Naim amps??

Jack,

The previous two posters are correct. It's not about "watts". In my system, using my speakers, I could never use 75 watts. Currently I'm using a 5 watt/channel amp and I also own a 40 watt/ch amp. I never turn the system up past about 75% volume with either of these amps.

Concerning cost of Naim: I know of many amps that are less than 10 watts/channel that cost more than $5000.

It's all relative. For a typical Best Buy consumer, a NAD amp is expensive. For a NAD consumer a Naim amp is expensive and for a Naim consumer, a Wavac or Lamm is expensive.

Enjoy,

TIC

I know of many amps that are less than 10 watts/channel that cost more than $5000.

Steve Martin used to say that banjo music was the best value out there, offering more notes per minute than any other kind. By his calculation methods, $500+ per watt is simply not an acceptable cost ratio. :-)

Steve Martin was correct! You can't sit down with just an Oboe and entertain a crowd!

TIC

At the risk of offending the Naim camp (are there still any campers out there?) as a former Naim owner and enthusiast (62/Hicap/140) I think the brand has lost it's way. When I was auditioning electronics after my gear was reaching the end of it's life span I really wanted to stay with Naim. However, in comparison with other brands I discovered that Naim is no longer a good value for the money. Very expensive, particularly when you add all the power supplies, and the sound is no better or, in some cases worse, than other gear that costs considerably less. I agree with the original post--2K for a 75 watt amp that can't really drive much beyond a BBC style 2-way is absurd.

This is the first time I've come across people (atleast on audiogon) comparing watts to dollars. It really doesn't make much sense, unless you are comparing two amplifiers in the same line. For example, a jeff rowland 201 vs. a jeff rowland 501. 501 is more expensive, because of more watts. But it's the parts inside that make it cost more, among other things. Where does the VAC integrated fall, then? 75 wpc for around 22,000 dollars?

The classe integrated is 100 watts for about 4500 dollars. Does that make it a bad value? Maybe, to some people it does. But if that is your price range, and you have a system that would compliment a component like that, I would say it has a high value.