BRISTOL NEWS: Naim launches long-awaited phono stage and new mains cable

In the week that Naim announced its collaboration with Bentley to make high-end in-car systems for the luxury motor manufacturer, the company is showing it's also been busy in its core market: at the Sound & Vision show it's launching its long-awaited SuperLine phono stage - and a brand new mains cable.

The Naim SuperLine has been almost launched at several shows, but will finally hit the shops in March, 50 years after the setting of the standard for the modern stereo LP. Naim hasn't quite been working on it for that long, but its has taken its time to ensure the accuracy of the SuperLine's RIAA equalisation, said to be accurate to within 0.1dB.

Powered from one of the company's integrated amplifiers or a dedicated power supply, the SuperLine uses a three-stage active phono engine for optimum results with moving coil cartridges, and offers up to 20 cartridge loading options using four resistive and three capacitive load plugs.

Isolation is provided by a spring-mounted 4.4kg brass sub-chassis, and the unit has both balanced and phono inputs.

Also new from Naim is Power-Line - a £395 mains lead developed by the company after hundreds of hours of research, experimentation and listening to determine the factors affecting the quality of mains leads.

The company looked at both the cable itself and the connectors, with the result that both the 13A plug and the IEC connector have floating pins and cable clamping, while the attention to detail extends to rounded ends to the set-screws used to clamp the cable to the pins, ensuring maximu tightness without the danger of cutting the cable.

The connectors are custom-tooled for Naim, being substantially made from die-cast aluminium, designed to reduce eddy currents.

Andrew has written about audio and video products for the past 20+ years, and been a consumer journalist for more than 30 years, starting his career on camera magazines. Andrew has contributed to titles including What Hi-Fi?, GramophoneJazzwise and Hi-Fi CriticHi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Choice. I’ve also written for a number of non-specialist and overseas magazines.