Naim Supernait 3 Integrated Amplifier

SUPERNAIT 3 has received significant performance upgrades, including a built-in phono stage, making it a perfect partner for turntables, as well as for streamers, CD players, or any other music source people want to enjoy with the signature Naim sound.

It also includes a Class A preamp output stage which doubles as a headphone amplifier and ceramic heatsink technology that minimises capacitive coupling between the chassis and output transistors for optimum sound quality.

Its inputs are each individually decoupled and hand-wired to minimise noise and interference while internal switching employs ultra-low-noise, constant current sources which are derived directly from the electronic design of the flagship NAC 552 preamplifier.

The SUPERNAIT 3 can be upgraded with Naim’s external power supplies, power amplifiers and even cabling upgrades to get the best from all sources. 

Features

With Naim’s typical obsessive attention to detail – all in service of achieving the most authentic musical performance – the SUPERNAIT 3 benefits from the following features:

• Class A headphone amplification

• Alps Blue Velvet volume control

• Reed relay input selection

• Ceramic insulators for the power transistors

• Galvanically isolated microprocessor control section

• Microphonic-isolating PCB mounts

Step up from the NAIT XS3 to the SUPERNAIT 3 and you benefit from a range of superior features, all designed to deliver even better sound quality:

• Full 24V DR module built-in: enjoy the purer power and performance improvement of Naim’s Discrete Regulation technology for the entire pre-amp stage.

• Larger toroidal transformer in the power supply: provides greater power and speed of recovery

• Additional leaded through-hole components in the signal path: further minimises negative effects of vibration and transient thermal conditions

• Chassis-mounted input sockets hand-wired to the circuit boards: offers enhanced vibration isolation

• Full Alps Blue Velvet balance control

Technology & Craft

The upgrades in more detail:

• Naim’s R&D team has found a way to more than double the speed of the voltage gain stage, which in turn doubles the rate at which the speaker output stage can react.

• The second gain stage transistors have been optimised, so they no longer need to be shielded by a cascode stage transistor. Removing the cascode means less amplifier stabilisation is required: that doubles the slew rate and delivers an uplift in sound quality.

• The phono circuit topology comprises 3 stages: the gain stage, passive equalisation and final gain and active equalisation. This enables excellent noise performance, extended RIAA equalisation beyond the audio band and great overload headroom.

• All RIAA equalisation capacitors and the RIAA resistors are ‘through-hole’ mounted film designs, with low microphonic pickup and excellent transient performance. As phono stages are 1000x more sensitive than other inputs, this greatly benefits the sound quality.

• Input impedance is 47kΩ in parallel with 470pF capacitive loading;  the gain is perfect for 5mV moving magnet cartridges.