2. The Heritage of Naim's Integrated Amplifiers
Our story begins with one man's passion for music and weaves its way through
five decades and a raft of iconic product launches to the present day.
Naim Audio founder Julian Vereker MBE (1945-2000) was a racing car driver,
entrepreneur and self-taught engineer with a deep passion for music. Spending
his spare time listening to and recording his friends playing live in the 1960s,
Julian found that playback on his system at home fell woefully short of the
experience he craved.
Not content with second best he decided to design his own amplifiers
and loudspeakers, ignoring accepted wisdom and focusing on aspects
of performance that made music burst to life. These first designs laid the
foundations for a range of iconic and award-winning hi-fi products that still
resonate 50 years on.
Designed exclusively for Naim's 50th anniversary and limited to only 1,973
units, at a glance the Nait 50 looks identical to the Nait 1. However, upon closer
inspection the front and rear are high quality anodised aluminium, the knob is
machined from solid to aid vibration dampening, the balanced control has been
swapped for a headphone socket and the LED changed to white.
Internally, the changes truly bring the Nait 50 into its own. The input selection
uses fly-by-wire control to significantly reduce the signal path length and
the new headphone amplifier has been lifted from the NSC 222. The all-new
exclusive discrete transistor MM phono stage honours the famous Nait 1 sound,
working alongside the power amplifier that has been lifted from the NAP 250
(2023).
The Nait 50 is a true audiophile integrated amplifier, only in miniature.
For a further dive into the history and heritage
of the Nait across Naim's 50 year history,
scan the QR code below.
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