Naim is straight out of the gates announcing its New Classic range of components at CES 2023, featuring the NSC 222 streaming pre-amplifier, the latest iteration of the NAP 250 power amplifier, and the NPX 300 power supply upgrade. That's a decent start to some 50th-birthday celebrations in anyone's book!
Steve Sells, head of hardware engineering at Naim, boasts:
From designing in our best-ever performance at this level to added features and flexibility to eco-friendly elements – New Classic products use less than 0.5W in standby – we've combined our 50 years of experience with the very latest technology to redefine home hi-fi.
The Naim New Classic NSC 222 has already received a CES 2023 Innovation Award. This streaming pre-amp offers access to popular streaming services such as TIDAL, Spotify, Apple Music and Qobuz, internet radio and your networked music library. It's not all digital audio, though, as vinylistas are also offered a built-in MM phono stage.
Meanwhile, an integrated headphone amplifier – as used in the Applause Award-winning Uniti Atom Headphone Edition – is onboard for quality late-night listening.
Rounding things off is a 5.5-inch full-colour screen, while control is via the Focal & Naim App or the bundled smart Zigbee remote-control handset (no line of sight required) or via the unit itself, including the lovely-looking illuminated volume control.
The New Classic NAP 250 is the NSC222's natural partner and offers 100 watts-per-channel. This is actually the NAP 250's sixth iteration, a model that has been in continuous production since 1975, which speaks volumes (pun intended!). The latest NAP 250 borrows from the company's flagship Statement amplifier with upgrades, including an eddy-current circuit breaker between the speaker outputs.
Furthermore, we are promised "more power, even better performance, and greater system-matching flexibility". One visible result is that Naim has added balanced XLR connections to the New Classic NAP 250.
This New Classic trio is completed by the NPX 300 power supply, which Naim says offers an "instant upgrade" for the NSC 222 streaming pre-amp as it disables the pre's internal power supply, thus reducing the noise floor, and delivering to it "superior, cleaner" power.
The Naim New Classic range is available from this month (January 2023), with the NSC 222, NAP 250 and NPX 300 each priced at £5,700.
Visit Naim for more information
Posted in: Hi-Fi
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