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Naim NAIT 5i AmplifierNot that long ago RCA and Naim audio equipment were incompatible ideas. The engineers from Salisbury preferred only DIN connectors and even gave powerful theoretical grounds for it. But this persistence turned into a headache for the average consumer. The situation has been changed only after the company decided to descend on "budget" (within the meaning of Naim) sector, where compatibility with equipment of other brands is the important condition for success. The most affordable from the line integral amplifier NAIT 5i is made at the typical for this brand high engineering level. The selector is simplified as photo shows: you can connect to NAIT 5i only CD, tuner, tape recorder and something from AV components (and inputs for first two sources are duplicated with favorite DIN connectors). You will find in the kit a complete remote control. I can judge of electronics only by indirect signs. Low power consumption at the absence of any heat sinks and high output power speaks about the usage of unpopular among audiophile economical modes for output stages and the promised in the brochures low nonlinear, dynamical and phase distortions were received, apparently, due to deep feedback. Volume control is finally adjusted by digital electronics. But excitements were disappeared with the first sounds of NAIT 5i. Music is plaid inspirely, with perfect dynamics and without vivid coloring. Both low and high by spectrum overhang were transferred realistically, sound panorama is built massively. However, you don't feel a high school of expensive Naim amplifiers in this device. As if brute force was added and inner force, enclosed in subtle sound connections, on the contrary, appears less. In other words, NAIT 5i sounds simply - not primitively as some, but still superficially. ![]() |