This situation creates a conundrum for Naim Audio users. Many long-standing users have invested decades in gradually building their systems. Remember the ‘brand loyalty’ discussed in the first paragraph? For many, the only alternative to a Naim Audio product is another Naim Audio product.
Naim Audio users often trade in their existing audio electronics to fund their next purchase. However, the more streamlined 2026-era Naim Audio line doesn’t have the same upgrade path. This reflects broader buying trends. But regardless, many brand loyalists with 500 Series products are eyeing the Statement. But moving from 500 to Statement is a significant physical and financial step. Not everyone will be able to make that leap in one big jump.
The question is, how does someone make that move piecemeal? Does approaching this in a stepping-stone manner undermine performance? Is there a way to jump from the top of the 500 Series to the Statement models in stages? Perhaps most importantly, can you live with one of the intermediary jumps for a long time? Or, will it always demand you make the full jump to Statement?
Girthy choice
It’s a big problem. At the time of writing, the combined cost of the 500 preamplifier and power amplifiers is shy of £52,000. The complete Statement costs almost £235,000. The 500 amp models occupy three regular and one large shelf on an audio rack. Meanwhile, the Statements stand at chest height and are ‘girthy.’ Making the wrong choice is costly and requires a lot of floor space.
To test this, you need both preamplifiers and power amplifiers from the 500 and Statement lines. You’ll need to be familiar with both, then compare the preamplifiers and power amplifiers in one line with the corresponding devices in the other. Moreover, this experiment could have failed on the first attempt. What if the performance of the 500 is incompatible with that of the Statement? Suppose each pre/power combination must stay in its respective lane? The fact that there are over a thousand words to go in this feature should alleviate that fear. If this were an exercise in keeping the 500 and Statement separate, it would be more of a paragraph than a feature.
Rest Easy
However, the easy part is the rest of the system. Anyone contemplating the move from 500 Series to Statement is likely already ‘sorted’ in their front-end options, and I suspect most will likely have a Naim Audio ND 555 with one or even two NAPS 555 DR power supplies, maybe fed by a Naim Audio Uniti Core, and/or a turntable of similar gravitas.
It’s also likely that if the person has already gone this far down the Naim Audio route, they will have loudspeakers that will benefit equally from the power of either 500 or Statement. Except for possibly some changes to interconnect cable options, swapping 500 and Statement is as close as it gets to a straight substitution. Except for the shelf space.
The hierachy
Naim Audio’s traditional hierarchical system-building approach relies on a top-down approach. Even as far back as the ‘chrome bumper’ Naim systems of the 1970s and 1980s, the approach was to upgrade the preamplifier before the power amplifier. This often meant adding a power supply to an existing preamp. However, it wasn’t uncommon to find people starting with a NAC 42 preamp with a NAP 110 power amplifier. They would then upgrade the preamp with the SNAPS power supply, upgrade the preamp to the NAC 32.5 or NAC 62, and then upgrade the power supply to the HICAP before changing the power amplifier.
The names and numbers may have changed decades later, but the ethos remains. Although the range of upgrade options is now intentionally limited, it remains a part of the plan: if you begin with the NSC 222 streaming preamplifier and the NPX 300 power supply, you will likely transition to the combination of NSS 333 streamer and NAC 332 and possibly add a second NPX 300 long before you consider upgrading your power amplification.
Past meet present
While we compare Naim’s past and present, let’s unpack why things have become more straightforward. While reducing the number of ‘SKUs’ (Stock Keeping Units) is generally considered a good thing in any business, that’s not the whole reason. Put simply, outside of those who obsess over the Naim catalogue, the array of streamers, preamps, power amps, and power supplies left many bewildered. The ‘chrome bumper’ range of one integrated amplifier, three preamps, two power supplies, and two of the four power amplifiers in the range, all priced relatively closely, with near identical performance and a lot of interchangeability, might have been the stuff of dreams in the 1980s; it’s ‘information overload’ today.
Regardless, Naim’s preamp-first approach hinted at how things should progress, and sure enough, the hierarchy still works. The combination of Statement NAC S1 preamplifier and NAP 500 DR power amplifier pulls a lot of hitherto untapped performance out of the already highly prized 500 Series amp. It shows details and power in the reserve that we never knew existed until the Statement preamp joined in.
Thereness
Perhaps more importantly is a sense of ‘thereness’ to the musicians you get teased with the 500 Series. Music has an uncanny sense of being played in the same room as you; live events like Christy Moore singing ‘Black is the Colour’ [Live at the Point, Grapevine] is one of those classic Brit-fi audiophile recordings for a reason; his guitar and vocals are a perfect indicator of a system’s ability to keep time.
The Statement/500 amps do that perfectly, but more significantly, you get this uncanny feeling of standing in a concert hall in front of an outstanding musician and raconteur. Bringing it up to date with ‘Willow’ by Taylor Swift or ‘Paris, Texas’ by Lana Del Rey and the same thing happens. They are in the room with you; detail, dynamics, coherence, stereo separation… all of those good things happen too, but you are always drawn to the music.
Track leading
Equally important is how one track leads to another, like a game of musical table tennis. Once again, the 500 amps more than hint at this supremely musical activity, but the Statement/500 combination forces you to make the jump from Lana Del Rey at the piano to Chilly Gonzales and Jarvis Cocker playing ‘Tearjerker’ [Room 29, DG]. The more I listened, the more I wanted to listen. Pop turned to jazz turned to classical and came back to electronica. Nothing got in the way of the music, and no type of music got in the way of the Naim amps. It was just… sublime enjoyment of music.
I think it was midway through ‘Bending Hectic’ by The Smile [Wall of Eyes, XL] that I really got it. I’ve never quite shaken off the notion that this was a Radiohead side hustle before. A good side hustle, yes, with elements beyond Radiohead, but still very much a Radiohead project in my mind. Here, Wall of Eyes is its own entity. The Statement NAC S1/NAP 500 DR combination is subtle and deft enough to make that most minute of musical distinctions seem clear and immediately understandable.
When green becomes white
The only genuine concern regarding this pairing is the physical mismatch of the tall, thin preamplifier and the more conventional power amplifier. In addition, if your NAP 500 DR is from the earlier eras of Naim Audio, it will have a green glowing logo in place of a white one, and that might be a bit visually jarring (ones made after October 2023 came with white logos and LEDs as standard, and such is the peculiar obsessiveness of Naim-watchers, this change was an absolute dead-cert hint that the Naim 500 series was only weeks away from its end… 18 months ago). In operation and sound… chef’s kiss!
The other way around (Naim 552 preamplifier with Statement NAP S1 power amplifiers) works, but it also doesn’t. It’s electrically perfect; signals still pass from the streamer to the loudspeaker, and on a surface level, there’s nothing wrong with the combination until you listen to it.
Higher Order
The Statement pre/500 power raises performance to a higher order. The other way doesn’t simply lower the Statement power amps to 500 levels; it fundamentally undermines the sound, making the overall performance less cohesive and fluid than expected from Naim. If you ‘upgrade’ in this manner, you’ll listen to music less and miss the sound of your 500 power amp. No one will ever claim that upgrading the NAC 552 preamp/NAPS 555 DR power supply to Statement is beneficial. So, 552 preamp/Statement power? The short answer is no. The long answer is no-o-o-o-o!
Finally, is the Statement/500 combo worth it, not as a stepping-stone, but as a complete amplifier system on its own? Absolutely. There’s a visceral punch the Statement pre and power amps deliver that nothing else in the Naim Audio catalogue – and few other things made outside of Salisbury – can hope to match. The 500 gets close, and unless your loudspeakers are approaching full-range designs, the impact of the stentorian bottom end of the Statement is constrained by the speakers anyway. Is the full-thickness Statement better? Of course. Will that tick away in the back of your head every time you listen? Not unless you want it to! Saying “I’d be delighted with an amplifier costing £112,000” is faintly ridiculous, but adding “in the context of a £235,000 amplifier” puts it into some form of cash-rich perspective. And some will always feel the pull of the complete Statement.
Oomph
This test was a lot of fun. There is still a lot of oomph to be extracted from the Naim NAP 500 if you raise the preamp game. The Statement NAC S1 really is as good as it claims to be. More than a decade after its launch, it is about as good as it gets right now. And the two sing together in a way that makes you question the need for the Statement NAP S1 power amplifiers. Or at least, that question goes on hold for a while. Although I’ve said this isn’t a stepping stone, I can’t help feeling that it’s precisely that for many current Naim 500 users. It’s putting you on the way to the Statement. Once you try that NAC S1 in your system, you’ll know what the fuss is all about.
It’s an odd listening session, though. The NAC 552 preamplifier, with its power supply, is no slouch. Although it may be a quarter of a century old, it still represents a pinnacle of performance and technology. Improving that performance without sacrificing what makes Naim Audio equipment sound so good isn’t easy. It takes upgrading to a Statement NAC S1.
Technical specifications
NAC S1 line preamplifier
- Audio inputs: 3×DIN single-ended , 3×RCA single-ended stereo pair, 2× XLR balanced stereo pair
- Audio outputs: 1× XLR balanced stereo pair, 2× four-pin DIN single-ended
- Dimensions (HxWxD): 94×27×41.2cm
- Weight: 61.5kg
- Price: £84,999, $99,999, €89,999
NAP 500 DR power amplifier
- Audio inputs: 1x XLR balanced stereo pair
- Power output: 140W/8Ω
- Minimum load impedance: 2Ω
- Weight: 25kg
- Dimensions (HxWxD): 16×43.2×37.4cm
- Price: £26,999, $34,999, €30,999
Manufacturer
Naim Audio
naim-audio.com
+44(0)1722 426 600
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