Intro
Contents
Naim introduced the new 300 series and the Naim NAIT 50 at the High End Munich 2023. The Naim NAIT 50 celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the British company. Reason enough for us to look at and listen to how the British are celebrating!
Naim limited the nummer of NAIT 50s tot 1973 units. A number that didn’t come out of the blue: 1973 was the year Naim was founded.
Now the NAIT 50 is a “revival” of the NAIT 1 (the first integrated amp, made by Naim), but the NAIT 1 was launched in 1983. But the NAIT 50 celebrates Naim’s fiftieth anniversary…. bit confusing perhaps, but now you know.
Naim has really done a wonderful job with the NAIT 50. The details are practically all incorporated in the new version of this integrated amplifier. The logo, the buttons, the ‘simple’ cabinet, the slightly different color of the volume knob … excellent work.
Two things on the NAIT’s front are different: the LED of the new NAIT 50 is white (instead of green) and the balance knob has become a headphone jack. Ow… the input names are also just different. That makes sense: the analog tuner has really disappeared by now.
On the back of the Naim NAIT 50 we see, just like with the NAIT 1, two din connections as well as a ‘phono’ MM connection for the record player.
A few specs
Needless to say, the new Naim NAIT 50 has slightly different specifications than the old NAIT 1. That one delivered about 15 watts per channel into 8 Ohms. The new NAIT 50 delivers about 25 watts into 8 Ohms and 40 watts into 4 Ohms. We measured that, too on our test bench.
As you can see in the pictures, there are three inputs on the back: two DIN and one RCA for a turntable (MM). The phono stage was designed specifically for the NAIT 50.
Up front, it is also kept simple: four push buttons, volume and a headphone output. The headphone output is borrowed from the Uniti Atom HE. No mean feat, then!
Furthermore, the finish is entirely in honor of the NAIT 1. So a steel casing. Solid, simple … something that can certainly last 40 years, as we have seen.
