Naim amps??

05-15-06: Wadia150 said:
"you can do so much better than a naim they use a switching power supply which is the cheapest way to go. they wouldnt drive a pair of bose"

Naim amps don't use switching power supplies - you may be thinking of Linn.

I wonder how many opinions are expressed by people who really aren't very familiar with the performance. Most serious Naim enthusiasts are after music, not watts, and appreciate many qualitative aspects of the whole line. And yes, it doesn't come cheaply. There is extra value for money in a properly set up Naim systems using all Naim gear. There is a great deal of AUDIBLE synergy.
The best advice regarding Naim gear is to listen and if you feel it's worth it, then it is!

Probably the most simple answer to this question would be the following: Because it sounds good ....

Actually, Naim follows the philosophy that putting transistors in parallel is not good for a sound reproduction ... therefore Naim amps have only one transistor (per channel) at the output. They are rather powerful but the usual construction with putting a lot of transistors in parallel in order to get more power, more current, etc. is not what Naim is after ... Therefore Naim amps do not have a lot of power but they can drive seriously difficult speakers and they can do that, in most situations, seriously well.

Naim is using switching,in their new ht

It's pretty hard to even guess whether a particular amp will be liked or disliked by anyone in a particular system.

I know someone with two systems, one in a small room and a larger system in a theater room. When the small system was run with all Naim equipment, playing either Sonus Faber speakers or Spendors, it sounded very good and sounded completely off and lifeless with very pricey Hovland gear (Radia, HP 200). But, the big system (Sonus Faber Anniversarios) sound much better with the Hovland electronics. Same listeners so taste is taken into account. Room acoustics, system matching, etc., all come into play here.

Naim gear is, in the right implementation, very good sounding for solid state. As people have noted above it is not particularly high-powered, but that is because power comes at a price sonically. Also, Naim amps do require compatible speaker cables (low capacitance, higher inductance) because the amps don't have an inductor at the output.

I tend to like lower powered gear myself (high powered tube amps are particularly offensive to me), and suspect that a lot of people look to higher power to provide impact because other gear is lacking. I find so many of today's highly regarded speakers too lifeless and constipated sounding and incapable of resolving detail at lower volume.