamp, tuner and CD player.

Since taking on Naim we have pretty well bought the set. We usually have every item in stock on demonstration, now right up to and including Statement. Not a lot of people do this! The new streaming products might be hard to explain (read on to see me falter) but they are stunningly good and remarkably easy to use.

A few years ago, Naim released the HiLine interconnect and this has worked very well for a number of users.  It implements the thinking that controlling vibration is the most significant element. The power line mains leads followed and, again, these are more about releasing physical energy than a funky wire ‘recipe’, although the the HiLine does have PTFE dielectric. Both have proved surprisingly effective outside of the Naim sphere too.

2015 saw the launch of a range of properly high end Naim cables called Super Lumina. These were designed for the Statement amplification and, well, something big happened! These seem to ‘square the circle’ and provide as near as dammit the trade-off free upgrade. We carry the set (and some!), so demonstration and home trials are just a phone call away.

Those who have been frustrated by the easily damaged Hi-Line low mass ‘Armadillo’ plugs are pleased to see that the similar-in-concept plugs used for Super Lumina are made from aluminium and are proving to be very durable indeed.

Big changes

 

Getting along with Naim as well as we have has transformed our business over the past twenty odd years..

Over this period, progress has come along in a fairly linear manner. Ever evolving CD players gave way to ever better network based music players, power amplification and power supplies were upgraded substantially around 10-12 years ago and everything fitted into a well-established pattern.

S1 statement electronics were launched in 2014 and represented a break from the familiar building block Naim form factor.  These pushed the performance further than ever before yet kept the Naim ‘boogie factor’ and ability to follow complex threads in music whilst adding huge scale, overall resolution and depth. The designer of these products is Steve Sells who is now in overall charge of these matters.

Statement also introduced white, rather than green, illuminated logos, a change that is now making its way through the entire range.

In addition to the existing 500 series, we added Statement S1 pre and power amplifiers to our demonstration stock.

Around 2013, Naim and Focal became sister brands under the ownership of Vervent Audio Group. With Focal already making loudspeakers and Naim being short of space for their ever expanding range of electronics, the decision was made to cease loudspeaker manufacture in Salisbury 2017. Loudspeakers had never represented a huge percentage of Naim’s output but the loss was felt by many all the same.

A new world dawns!

 

2023 has seen the arrival of the biggest change to the Naim product line-up in over 20 years. The Classic series referenced earlier on is no more. Welcome to New Classic!

This new range is far less complicated than before: 200 series comprises NSC 222 streamer / preamplifier and NAP 250 power amplifier.  NPX 300 comes from the 300 series and is the sole upgrade power supply. It transforms NSC 222 and the existing NDX 2 streamer.

The new Classic 300 range encompasses NAC 332 preamplifier and NSS 333 network player. Both the player and preamplifier can (individually) take advantage of the NPX 300 power supply too. All of the New Classic components have brought an unexpectedly stringent breath of fresh air. Statement design ideas are now in the volume control of NSC 222 and NAC 332.

For the first time, all components can be powered directly from the mains. The power supply is simply part of the upgrade path. Upgrades have never been so simple!

Another fundamental change is towards balanced cabling between all components. Just to prove that Steve Sells can also ‘think different’, the implementation of balanced diverges from the norm. There is a Mini White Paper to explain it.

Overall ability is up significantly. More the point, there is a fresh ‘voice’ too. Familiar Naim aspects of clarity, timing and dynamics are still there but so too are some very agreeable ’round earth’ aspects of spacial resolution and a sense of effortlessness that, many will appreciate.

To our ears at least, these new products are exceptional.

The 500 series remains in production and demonstration items of the entire range are on our shelves. Change is bound to reach this level too but not for a little while yet.

We could talk for days about Hi-Fi: 01394 672464 / 5 [email protected]
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