Retro Naim Nait 50 amplifier celebrates 50 years of Hi-Fi

Sporting an irresistible retro design, Naim has unveiled the NAIT 50, a ‘remaster’ of the iconic NAIT 1 amplifier, which first saw light of day in 1983. Appropriately, this 50th anniversary special edition will be limited to 1,973 pieces, the year the company was launched by Julian Vereker.

The NAIT 50 may look gloriously retro, but its innards are predictably cutting edge. A trio of input selectors, marked Phone, Stream and Aux confirm it can be used with both a streamer, or more conventional physical media sources.

This anniversary edition also includes a 6.35mm headphone output, which employs a new preamp/headphone amplifier with a gain of 16dB, and a new MM phono stage with discrete transistors, said to offer an improved sound performance.

Hailing from Naim’s Salisbury workshops, it boasts an aluminium construction with clear nods to the original NAIT 1. It features a 25W Class AB integrated amplifier and three input selection buttons.

The amp actually uses two internal power supplies; one a performance power plant, based on a large toroidal transformer, the other a more efficient SMPSU for 0.5W power consumption in standby during standby mode. There’s also an automatic shutdown, after 17 minutes.

The Naim Nait 50 is priced at £2699 ($3599/€3000).