Just received the new Absolute Sound digital magazine. This number focuses on the best hifi components, as each year.
Apart the Nait 5i, there’s no Naim component in the long list, be it amplifiers, pre, phono, streamers, servers…
But there are Swiss products, German, French, from Greece….
Why? In Stereophile, it’s quite the same.
I was about to say that there had been little movement in the product range but there was quite a bit.
Maybe Naim have not been ''hunkering up " with the magazines ?
Or, just perhaps there is another explanation?
Stereophile reviewed Nac 552 in 2002. Then CD555 in 2004. Cd5xs later. Nova also.
Absolute Sound : Muso, Atom HE , Nova.
But they don’t appear in the list of the most recommended components list.
The Naim Uniti Nova is The Absolute Sound’s 2023 best All in One.
They sum up thus;
If you need a modern single-box solution that can play from Dad’s NAS drive or Sis’ smartphone (and be controlled by any smartphone in the house), the Naim Uniti Nova can make the transition from hair-shirt audiophilia to silk-shirt convenience as painless, musically expansive, and audiophile-approved as possible.
I have never heard of the magazine but in his introduction the ceo does admit it is published for subscribers and advertisers.
The language will provide me with hours of entertainment…
Silk shirt convenience. We often see HH’s front room featuring his Nova.Perhaps he has one.
I would like to be able to afford silk shirts, but I suppose my inability to do so precludes me from ownership of the current offering from Salisbury.
If you ever have a holiday in Vietnam, specifically Hoi An on the east coast, you might find you can! That’s what I did late last year, several shirts made to measure in my choice of fabric, unique shirts for around £40 each.
Hifi magazines can think what they want Rooster, it’s still your own ears that decide what’s good and what’s not, so…
And several thousand quid to get there? Slightly more expensive than M&S, methinks
I did say if you are have a holiday there…
As for M&S, the shirts I got are far nicer, and I know that the chance of my meeting another man wearing the same is infinitesimal.
Of course, but I am just curious about the relative absence of Naim in the two most solid hifi magazines in the world.
Stereophile used to review and recommend a fair bit of Naim kit, especially when Art Dudley was still with us. Since his sad passing though, there hasn’t been so much, although it was good to see Martin Colloms there reviewing the New Classic 200 series just recently, so perhaps there will be more Naim back on the magazine in future.
Maybe because they primarily reward domestic or other smaller brands that pose no threat in the domestic market? Or because they have a different sound ideal that differs from the European one? I could imagine the latter actually.
That certainly appeared to be the case back in the early days of The absolute Sound. I used to regularly get TAS back then and there was little or nothing mentioned about Naim and what appeared to be a fair bit of indifference towards the Linn Sondek. Then there was the infamous piece written by KK about the UK hifi scene…
I don’t think I read that article, hard to find now I guess 
I should still have it somewhere in one my TAS back issues. IIRC there was a response to it in one of the mags here - possibly The Flat Response or Hifi review.
Good point, i forgot that review. Maybe then the 222 or 250 NC will appear then in the next recommended components Stereophile number.
At the time, Naim and Quad were relatively affordable little amplifiers so they did not attract attention compared to high end amplifiers such as Audio Research, Threshold, Conrad Johnson, etc… As for turntables, I mean, who needed a Linn Sondek when you could get a SOTA, a VPI or a Oracle for about the same price!
Now remember that was at a time where most people could afford high end equipment, which is certainly not the case today.
A somewhat dubious statement, I would say 