This month’s blog sees Matt from Audio T Cardiff take a road trip over to Salisbury to visit Naim’s base of operations, take a tour around their factory and meet with one of the leading British Hi-Fi companies…

On my long and winding journey through the wonderful world of Hi-Fi there has always been one brand for me that stands out from the crowd and represents phenomenal build quality, stunning looks and outstanding performance. The brand in question? You guessed it… Naim.

Recently, I had the great honour and opportunity to take a road trip over to Naim’s main base of operations in Salisbury and take a tour around their truly mind blowing factory, all whilst accompanied by Naim’s brand ambassador, Mr Jason Gould.

Naim Audio 50th Anniversary

This year, myself and Naim both share a milestone birthday within months of each other, we were both born in 1973 so I can say it was a bit of a birthday treat for me to visit the wonderful people at Naim.

Speaking of 50th birthdays, Naim has released an amplifier marking this landmark anniversary, the Nait 50 which I am very much looking forward to listening to.

Interesting sidenote, one of the most important and influential albums in progressive rock was released in 1973. I’ll give you a clue, it has a prism on the cover.

Naim History

Before I take you on a bit of a virtual tour, let’s take a trip back in Hi-Fi history, to where it all started at Naim and talk a bit about their founder, Julian Charles Prendergast Vereker MBE.

Julian was very much a man after my own heart. A music enthusiast and an engineer, not to mention he was also a racing driver (I just love to watch the sport mainly). Julian retired from motor racing in his early 20s. He then went on to work for well known automotive racing modification companies such as Janspeed. Julian, like myself, also had a great interest in cycling and had a hand in designing the folding bicycle with Brompton Cycles, which are still very much around today.

Being a self taught engineer, he was able to turn his hand to anything. Julian was dissatisfied with the performance of the amplifiers & speakers of the time. So, armed with his true entrepreneurial spirit he decided to follow his passion for music and attempt to recreate the perfect performance in our living rooms. This led him to found the Naim Audio visual company in 1969.

A few years later he came up with amplifiers such as the original chrome bumper Naim Nap 200 power amplifier which was brought to the world in 1973. Many years on, Naim as we know it has very much evolved since the late 60s, but walking around the factory I could feel that Julian’s influence and passion is still very much there, ever pushing the boundaries of Hi-Fi, bringing us closer to true perfection in sound.

The Factory Tour

As you’d expect, our tour started at the front entrance, then led into a stunning demonstration room where we met our guide, Jason Gould.

Jason walked us through the factory to where the 500 series and flagship Statement series are made (as they say, it’s better to start at the top.) Jason then proceeded to tell us all about the design and production processes and how Naim decouple components away from the chassis and outer casing to prevent noise…

naim statement pre amp rear panel de-coupled

The input and output section of the Naim Statement pre-amp is fitted within a faraday cage to help with interference. There is aerospace technology in the case, it’s more outer space technology involved here with how the input and output circuits are decoupled. The circuit boards are mounted in a frame with suspension inbuilt, something normally seen in satellites. Jason was telling me this is where the aerospace technology really comes in to it and other design aspects of Naim such as aircraft grade aluminium used in things like outer casing.

The Classic Range

As you can see from the photos below, there are various stations where each component is meticulously built, ready for the next phase. Every unit is tested rigorously. As we know, soak testing involves putting a system through its paces with a typical production load, over a continuous period. In this case, powering each component on and off. This process is done to make sure when we receive our fantastic new equipment, it is fault and worry free.

A really interesting part of the production process is that they have prebuilt examples of every amplifier, CD player etc with transparent outer casing on them to show each technician where each board wire and component is positioned and decoupled from the chassis and outer casing. Each amplifier and product gets the same love and attention to detail. For instance one of the examples I looked at was a Nait XS3 and it was really interesting to see how everything was positioned inside the chassis.

A Whole Lotta’ Shakin’

No Naim factory tour could be complete without checking out the infamous Naim cable shaker.

As Jason said, there’s no scientific explanation behind this process but when a cable is manufactured it is highly taut when it is pulled from the reel and put through its manufacturing process. The machine is built to shake all of that tension out of the interconnect cables. This helps with decoupling, as a taut cable can become microphonic. Jason explained that if you put a non shaken cable and a shaken cable side by side in a demonstration you would chose the shaken one every time. In fact, a shaken one will be nice and loose and easier to dress i.e. it won’t be unruly behind your Hi-Fi system and looks a lot tidier.

Walking around this facility definitely shows there is so much passion for every product in Naim’s range from the Nait 5Si right up to Statement Series. You are truly getting sonic and build perfection at all levels. From the design process right through to manufacturing, even down to how every item is shipped out.

New Classic 200 & 300 Series

Once we had seen how everything was made, Jason led us back to the demonstration room where we sat down for a listen, or you could say a sonic tour for the ears through Naims’ new classic series.

I am already very familiar with some of the New Classic series. The New Classic 200 series is on demonstration in our Cardiff shop.

Naim has always blown me away with their level of sound quality and detail. Jason proceeded to take us through 200 series from the NSC 222 streaming preamplifier & NAP250 through a pair of rather magnificent Focal Utopia Scala Evo floorstanding speakers. Sonically, as I have found previously with this system, it performed above and beyond my expectations. Great sound quality teamed with good separation in the music. Next the NPX 300 power supply was added to the preamplifier. This change brought the system to a whole new level! I would describe it as more open and energetic, the sound stage is transformed but I have a funny feeling what’s coming next will change all of this…

Earlier in the day, when we first met up in Naim’s bespoke demonstration room, the thing that caught my eye immediately was the New Classic 300 series. I thought to myself, “I’m in for something rather special today”.

This moment is what it’s all about for me. As I have said before, it’s about live sound with me, thinking back to when I was younger closing my eyes to picture where everyone is positioned on the stage. This rings true for what’s coming next…

We started with the NSS 333 streamer the NAC 332 preamplifier and of course the NAP 350 mono block pair. What can I say apart from “buckle up, the ride is about to begin”. Naim has always blown me away, and in the case of the 300 series, the have excelled themselves. A really big step up in power and performance. For instance you could hear the breath of the singer on the microphone and so much more detail on things like reverb and decay of piano notes. Next up, a NPX 300 was added to the streamer. This brought better separation in instrumentation and more of a natural sound in vocals, but I feel the best is yet to come.

Lastly, an NPX 300 was added to the preamp. This changed everything! If you have ever heard the term “the speakers have disappeared and got out of the way” this is the perfect example. At this point it really felt like there was a live band in the room (in a good way of course). Instruments such as bass guitars and electric pianos sounded more real and vocals again sounded as if you were in a sound studio, listening to the vocals isolated for the first time. To say I was impressed with the New Classic 300 Series performance is an understatement, it left me lost for words! I’m seriously thinking of saving up for this setup

Today wasn’t just about Naim’s fantastic equipment. We got to meet some of the wonderful staff, engineers and designers, such as Mr Steve Sells who as many will know is the man behind many products, most notably the Statement range. I also got to meet Ian, who looks after customer orders and is also a very good friend with one of my favourite classic rock frontmen, Mr Paul Di’anno. He was the original frontman for Iron Maiden before Bruce Dickinson.

Not Just 200 and 300

No matter where you are in Naim’s range of products, you are part of a sound that started back in 1973, but much improved as time has gone on with the likes of the Mu-So range, Uniti Series, to the Nait 5Si all the way up to the Statement, Naim has achieved near perfection on all levels but they are always improving on things all the time. I can certainly see Naim on the horizon for me in my own system maybe the all new NVC TT phono stage.

Although I spent a day with these wonderful people, I think if they hadn’t said it was time for us to go home I think I would have been there all night listening to there fantastic equipment.

Why not book yourself in for a demonstration at your local Audio T and listen for yourself.

I’d like to say a big thank you to the guys at Naim for putting up with me for the day, especially Jason Gould, Darren Woodyatt, Steve Sells and Tom Goodridge.

Thanks for reading

Matt, Nick and Kerrin - Audio T Cardiff

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