Amp ratings?

Posted by: guy batey on 11 September 2000

There’s been a good thread on cd player ratings – anyone care to start one on relative integrated/pre/power amps? Maybe we need a specific section of the forum, with a thread for each product with reviews, comments, tweaks etc.

Posted on: 15 September 2000 by Vik

But this is not to easiest thread to write in, as unlike a source, Naim amps have too many options to mix and match and the value derived from is truly subjective.

If I take a CDI and CDS1 and run them thru a 82/hicap/250 - they'll sound very close and therefore without a better audition it looks like the CDS1 is poor value for money. If I put on a second hicap, the differences are far greater but not in justifying the price diff between the CDI and CDS1. If I replace both hicaps with a supercap, the CDS1 will leave the CDI for dead. And then if I take this CDS1/82/250 and compare it against a CDS1/82/passive 135s it'll leave the former for dead too.

So there are huge differences available. Every now and then someone'll pop up and say .... look here, I've just compared the CDX with the CDS2 and the CDX is really better. He's not mad, but the system he's heard it through could only take up to the level of a CDX.

Also, I have not the new range, including the 500, but have heard the 92/90 and 72/140 have now been replaced with the 112/170.

So, with that in mind, my opinion is that the most vital poweramps made by Naim would be the 135s. The 250 and 140 come a diatant second. The 90 was nice, very nice in context. The 180 sounds great with the 82 but somehow that's about it. Or maybe a 102/hicap/180.

The preamps would be the 72 and 52. The 72 represents the coming of age for whatever Naim had done before. (The 62 was alright, a distant second.)

The 32.5 is ok if we're talking 80s sound, but it is lacking in a lot of detail available in other 80s designs. Rhythmically too, the 72 is more effortless. The later 32.5s are of course much better... Fortunately, 32.5s back then never had to work so hard... it's easier to get a tonally rich, robust and rhythmically strong sound with LP than CD - which is why no-one complained, I suppose.

I personally like the 102, which with a supercap is like a baby 52, and can resist the trade-up to a full 52 for years and years.

I like the 82/180 combination as well. Probably one of the better integrated amps I've heard at any price. Of course, outstanding results can be gotten for the 82 with the power supply options available and more expensive amps.

How you feel by the time you get to a 82/supercap and discover that you're a sliver away from the 52 (which is substantially better at a marginal increment) is another story. Some people don't need it, anyway, and the 82 will be just great in an AV setup.

Vik
Hope that gets the ball rollin