naim phono stages

Posted by: tef on 12 August 2016

I tried to get some comments on this in another post but probably best to start a separate thread for this question;

IMHO Naim leaves a large chunk of the phonostage market unattended. Their entry level Stageline is great but at that price range has an awful lot of competetion that might be equally good if not better, especially if you throw in an external PSU for the Stageline. The Superline however is at the other end of the spectrum and focuses mainly on the die hard vinyl fanatic that wants only the very best there is, and is willing to reach deep in his pockets for it. Also the Superline is MC only, discarding people with high quality MM carts.

I would find it logical if Naim would come up with some more flavours in between; say a "Stageline XS", or "Superstageline". Or maybe a "Flatline" (would be a killer ;-0).

With vinyl replay making a definitive comeback in recent years, a re-examination of this part of the product range would seem interesting IMO.

What are your thoughts?

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by Foot tapper

I too live in that middle ground between £500 and the £7,000 that it takes for Superline to really sing. And I'm actively auditioning phono stages...

Best regards, FT

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by varyat

The Superline is a fine phono with the burndy connection to PS. Just costs too much and requires 2 full levels of Fraim. Unlikely, but a Superline -Plus with a dedicated shoebox sized PS would be awesome.

The Stageline just has too much competition at its price point. I hope Naim don't retire the vinyl section of their product catalog ....

ATB,

Mark

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by Richard Dane

varyat posted:
...but a Superline -Plus with a dedicated shoebox sized PS would be awesome...

Mark, wouldn't that be a Superline powered by a Hicap?

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by varyat

Where does the Burndy plug in?

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by Adam Zielinski

There are other good alternatives I tend to use phono stages designed by the same manufacturer as my turntables.

However SuperLine can work very well with a HiCap. It then occupies just one standard shelf.

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by Richard Dane

varyat posted:
Where does the Burndy plug in?

The Burndy is only required for a Supercap. The Hicap only needs a SNAIC5 to connect it with the Superline. You then cover the Burndy socket on the Superline with the large link plug.

If you really want to minimise the box count then you could power the Superline from the AUX2 on a pre-amp. The AUX2 supply on the NAC52 and NAC252 is not necessarily beaten by a dedicated Hicap - it's a swings and roundabouts situation, although the Hicap does appear to give more Hi-fi. Move up to the NAC552 and the AUX2 supply gets even better...

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by varyat

Just my opinion, having owned the Superline and running it with both a HC2 and a SC2 , the SC2 is really where you want to be . Thus you need the burndy and 2 Fraim shelves. Didn't mean for this to become a point of contention...

The Superline-Plus ( as I dreamt up ) would simply have a newly designed, shoebox sized, dedicated PS that would utilize a burndy connection similar to a SC2. I realize this would require a bit of work on Naim's part !

ATB,

Mark

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by Richard Dane

The Supercap is already pretty much packed so I'd imagine it would be very difficult to squeeze all those supplies along with a decent sized Tx into a shoe-box case.

Yup, no question that a dedicated Supercap gives the best sound on the Superline - which is exactly as it should be.

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by Christopher_M

tef posted:
....entry level Stageline ....
What are your thoughts?

That there ain't nothing entry level about the Stageline, TEF. Rather than listening to the cyber jockeys, go out and hear one and find out if you can like it within the context of your system. Then buy one and be happy. Easy.

Chris

Posted on: 12 August 2016 by Loki

Or you could look down the SH market. My prefix with a HiCap and uprated power cable just sings...at a fraction of the cost of a superline/sc combo. And, I AM a die-hard vinyl-fanatic. Loki aka 'the Vinyl Junkie' angel