Naming system of Naim products

Posted by: tony123 on 06 December 2018

Good day,

I'm thinking, where can I find information about naming evolution of Naim products?

For example, what was the name of previous model of NAC 252? (the model, that was before release of NAC 252) Maybe Nac 251, or NAC 250? What is the system of naming in Naim products?

This is in case I want to by second hand product (to get the same class of quality, but older model)

Posted on: 06 December 2018 by RaceTripper

https://www.naimaudio.com/product-history

Posted on: 06 December 2018 by ChrisSU

The short answer is 52.

(I was tempted to say 42, but managed to resist.)

Posted on: 06 December 2018 by tony123

Thank you

Posted on: 07 December 2018 by Richard Dane

Tony, before the current range, the naming protocol was extremely logical.  For example, with the Naim pre-amps, you had a three letter acronym, NAC, which stands for Naim Audio Control, and then a number.  The first figure indicates the order in which the pre-amp was designed, and the second figure indicates the number of channels.  Hence, the first pre-amp from Naim was the NAC12, later came the NAC22, then the NAC32, NAC42, NAC52, NAC62 etc.. Taking the NAC52 though, while the design was started quite early on, it actually didn't see the light of day as a finished product until after the NAC72 arrived.

With the introduction of the current Classic/Reference series, the outgoing NAC102, 82, and 52 became the NAC202, 282 and 252.

Posted on: 07 December 2018 by Eoink

On the power-amps, the naming convention was NAP, Naim Audio Power, followed a number. The number was the power of the amp into 4 ohms load, so a NAP250 was 125 watts a channel (2 channels, thus 125*2 =  250) into 4 ohms, approx 70W into 8 ohms. 250 was the previous generation of the 250DR, the flagship amp of that generation was the 135 monobloc, no real replacement in the modern generation, but pre-DR  it was felt to be better than the 250.2 and below the 300 (although as ever there were differing views).

Most popular amps of the generation would probably be 140, 180, 250 and 135s.

Posted on: 07 December 2018 by SamClaus

I still think it would be nice to have the full history of Naim electronics and speakers, and the story behind them - perhaps not in book form (too expensive these days?) but somewhere on the Naim site, or elsewhere.

Posted on: 07 December 2018 by Gazza

Perhaps Richard will find the time to put pen to paper one day, I think it has crossed his mind.

Posted on: 07 December 2018 by tony123

Very usefull information. Thank you

Posted on: 07 December 2018 by yeti42
SamClaus posted:

I still think it would be nice to have the full history of Naim electronics and speakers, and the story behind them - perhaps not in book form (too expensive these days?) but somewhere on the Naim site, or elsewhere.

With links to the manuals perhaps.