Item: Naim Superline phono stage with Supercap, Teddy Pardo Supercap or Hicap DR, Burndy cables and Airplugs
Location: Sydney
Price: Superline $2700, Supercap $3500, Teddy Pardo Supercap $1200, Hicap DR $2000, Naim Burndy cable $500, Teddy Pardo Burndy cable $150
Item Condition: Excellent
Reason for selling: Too many phono stages
Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal, bank transfer
Extra Info: See below
Pictures: See below
For sale is my Naim Superline phono stage. This was purchased new in November 2014 from Audio Genesis in Sydney. This is one of the best phono stages currently available at any price. It comes with loading plugs of 100, 220, 500, and 1k ohm (or 10k with no loading plug) to allow for just about any MC cartridge, along with adjustable capacitance. It is in excellent condition with all original packaging. It requires a power supply, either a Naim preamp, a Naim power supply or a third party psu such as a Teddy Pardo.
Also for sale is my Naim Supercap 2, a Teddy Pardo Supercap and a Hicap DR. Any of these will power the Superline and will sound excellent, although the Naim Supercap 2 is probably the best (and most authentically "Naim" sounding) PSU, followed by the Teddy Pardo PSU. The Hicap DR is also an excellent PSU and was purchased only a few months ago from Audio Genesis. The Naim Supercap and Teddy Supercap will each require a "Burndy" cable, and I am selling these separately for each PSU. The Hicap requires a different cable, and this will be included at no extra charge.
I am also including a Flashback DIN - RCA cable as well as the standard Naim DIN-DIN cable so that the phono stage can be used with a non-Naim amplifier. I can confirm that the Flashback cable is excellent.
The Supercaps and Hicap DR are also offered separately if anyone is interested in buying them, but preference will be given to someone also buying the Superline.
In addition, I have a number of Naim Airplugs for the Superline. These are upgraded loading plugs using higher grade resistors. I have plugs for 100 ohm, 220 ohm, 500 ohm and 1k ohm. These sell for $275 each separately - I am offering them at $140 each. They really do provide a big improvement to the sound of the Superline. These are offered preferentially to the buyer of the Superline, and also conditionally on the Superline being sold.
I may also be offering my Supernait 2 for sale in the near future.
There have been many excellent reviews of the Superline.
From the Toneaudio review:
Should you install a Superline/SuperCap2 into your system, I guarantee the phono stage will no longer be the weak link in your system. It will not bring back the parts of your marginal recordings that suffer from compression, but it will extract every bit of music your turntable, tonearm and cartridge are capable of delivering.( Full review: http://www.tonepublications.com/analogaholic/naim-superline/)
From Inner Ear:
For me, the phono stage hunt has been a long one, but I can safely say, without reservation, that this is the finest sounding phono preamp I’ve ever had in my system, regardless of price. Quality of workmanship, logical layout and most of all sound performance are my criteria, and that is because I’m totally blind and visual aesthetics don’t influence my take on a product. I have a dedicated listening room, so the WAF factor doesn’t enter into the equation either. I admit to suffering from a certain degree of obsessive-compulsive disorder so painstaking care is taken in placement of all components including speakers and cables. This also helps in my orientation to the system. I opened this essay by stating that I prefer tube equipment to solid-state gear. I’m doing an about-face, since that isn’t the case anymore. The Naim SuperLine phono stage with the SuperCap power supply is the number one phono preamp on my long list of top high-end phono-stage I have lived with. The engineers at Naim have something special here. (Full review: http://www.innerearmag.com/reviews/preamps/NAIM_Superline.shtml)
The Absolute Sound review: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/tas-194-naim-audio-superline-reference-phonostage-1/
Martin Colloms in HifiCritic:
What does it sound like? “Like Nagra mastertape” is the only phrase that I can use. The noise floor is almost nonexistent. The dynamics are eye-popping. The clarity and tunefulness are of the highest order. There must be a downside? The hidden shame of which we do not talk? But no. This is a genuinely high-end product which just works without fuss or complication or hassle. Itʼs the moving-coil equivalent of a top-of-the-line Range Rover: go anywhere, play anything, interconnect with anything. Play any style of music. Play wallet-emptying brand new 200g reference pressings. Play a secondhand worn-out wafer-thin 1970s early punk pressing. Itʼs fit and forget. And the damn thing isnʼt even that expensive. For sure, using a Super-Cap doesnʼt help the bottom line, but start with a cheap Rega or old Linn, and power the SuperLine by a mid-range Naim pre-amp, and then upgrade as and when you can afford to. From that point of view, the SuperLine is a lifetime purchase. I donʼt see myself ever needing to change it, even though cartridges and loading plugs will come and go. Assuming 40 years more listening, itʼs a pound a week for what might well be Naimʼs greatest achievement to date, and one of the greatest moving coil preamps of all time. Is that not the very definition of ʻbargainʼ? (Full review: http://www.audiocounsel.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/superline_hificritic_december_2009.pdf)
Photos of actual units to follow.
