I know that the 32, 42 and 42.5 preamps are what you refer to as half size. The .5 designation meant that the preamp allowed the use of a Hicap power supply. Without this designation you either relied on the amps power supply or Snaps power supply. I owned a 4.5/Hicap/110 which were all housed in the half sized cases. The strength of a modestly rated Naim amplifier is its ability to drive very difficult loads. The Naim amps are particulary suited if one needs to run long lenghts of speaker cable. It's killer gear. The downside to the Naim equipment is the type of interconnects used. If you are into analog playback only, the 32 preamps are considered by many to best the best. Rated watts per channel do not mean a great deal, IMHO, but as always, more power is better.
Naim recommendations
I am really curious about Naim gear, and I was thinking about getting a Nait 5 here to see what the fuss is all about. Nevertheless, I wonder if there are older models, as a preamp+amp combination that will give me a great taste to Naim sound, as well as a path to upgradability in the long run. I am interested in investing a good $1500-2000, for the pre and amp set up. What models have the following cosmetics:
OLD COSMETICS=I think they mean the classic Naim that is rectangular with two or one prominent knob, square cut.
what line is the one that has what is looks like HALF case size?
Finally, will the set up run a speaker combo that has 89db sensitivity but that needs at least a good 100watts to get it going....Pair of monitors on top of a pair of passive subs?
OLD COSMETICS=I think they mean the classic Naim that is rectangular with two or one prominent knob, square cut.
what line is the one that has what is looks like HALF case size?
Finally, will the set up run a speaker combo that has 89db sensitivity but that needs at least a good 100watts to get it going....Pair of monitors on top of a pair of passive subs?