Intro
Contents
Some 50 years ago, Julian Vereker founded Naim. In those 50 years, the British brand has managed to rally quite a fan base behind it. The compelling reproduction with lots of drive and high ‘fun factor’ is are certainly responsible for that. Does the new Classic 200 series also have these Naim genes? We’re going to find out for you.
The new Classic 200 series really does look absolutely beautiful again. What a gem. Of course, we haven’t seen every volume knob in the world, but for us, the Naim volume knob is the most beautiful of them all. It turns incredibly nice and looks downright great. The Naims with the volume knob at the top also look great.
Enough about the volume knob…. what else do we see? On the NSC222 (7500 Euro), we see a nice and pretty large, sharp display on the right. The display shows the cover art as you stream. If you want to change inputs, the appropriate inputs and icons appear there. Inputs can be changed via the buttons to the right of it, or via the Naim app or remote control. On the right we also see a button for favorites, play/pause and standby.
Flexible
The Naim NSC222 is a wonderful central hub for those who don’t want separate devices, but do like everything at a high level.
The NSC222 has a streamer built in (Ethernet input), offers digital coaxial, (2x) optical and bnc inputs to link digital devices, a phono input and finally rca and DIN inputs for analog devices. As befits a Naim device, you can lift the ground to eliminate hum, should the need arise.
Naim offers XLR and RCA outputs to connect a power amplifier. The NAP250 (7500 Euro) offers only XLR inputs. Now we do see in the measurements that the separate “pseudo balanced” XLR design ensures that Naim equipment in particular matches well. We get anomalous results when we measure the NSC222 and NAP250 separately. That can only be due to the alternative ‘pseudo-balanced’ XLR design.
External power supply
We also got the NPX300 from distributer Latham. This optional, external power supply connects via two large burndy cables. The advantage of an upgrade power supply is multiple. Let’s just say that it just lifts everything up a level. We describe further in the article how that manifests itself.
If you’re using the NSC222 without this power supply, it’s necessary to use the special caps (in the box) to link a pair of internal connections. If you do not do this, the NSC222 will not turn on.
Power
The NAP250 is, in fact, a completely renewed design. We wrote about that in this background article. So we are not going to explain it all again. But in short: as befits a true Naim, everything is built around a giant power supply. Naim applies DR – Discrete Regulator – technology in this power amplifier. In our experience, this provides significantly more openness and speed.
The NAP250 should deliver 100 watts into 8 Ohms and 190 watts into 4 Ohms. We measure a fairly equal output. More on that later.
