Do advise more, I’m intriguedJust be aware, if you’ve never owned Naim what you are letting yourself in for
Do advise more, I’m intriguedJust be aware, if you’ve never owned Naim what you are letting yourself in for
it’s now over £1k more then the SN2 in the UK at £3999
Naim are very good at the upsell and putting the fear of god into you should you use a third party cable or PSU. Its clever as there is always a nagging doubt what you have bought could sound better if only you spend a little more. Its akin to an audio crack dealer! As always let your ears decide but the Naim rollercoaster can prove hard to get off if you buy into it and expensive.Do advise more, I’m intrigued
Agree with this, before discovering pfm I used to read everything on the Naim forum (older version before the naim community was setup) a lot of discussion around upgrading and it seems endless and at the cost it’s mad to me. However if your not sucked in I think the integrated amps second hand are a good buy as your not likely to loose much if you move it on.. caveat being there is apparently a new case work incoming which means the current range may drop in value a little. I’d say also consider other brands, I originally wanted a nait 5si but opted for a brio as I already had a rega dac, then went elex r and now have an exposure 3010S2D which is great and equivalent to SN, if you are into vinyl the optional phono cards are also excellent so you might find better vfm elsewhere but potentially worse depreciation.Naim are very good at the upsell and putting the fear of god into you should you use a third party cable or PSU. Its clever as there is always a nagging doubt what you have bought could sound better if only you spend a little more. Its akin to an audio crack dealer! As always let your ears decide but the Naim rollercoaster can prove hard to get off if you buy into it and expensive.
The Naim bits I still have are well built and work well and have given me hours of enjoyment
To be honest, the only Naim cables I use are between the SN and Hi-cap. All other interconnects and speaker cable are Townshend Audio with power cables coming from Russ Andrews and Van den Hul. This has never caused any harm, no smoke from the Amps etc has ever occured.Naim are very good at the upsell and putting the fear of god into you should you use a third party cable or PSU. Its clever as there is always a nagging doubt what you have bought could sound better if only you spend a little more. Its akin to an audio crack dealer! As always let your ears decide but the Naim rollercoaster can prove hard to get off if you buy into it and expensive.
The Naim bits I still have are well built and work well and have given me hours of enjoyment
I had the Supernait 1 for many years and boy could it boogie! It had a darker, rounder presentation than my previous Nac202, Nap 200. I hardly used the internal dac but it was fine. Adding a HiCap DR just pushed it into another league……turned it into a really svelte performer, retained the ‘grunt’ but managed to make the bass even more tuneful. I was disappointed when I had the Supernait 2 and moved it on quite quickly…this I because the sound reminded me of my Naim separates mentioned above, which wasn’t my bag.
I have to admit, the little Nait XS3 is quite a fine performer, have enjoyed mine for about two years now.
To be honest, the only Naim cables I use are between the SN and Hi-cap. All other interconnects and speaker cable are Townshend Audio with power cables coming from Russ Andrews and Van den Hul. This has never caused any harm, no smoke from the Amps etc has ever occured.
….by the way, slightly off topic, but can anyone confirm that the Supernait 3 is substantially cheaper in the States than anywhere else?
I recently saw a review on YouTube from a dealer across the pond and he claimed it was a $1000 cheaper than the outgoing Supernait 2, which surprised me!….a mistake?
Could you elaborate on what the naim separates did that you didn't like?
I found the separates lacked warmth, were brash and a tiring listen over an extended period. I also found that they never sounded the same from day to day….some days bass was there and sweet treble, other days sounded like a bag of nails. The Supernait just didn’t do that….it was consistent.
.. I was shunned! Cables make NO difference! A few months later naim released their upgraded cables and the forum was creaming its knickers.
HiFi Critic magazine liked all three supernait amps. Martin Collins gave SN1 a score of 48, the SN2 a 77, not sure about the SN3 but a further improvement.