david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
The obelisk one is a big step up from a nait 2.
Nait 2 or Ion Obelisk 3x with x-pac?
- Thread starter All-Bran Addict
- Start date
JezmondTutu
pfm Member
Obelisk One was not a patch on a Nait 2. Was very much a budget integrated.
However, as an ex-owner of a 3x-Xpak1 I’d personally say it bettered the Nait 2. It could also go a lot louder.
Had a personal tour of the factory from Richard Hay when he was alive, very nice chap.
However, as an ex-owner of a 3x-Xpak1 I’d personally say it bettered the Nait 2. It could also go a lot louder.
Had a personal tour of the factory from Richard Hay when he was alive, very nice chap.
Allthough I dissagree in above, its funny the very first time I heard the Ion Obelisk and Nait amplication were same day in Copenhagen, nearly 3 decades ago
I was stunned to hear how musically those amplifiers were on the available Royd bookshelf speakers, LP12/Ittok/K9 in a small room
I bet not many digital setup as of today will perform better to my taste.
Lets not be unrealistic, any of these amplifiers will be good (if in good shape) but most likely perform much better when OP replace/upgrade to the Elite Rock
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
Shockingly the Nait is very much a budget integrated too!
JezmondTutu
pfm Member
The Nait was over twice the price of an Obelisk One, it was not a budget unit at the time.
I used to help out at a dealer which sold both Naim and Ion. So had plenty of experience in the listening front. The Obelisk 2 was significantly better than the Obelisk 1.
I’d say Nait 2 and Obelisk 3 were more obvious competitors and price was similar too.
Actually I believe that Nytech Audio may be able to service / repair Ion amps:- http://nytechaudio.com/index.html
I certainly regret 'trading in' my 3X / X-Pak / FMT 1 system which I had until the mid '90's.
Regards
Mike Kelshaw
Nytecholdie
pfm Member
Some more info on the Ion Obelisk range
The Obelisk 1 was the "starter" amp and was based on the last of the Nytech amps the CA102. It sounded remarkably good as it had no preamp section (apart from the phono input) and the input went straight through the volume control to the power amp producing a very clean and uncluttered musical sound.
The early Nytech ones had terrible heatsinking (but can be modified) and the box was somewhat "industrial"
it was a simple bent black box with a nasty plastic knob for the volume control.
Some of the early Ions used the "industrial" case and the Obelisk 2 and 3 in these cases had a mixture of DIN and Phono inputs. The CA102 and Obelisk 1 as far as I know used only phono sockets.
The later Ion Obelisk 1 had a much better case and better heatsinking and was a much better product build wise! but almost identical to the Nytech CA102 circuit and layout wise so retained the excellent sound quality.
The Obelisk 2 had a different layout and an preamp section. It was based on the Nytech CA302 9which is why some of the early ones had DIN and phono sockets - The boards inside were actually Nytech CA302 boards with a different board for the volume pot and switch assemblies.
The Obelisk 3 was similar to the Obelisk 2 but had an improved power suppy arrangement and the phono stage was a plggable board for moving magnet or moving coil cartridges.
The Obelisk 3X was an Obelisk 3 with the power transformer removed and replaced with 2 huge capacitors (one on the early "black box" version). The transformer was put in its own seperate box (the XPak). with a 4 pin cabel supplying 2x22V AC to the amp. The only annoying habit I've found with the 3X is that the power switch on the amp (which switched the 22VAC - not the mains) had a habit of welding on due to the huge surge current from the power supply caps. For this reason we always suggest to 3X owners that they leave the amp power switch on all the time and switch on and off with the switch on the Xpak (which does switch the mains).
If you are looking for a second hand one then try to get hold of the Ions in the later box (with the square orange Ion logo) as they are better made than the "industrial" versions and used the well known Alps "blue" pot for the volume control.
Like all amps of that age, If you want to get the very best out of them then they will benefit from a full service/recap so you should get prices for this and factor this into your desision making process. Nytech Audio (me) still supports the Ion amps as well as the earlier Nytech kit and I'm pretty certain that Naim still support the Nait 2 - A quick phone call to Naim would confirm this.
As to sound quality - Naim and Ion sound fundementally different so your ultimate choice will depend very much on what music you like. I wont say which one is "better" as there will be as many opinions on that as there are people and I'm biased!
Hope this helps
Feel free to PM me or even ring us if anyone wants any more info on Nytech/Ion
Theres also a long running thread here on PFM with loads of info and advice
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/nytech-audio-ion-systems-appreciation-thread.107603/page-31
Hope this is helpful
The Obelisk 1 was the "starter" amp and was based on the last of the Nytech amps the CA102. It sounded remarkably good as it had no preamp section (apart from the phono input) and the input went straight through the volume control to the power amp producing a very clean and uncluttered musical sound.
The early Nytech ones had terrible heatsinking (but can be modified) and the box was somewhat "industrial"
it was a simple bent black box with a nasty plastic knob for the volume control.Some of the early Ions used the "industrial" case and the Obelisk 2 and 3 in these cases had a mixture of DIN and Phono inputs. The CA102 and Obelisk 1 as far as I know used only phono sockets.
The later Ion Obelisk 1 had a much better case and better heatsinking and was a much better product build wise! but almost identical to the Nytech CA102 circuit and layout wise so retained the excellent sound quality.
The Obelisk 2 had a different layout and an preamp section. It was based on the Nytech CA302 9which is why some of the early ones had DIN and phono sockets - The boards inside were actually Nytech CA302 boards with a different board for the volume pot and switch assemblies.
The Obelisk 3 was similar to the Obelisk 2 but had an improved power suppy arrangement and the phono stage was a plggable board for moving magnet or moving coil cartridges.
The Obelisk 3X was an Obelisk 3 with the power transformer removed and replaced with 2 huge capacitors (one on the early "black box" version). The transformer was put in its own seperate box (the XPak). with a 4 pin cabel supplying 2x22V AC to the amp. The only annoying habit I've found with the 3X is that the power switch on the amp (which switched the 22VAC - not the mains) had a habit of welding on due to the huge surge current from the power supply caps. For this reason we always suggest to 3X owners that they leave the amp power switch on all the time and switch on and off with the switch on the Xpak (which does switch the mains).
If you are looking for a second hand one then try to get hold of the Ions in the later box (with the square orange Ion logo) as they are better made than the "industrial" versions and used the well known Alps "blue" pot for the volume control.
Like all amps of that age, If you want to get the very best out of them then they will benefit from a full service/recap so you should get prices for this and factor this into your desision making process. Nytech Audio (me) still supports the Ion amps as well as the earlier Nytech kit and I'm pretty certain that Naim still support the Nait 2 - A quick phone call to Naim would confirm this.
As to sound quality - Naim and Ion sound fundementally different so your ultimate choice will depend very much on what music you like. I wont say which one is "better" as there will be as many opinions on that as there are people and I'm biased!
Hope this helps
Feel free to PM me or even ring us if anyone wants any more info on Nytech/Ion
Theres also a long running thread here on PFM with loads of info and advice
http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/nytech-audio-ion-systems-appreciation-thread.107603/page-31
Hope this is helpful
All-Bran Addict
Member
I've decided to get the Obelisk instead of the Nait 2 because I also have a prototype of the Ion-JC1 speakers which are apparently a great match for the Obelisk. It might take me a while to track down the 3X and the X-Pak2 seems to be quite rare so I may just end up with the X-Pak1. Do you have the MC phono boards for the Obelisk? I also have a Nytech CA-252 and 602 but the 252 doesn't work properly and the cases are in bad condition (they sat in a garage for 20 years). My Dad replaced the mains lead for the 602 and bypassed the fuse; I haven't tested that amp. When I buy the Ion gear and send them off to be serviced, I can also send you the Nytech amps to keep as they are of no use to me.
Nytecholdie
pfm Member
We dont have any spare boards but we can exchange boards between MC and MM. Its also possible to change the appropriate components to convert between types (which is what we do if we exchange boards). We can send you info on this if you want - e-mail us for more details.
There were two types of phono card available in both MM and MC versions
The standard one fitted to the Obelisk had a single sided PCB (tracks on the underside only) wheras the "superboard" (normally fitted to the nexus preamp but sold as an option for the 3/3X) has tracks on both sides of the board and a lot more components. I'll no doubt annoy all superboard owners by saying that I prefer the sound of the basic board :-0!
but thats only my opinion
To be quite honest the MC versions of both boards were very noisy by modern standards so you might want to consider keeping your MM stage and using a MC head amplifier (not a transformer) as the noise figures will be much lower.
Hope this helps
P.S post up some pictures of the JC1,s on the Nytech/Ion appreciation thread in the classic section as a lot of people still think they are a myth
All-Bran Addict
Member
As that is the case I'll probably just stick to using MM carts for now. I'll contact you once I have the gear. Thanks.
Tigerjones
Bagpuss
The 32.5/110 is a lovely combination, great amps. I bought mine from Marcus. I miss Marcus, great fella. Hope his family are doing well.
beammeup
pfm Member
....and as I stated earlier, I have one which needs a good home - better than a Nait 2 for £250 anyone?