Steve Sells

The career highlights of a Naim legend whose 27-year 'big amp' dream finally became a reality

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“Rage Against the Machine's Killing In The Name shook the room so violently that dust fell from the light fixtures.”

Steve Sells is describing the first listening test of the Naim Statement amplifier system, and how it pumped the heavy, groove-driving riffs and raw punk energy through the Focal Grande Utopia speakers. “The clarity and force was terrifying, in the best, most adrenaline-fuelled way.”

It was probably not far from the reaction the young and ambitious Sells had dreamed of 27 years prior, when, during his university summer holiday, he designed the ideological framework for what became the now-iconic NAP S1 Statement power amp – an American-style ‘big amp’ with large front handles, oversized heatsinks and a beefy PSU.

When the Statement project first got the green light, Paul Stephenson, Naim’s managing director at the time, told Sells: “Make it the best. Take your time and whatever cost you need.” Such words, essentially resembling “the sky’s the limit”, are music to any engineer’s ears.

Branching into amplification

Sells’ first sonic memories are of his grandfather’s beloved quadraphonic hi-fi. “I saw how deeply it affected him, transporting him to concerts around the world,” Sells remembers.

That initial curiosity was rewarded and encouraged by being gifted a speaker and a physics book a few years later. Before long he was building speakers from magnets, nails and cornflake boxes... and turning his attention to amplifier design.