Well worth a read of this book Graham (if you’ve not already done so) on the EMI story…
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Thanks, I shall try to find a copy, probably on Amazon.
(Although perhaps it won’t be good for my blood pressure!)
PS Hello, again, James, Amazon came good. I’ve ordered a copy, which I shall read with pleasure and, no doubt, a large dollop of annoyance at the sad demise.
As a matter of interest, who owns EMI now? Is it part of the Warners conglomerate?
Yes please
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I believe that Naim did quite a lot of research and development work on a cassette deck, based around the very solid NEAL mechanism used by many Police forces to tape station witness interviews.
Work was halted, if my memory is correct, to concentrate instead on the original CDS Compact Disc player.
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I’ve always thought that the rare, beautiful and limited edition Michell Odyssey would look super cool outfitted with a Naim ARO tonearm and it would certainly blend superbly with the new Naim white, black and perspex designs. It differs from the Gyro due to its silver plated spinning weights under the platter and the all black subchassis, motor unit and armboard and personally I think it is probably the best looking turntable Michell ever made.
They’re an English firm who could no doubt have accomodated a limited or unlimited production run of turntables and been a willing partner for Naim I suspect.
Maybe worth considering if Naim ever wants to dip its toe in analogue waters again…
Jonathan
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You’re right, Jonathan, that is a rather lovely, if somewhat brutalistic-looking, deck. I have never seen that before. Do you know if it’s still in production? And an ARO would fit in rather well, although maybe with the black ‘shrink wrap’ black plastic applied to the plain aluminium armtube that I’ve seen photos of - was that a Cymbiosis mod?
Do you know what the tonearm shown in the photo is?
Graham,
I believe the Odyssey was a limited edition and I saw my first one when I was up at the Michell factory researching my ‘History of the Gyrodec’ article so given I hadn’t seen one before I suspect they were rare. On the other hand I get the impression Michell are a firm who might be pursuaded to make a limited batch of them if they perceived there was a demand.
The arm is a Michell TecnoArm of some kind - looks like the TecnoArm 2 with the low slung counterweight.
Hope that helps.
Jonathan
Only 100 examples ever made.
Could be they realised that so many customers simply won’t countenance anything other than the sacred LP12. After many listenings in many systems, I think it still sounds flat. Even after all the upgrades.
Just my view of course
What this thread’s title and comments fail to understand is how good the Solstice turntable is. The introduction of this product both excited me and baffled me. Never had Naim made anything in limited quantities or “special edition”, so this concept was alien to me. Nevertheless, I ordered a Solstice on the day it was announced and waited a very long time for it to deliver. It was worth the wait. The Solstice turntable is every bit a reference product, injecting all of the energy and tunefullness we associate with a Naim source. Music is engaging, captivating, engrossing. Vinyl has become my dominate source now, easily out performing my ND555 with 2x555 power supplies.
Yes, a Superline/Supercap/Airplugs is superior to the NVC-TT. This should not be a surprise, brass suspended electronics and the dedicated Supercap DR power supply will always be superior. Having said this, the NVC-TT is great phono preamp… I recently listened to mine and it’s no slouch.
Turntables are very personal devices. They are tweakable like no other source and some Solstice owners have replaced the cartridge, phono lead and preamp. This does not negate the effort Naim put into this product. The magnetic suspension and carbon fiber ARO2 arm make this turntable very special.
I believe in a few years the Solstice will be highly sought after. It has a unique ability to play music. I’m glad I took the risk… the reward has been worth it.
PS: There’s already a Solstice upgrade, the NPX-300. Hope to order one soon!
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Thank you, Jonathan. I find this turntable esoterica so utterly fascinating. I probably need to get out more!
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Hello, Chris, I agree with all that you say. The Solstice is clearly a great turntable, beautifully made, and I’d love to see, and hear, one. If I were starting from scratch, it would be a strong candidate - assuming that I could track one down, that is.
But I have invested so much time and money - probably the equivalent of the price of a new Solstice - in my LP12/ARO/Keel/DynavectorTKR/Solid Sounds Wenge plinth, that I would not be prepared to consider a swap at this stage.
Naim have done well to sell a whole new turntable package to people who must be in exactly my situation. There must be about 500 cracking second hand turntables for sale at the moment - unless the owners have so much money that they can afford to have two top class turntables on the go.
Agreed debs. I’d be up for another arm top that I could load with a different cartridge and swap them around occasionally.
You are so right about Keel/A too. Aro equipped LP12’s always do it best for me, but Keel removes any misgivings about the frequency extremes. Lovely music.
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I agree completely. I compared it to my Brinkman Bardo and P10 as well as a full Klimax Lp12 and prefered the Solstice which, for the price I paid was an absolute bargain. It sounds different to the LP12 and not necessarily better but I think there would be a market for the separate components but the Aro is seriously hampered in its ability to take other carts.
ChrisBell - how much of a difference is there between the Supercap/Superline and the NVCTT? I have been tempted by a Solstice after admittedly only one v brief listen, but I am instinctively not comfortable with downgrading a part of my system - but I don’t want to have a wasted bit of kit sitting around, which would irritate me to an illogical degree…
This was the part that confused me; if the Solstice is/was a reference Naim product, why wasn’t the supplied phono stage better than a Superline/Supercap out of the box? Or maybe I’m missing something?
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Budget I guess, how much is a superline with supercap at RRP?
Because, in plain words, that would have pushed the overall package price well >£20k — and £16k is steamy enough given the competition – and they don’t always package-in the phono amp, as this is often included within amps.
Plus, arguably, a better performing cartridge would then have been justified, adding yet more cost. Where do you stop?
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I’m not sure these days, but it seems a little quirky to me to offer the world a reference turntable (after years of speculation) only to do so with a phono stage that could be upgraded immediately following purchase with one of your existing products.Once you’re in a rarified world of high-end high-priced exotica, does an extra $10K make that much difference if you’re able to push the performance envelope that much further?
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