Naim recommendations

I know that the 32, 42 and 42.5 preamps are what you refer to as half size. The .5 designation meant that the preamp allowed the use of a Hicap power supply. Without this designation you either relied on the amps power supply or Snaps power supply. I owned a 4.5/Hicap/110 which were all housed in the half sized cases. The strength of a modestly rated Naim amplifier is its ability to drive very difficult loads. The Naim amps are particulary suited if one needs to run long lenghts of speaker cable. It's killer gear. The downside to the Naim equipment is the type of interconnects used. If you are into analog playback only, the 32 preamps are considered by many to best the best. Rated watts per channel do not mean a great deal, IMHO, but as always, more power is better.

Much information about Naim models, cosmetics, etc., both past and present, can be found at the following site:

http://impulse7.com/naim/

I have looked at the Naim gear and do own a phono stage and hi cap combo which I love. their amps are impeccably clean and true to detail. I have a local dealer that is a very knowledgable and also very close freinds with the regional Naim rep. who lives in the area. You might contact him with some mquestions he is a very helpfull person his e/m is sales@audioalternative.com his name is Rick and tell Ted referred you. My experience with Naim is through his store and I have really considered switchinh from Mcintosh to him if I can bring myself to take the loss on sellin the mac stuff. Good luck

There are actually three different Naim "lines", and if you search ebay or visit the site mentioned above you'll definitely find pics of the older two.

The oldest units have a black face and chrome highlights. I believe they stopped making these in the late 80's.

In the 90's, Naim went to an olive/black theme, and as you've noticed some of these are half-width units. In this line, the 62 and 72 preamps are half-width, and the 102, 82, and 52 preamps are full-width. All but the 140 power amp (which is also available in old chrome/black style) are full-width amps. Some external power supplies, tuners, and crossovers also come in half-width.

Of course, you'll be able to see the newest line on the Naim site.

If you're just wanting to see what the Naim sound is all about, there are cheaper ways than the Nait5, although I've heard one and was quite impressed. The Nait2 and Nait3 can be had pretty cheaply, but a better (more upgradable) setup in your stated price range would be a 72/140, or 72/180.

Don't worry about the non-standard plugs, as you can buy an adapter interconnect from every Naim dealer. I use a Chord interconnect to hook up my non-Naim cd player, but my next upgrade will be to a Naim CD 3.5.

I believe that used Naim gear is an absolute bargain right now for the sound quality it produces.

Good luck!

Graham