Naim n-SUB review

Adam Rayner has developed a crush on a very sexy subwoofer

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Naim n-SUB
Put quite simply, we think this is one of the smartest and best looking subs ever made

TechRadar Verdict

It may not be the most powerful around, but we reckon this sub has some of the smartest features for true audiophiles who want to tweak the nuts off their kit

Pros

  • +

    Gorgeous rich and textured bass with tight control

  • +

    Clever, innovative features

Cons

  • -

    You could get three £500 woofers for the same price

  • -

    Rival subs have a bit more grunt

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Naim is one of very few companies that makes both top-quality electronics respected by us AV geeks and speakers of note beloved by gramophone-owning hi-fi types. Its n-Sub subwoofer is definitely one for home cinema hedz, though.

Made as part of Naim's flagship 5.1 speaker array, the n-Sub comes with a cute and easy-to-understand remote control and a clever set of adjustments. No mic-assisted room-correction system here, but rather a simple menu to access gain, filter frequency and phase invert control and presets with naming.

I found it liked to be sat on something firm in acoustic terms, and really wanted to be loaded up to wall, and I messed about with it a good deal. In fact, a real tweaker could fiddle around for ages!

Naim n-sub

The n-Sub sounds luscious, if a little low on pure might. The bass is rich and accurate, and steers a path through a bizarrely clever set of qualities.

For one, it has that distinctively sweet sound of Class AB amplification. Where the Class D thing can be a bit like being smacked by a bare hand, this is velvet-gloved.

Fast and deep

It drops deeply, too. Maybe not as astonishingly low as a REL subwoofer, but way deeper than normal music levels, so Naim isn't being poncy or deluded here. This sub is made for purpose.

More importantly, with all that depth comes speed – the n-Sub is rapid to stop when the bass does. Many big, gutty boomers wobble and whoomp for a bit after the explosion.

Looks-wise, it's very pretty, but its real beauty lies in the comprehensive extras, which enable you to tuck it out of line of sight, if you want, and to have as many as you need.

Indeed, the clever daisy-chain-and-control RC5 system means an extra phono goes from woofer to woofer as well as the passing-through mono signal feed. Also, each woofer in a chain can be 'locked' so as to reduce the chances of messing up your careful settings.

This allows for 5.5-channel set ups, all with their own controls. This is cleverer than just about any sub system I have come across.

Yes, there are more powerful subs about, but the n-Sub is so good-looking and good-sounding, I can see real audiophiles adoring it.

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Adam Rayner