Naim Nac112/Nap150

Preamp/power amp

If you decide to buy Naim’s latest arrival, ask yourself a few searching questions. Like, “Can I afford a amp when I’m going to be so busy listening that I won’t be able to work for about a month?” Or, “ Will best beloved walk out on me when I’m still listening at 5am for the fifth or sixth night in a row?” Or even, “ How long does my entire music collection last if I listen to it all, one disc after another, with the odd repeat performance along the way?’

The Naim NAC112/NAP150 preamplifier and power amp is that addictive. Whether you connect it to a Naim CD5 CD player and a pair of the company’s rather fine Intro speakers, or put it at the heart of a system mixed and matched from various manufacturers, this amplifier will hold you in thrall, and indeed enthralled, for a very long time to come. Even I was amazed at just how much it could get under my skin and have me trawling ever deeper into my CD collection, although I should have been expecting greatness given the quality of the CD5 and the NAIT 5 integrated amplifier, reviewed in these pages last October. As it was, I started listening at the ungodly hour of 6am one dull late autumn day, and by the time it began to get dark again I was still doing the ‘ I wonder what this one will sound like’ thing. And on and on it went, until I noticed it was getting light again.

That’s the sort of magic that sets the extraordinary apart from the merely good, and the Naim duo, behind its unprepossessing yet rather slick black fascias, has it in spades. Whether playing the ‘big band Bach’ of Kennedy’s latest offering with the Berlin Philharmonic (12/00), or shimmering through Barbara Bonney and Antonio Pappano’s ravishing ‘Diamonds in the Snow’ (3/00) – just the thing for a winter weekend evening – this remarkable amplifier from the Salisbury company comes well-equipped to redefine expectations at the price. And, of course, delight the listener.

It’s a neat package – a very long way from the macho swagger of the current crop of button – festooned mass-market AV receivers – and has just what’s needed to play two channels of fine music, and nothing more. Six line inputs are provided on the familiar Naim locking DIN sockets, one doubling as a tape in/out loop with its own monitoring button, while the twin outputs on the preamp feed the power amplifier feed the power amplifier and allow the connection of one of the company’s headphone or phono amplifiers. In usual Naim style, the cable carrying signal from preamp to power also carries power to the preamp from the mains transformer, and the only on/off switch is found to the rear of the power amp, along with banana sockets, spaced to accept Naim’s own speaker plugs.

It all seems very simple, if beautifully executed in non-magnetic aluminium casework with compliant mountings within to protect the audio circuitry from mechanical interference. However, get to grips with the hidden features of the remote control, and the pre-amp microprocessor it ‘drives’, and you discover that the relative gain of the inputs can be adjusted, there’s a balance control, and even automatic source switching in a complete Naim system.

It’s all possible thanks to the use of a ladder resistor volume control system, chosen instead of the more usual volume potentiometer, and some cunning in-house software. Meanwhile, while power amplifier is built around hefty power supply provision, and is based on the circuitry of Naim’s flagship NAP500 amplifier, from which the new combination also draws its styling cues.

Although it may seem plenty to those brought up on single-figure amplifier wattages of the distant past ( and the valve-enthusiast present), the 50W per channel output o the NAP150 is, on paper at least, fairly modest by modern standards. Many an integrated claims outputs well into three figures, and at the very apogee of the high-end, power ratings more appropriate to heating appliances aren’t unknown. The secret of the Naim, however, is what it does with its watts, something that has long been part of the company’s credo. Never overly impressive on the specification sheets, Naim amplification always seem to deliver so much more in action.

And so it is here, with not just realistic volume levels on offer -  even into demanding speaker loads – but an effortless combination of grip and control, allied to an impression of plenty being held in reserve for the dynamics of real music. The NAC112/NAP150 can sail through the most demanding orchestral pieces with devastating effect, while at the same time offering the finesse and subtlety needed to make chamber or solo recordings gripping. Where is the mythic Naim attack at all costs? If it ever existed other than in the mind of the brand’s detractors, there’s no evidence of it here: instead, this amplifier delivers a deliciously controlled, yet well-extended bass, as is clear from the Gramophone Record of the Year 2000 – EMI’s Mahler Symphony No 10 (5/00) – coupling it with a midband of fresh, sparkling clarity and treble that’s unfettered yet never allowed to become unruly.

Partnered with Naim’s CD5 player and running into Monitor Audio Studio 20SE or PMC FB1 speakers the NAC112/NAP150 sounds as controlled as it is excited; up the front-end stakes to the superb Marantz CD7 CD player and jaws begin to drop at just what the amplifier can do with a large orchestral work, and how close it can get you to a recording of demonstration quality.

Not that this is one of those products that only thrives on those sometimes musically bland ‘audiophile’ discs; as I’ve already made pretty clear, it’s likely to have you exploring your CD collection for a long time. And while it’s less than forgiving of poor engineering or production, this isn’t one of those ‘take no prisoners’ products; rather it will simply let you know as much as you want about the quality of those recordings. Chances are, however, you’ll just be too busy enjoying the music.

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