Nap 500 landed omg...

Congratulations and best wishes with it.

There is a perception that the 500 is big and beefy and too much for many people's needs. The reality is that it sounds nothing like anything else in the Naim range, with grip, subtlety and transparency that must be heard to be believed, and clearly demonstrates the difference between listening to HiFi and listening to music.

I think the 250 is rather bad and overrated. Now that you have tried them back to back you may see where that logic comes from. Or maybe not.

Have fun.

Congratulations, you have joined the club of proud owners. Now just enjoy and don't immediately get taken away how much better it might sound with a different front end....

Hi all thanks ... Harry looks like we have both come to the same conclusion :-)

Bert ..... very happy at present.....was very worried about the 272 combination ... I have been the subject of much derision ..... I need not have worried.... that's why Naim fitted twin dins to pre out..... the 500 given the price has been a brilliant buy for me.

Cheers

Like you I was contemplating a 300 but found a 2000 vintage 500 but an unserviced one. On Saturday it came back from Naim with a DR conversion and service. If there's a rollercoaster running in period I've yet to hit a down slope.

Wow ... when I sell my 250dr and other bits ... I may well update my 500......keep us posted .. the run in time is supposed to be long.....

The 500's one of those very rare hi-fi products that grabs and wows you within a few seconds of use. Congratulations, it'll give you years of deep music listening joy!

Congrats - I have long been of the view that the 500 series is just fantastic.   If the Loto came up CD555/552/500 here I come!!!

Richieroo posted:

 … this amp has so much finesse and delicacy …. the acoustic space on this track was incredible …… to give a detailed coherence that just makes sense.

To quote from the OP - this is what the NAP500 does in spades. It is good to read a report from someone that actually heard that this amp is not a 'grunt' amp but, in particular, the 'finesse and delicacy' aspect is what wowed me when I heard it over and above the NAP300 I had used before. The NAP300 had grace and articulation and is a beautiful Amp, but the NAP500 allows for so much more transparency and insight that the price difference between them is obviously justified.

Good to head that it works so well with your Pre and source - I'm sure it won't go unnoticed.

Enjoy.

DB.

I have mine (mid 2012 vintage) from last July and it has been the real missing element of my chain. When early this year i introduced Nac 552/DR into 250-2, despite it was clearly superior to my previous 282, there was still something wrong with system balance. I can quite confirm the opinions above, the Nap 500 is not  a grunt amp, but like the very first review in early 2000 of an Italian mag, they compared it for clarity and finesse to a Nait 1 and not a pumped up 250 or 135.

Regards

Roberto

When I sold my DBL's to a good friend, he brought over his amps (2x250) to see how well they would get on with the DBLs. So first we plugged in one amp into the 552 and put on 'Into the Mystic'. Yes, it worked pretty well and the 250 was obviously capable of driving the DBL to high volume. Although it was by far the worst sound I had coaxed out of them in that room, it still sounded impressive. 

Next we did the pseudo-monoblock (see another thread) of using one 250 per channel, with the other channel being undriven. Yes, this was better with more inflection in his emotion laden voice. You see....pseudomonoblock configuration can work well even in speakers that are easy to drive. 

So we agreed that from that moment on-the DBLs were his. 

But on his way out, I said....would you like to hear the same track with the 500? Sure says he. 

Ten seconds later, he was the new owner of the 500 too. The 250s, dare I say...sounded broken. Dull, insipid, lifeless, muffled, boxy, unidimensional....they suffered extremely poorly in comparison. Yet earlier on that day they were making tremendous sounds in a pair of bi-amped Tukans. 

My two biggest **** me moments in the Naim upgrade history was going from the 82 to the 52, and from a 300 to the 500. In retrospect the leap between the 300 and the 500 was far larger than the already huge one between the 82 and the 52. The 300 and 500 are chalk and cheese..and certainly not cut from the same cloth. Some say they prefer the 300. Me-I prefer to eat cheese. 

Oddly enough, a Nait 1 captures much of makes the 552/500 such a superlative match. 

Nice to know my ears are in tune with the consensus here...

If you want a more thorough blow-by-blow description of how different upgrades affected my active DBL system, and how the 500 performed in context of all the other upgrades, here is the original thread from 2003. Yes, its been a while. 

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...552-where-to-upgrade

When I changed from a nearly-new 300 to the 500, I was certainly very pleased with the improvement that the 500 gave.

The first downslope has arrived with farting bass and biting trebble, or its just showing up a certain CD as read by my CDX2/555ps, I gave up on it and switched to vinyl, better but still not quite right.

Patience will reward you.

NAP500 run-in is a rough-ride for about 3 to 4 weeks. - expect fat bloated bass, shrill harsh treble and general tantrums until it gets stabilized. Know this and keep calm - keep it running 24-7 - occasionally every few days re-boot it - and it will all end well!

DB.

I went from 135's to a 500 and even with a bit of a school boy error - forgot that one of the speaker plugs has to be reversed to keep it in phase - it blew the 135's clean away despite sounding slightly odd on one channel.

Probably the most significant upgrade I've ever made.

I was warned about the ride but it doesn't quite prepare you.

When I sent it off I put all the cables in the box,I thought Naim might as well check them over. The Burndies have come back rather limper than that were, I think they've spent some time on the cable shaker.

Ron Toolsie posted:

When I sold my DBL's to a good friend, he brought over his amps (2x250) to see how well they would get on with the DBLs. So first we plugged in one amp into the 552 and put on 'Into the Mystic'. Yes, it worked pretty well and the 250 was obviously capable of driving the DBL to high volume. Although it was by far the worst sound I had coaxed out of them in that room, it still sounded impressive. 

Next we did the pseudo-monoblock (see another thread) of using one 250 per channel, with the other channel being undriven. Yes, this was better with more inflection in his emotion laden voice. You see....pseudomonoblock configuration can work well even in speakers that are easy to drive. 

So we agreed that from that moment on-the DBLs were his. 

But on his way out, I said....would you like to hear the same track with the 500? Sure says he. 

Ten seconds later, he was the new owner of the 500 too. The 250s, dare I say...sounded broken. Dull, insipid, lifeless, muffled, boxy, unidimensional....they suffered extremely poorly in comparison. Yet earlier on that day they were making tremendous sounds in a pair of bi-amped Tukans. 

My two biggest **** me moments in the Naim upgrade history was going from the 82 to the 52, and from a 300 to the 500. In retrospect the leap between the 300 and the 500 was far larger than the already huge one between the 82 and the 52. The 300 and 500 are chalk and cheese..and certainly not cut from the same cloth. Some say they prefer the 300. Me-I prefer to eat cheese. 

Oddly enough, a Nait 1 captures much of makes the 552/500 such a superlative match. 

 

I can only agree with the last statement. My SN2 is taking a rest whilst i'm re aquainted with an original Nait1. In this context, the SN2 reminds me of a middle aged fat bloke, running next to Usain Bolt.... 

Yes Alba, the Nait showed the difference easily, and the CDX2 is no match musically or tonally. If i was using a softer sounding amp, the CDX might add some required spice, but the Nait1 sounds so pure and hearthrough that the CDS is perfect. 

I am going to disagree with Ron, but thats ok! I'm sure he will forgive me....

I think the 300 beat the 500 hands down. I always found the 500 to have a listless meh to its musical timing. Yes, the 500 had the grunt, but it lost PRAT.

With DR, however, its completely different. 500DR is way better than 300DR which is way better than 300 which is way better than 500.

If you have an early 500, despite the service in 2007, I would aim to get it to DR upgrade/service ASAP. The difference is not small. 

And yes, a mint serviced Nait 1 into KANs has the integrity that the 500 didnt have. <runs away and hides>

My Nait  1 is original from 1983 and completely unserviced, and quite frankly i'm keeping it this way. I know the 'rules' say it is way overdue some TLC but it sounds flawless, and boogies all over my already excellent SN2. I don't want the magic to go.... and a service just might do it. I did have my Nait2 serviced about 6-7 years ago, but it still doesn't quite match this red LED Nait!

The Nait 1 sounds almost like a 552/500? What is the modern (and current) Naim integrated amp that is the equivalent of the Nait 1? The Nait 5si?

Ron Toolsie posted:

When I sold my DBL's to a good friend, he brought over his amps (2x250) to see how well they would get on with the DBLs. So first we plugged in one amp into the 552 and put on 'Into the Mystic'. Yes, it worked pretty well and the 250 was obviously capable of driving the DBL to high volume. Although it was by far the worst sound I had coaxed out of them in that room, it still sounded impressive. 

Next we did the pseudo-monoblock (see another thread) of using one 250 per channel, with the other channel being undriven. Yes, this was better with more inflection in his emotion laden voice. You see....pseudomonoblock configuration can work well even in speakers that are easy to drive. 

So we agreed that from that moment on-the DBLs were his. 

But on his way out, I said....would you like to hear the same track with the 500? Sure says he. 

Ten seconds later, he was the new owner of the 500 too. The 250s, dare I say...sounded broken. 

Just checked your profile, do you still own those iconic *DBL's?

I reside across the pond, Naim isn't quite as Active over here, excuse the pun.

But, By any chance, have you had the opportunity to hear the following rig, and if so, what was your take?

2007 CES debuts Naim's CD555

CD555/282/Snaxo/250's/DBL's

Allante93!