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Naim Supernait

Do advise more, I’m intrigued
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
 
Off topic but used bargain is the original XS I still use mine and paid very little in terms of Naim money.
The cost of SN put me off rather stick with separates, but for an integrated the XS has been that good I still use it
 
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
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.
 
I agree I found that Naim cables held back a lot of what the gear was capable of. As for NACA 5 what a PITA that stuff is.
 
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.

Could you elaborate on what the naim separates did that you didn't like?
 
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.

I gave up on naim because of the speaker terminals on the back of the amps, and the need for 3.5m+ speaker cable. Petty I know!

About 10-15 years ago I asked on the Naim forum about upgraded power/interconnect/speaker cable ... well ... I was shunned! Cables make NO difference! A few months later naim released their upgraded cables and the forum was creaming its knickers.
 
….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?

In summer 2019 SuperNait 2 bowed out @ a UK RRP £3500 and was replaced by the SuperNait 3 @ a UK RRP £3500 (2019).
 
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 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.

Intriguing! Why the variation do you think? I had rega saturn>82/150x>rega r5 which i often loved ... but not always.
 
…don’t know why....my Naim separates were like a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ system, moved them on because I got fed up with the lack of consistency.
I also used to see some postings in the Naim forum about other members systems suddenly sounding ‘off’ or, ‘where has the bass gone?’ etc, etc….and I realised hey, that’s happening to me!…I’m not imagining it!! Forum acolytes would always advise purchasing an expensive power supply to remedy the situation, or moving on to a 282 or a 250………really relentless insistence that the core problem was that not enough money had been spent on Naim!!……..fair play to Naim though, this ‘upgrade’ business philosophy must have taken them up close to number 1 most profitable HiFi manufacturer, I’m guesssing…..
 
.. I was shunned! Cables make NO difference! A few months later naim released their upgraded cables and the forum was creaming its knickers.

Must have been when new owners had to create more profit, Lumina looks like a Vertere cable in disguise.
 
So, yesterday I fired up the NDX, first time in a very long time as I mainly listen to vinyl. Initially, it sounded so bland, no soundstage, bass was so light. Left on overnight and today, sounds amazingly good. Naim gear does take a while to warm up hence why they recommend leaving permanently on. Just wish so could leave it on permanently but with the current energy bill increases, just not possible.
 
….all my Naim was on 24/7….something I just wouldn’t do now if I still had the kit. I also wouldn’t buy Naim brand new as I can’t afford it now but second-hand, it’s still a great buy! Also, if you buy a good-‘un, you will most likely lose very little when the time comes to move it on……I’m pretty sure I never lost money on my second hand Naim purchases.
 
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.
 


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