Sad to hear that the Oxford branch of Audio T is closing due to “a challenging business environment locally”. They got me into Naim many years ago and I purchased my Dynaudio speakers from them back in 1999. Really nice people and excellent service. I have to admit that since reaching a happy state with my setup, I haven’t helped their revenue in recent years. It is a bit of swine to get to for me though being on the “wrong” side of Oxford. Good to hear that Jon will be moving to their Swindon store.
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Yes sad news indeed.
I’ve used them for years, starting in my pre-Naim years. But unfortunatly like you, I’m now in a happy state and apart from getting some Naims serviced, I’ve not helped.
Not sure where to go now, Audio-T were on the ‘right side’ of town for me.
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The Naim rep for my dealer Mike Heath (nice guy) decided to-open a store in Oxford. At the time i looked it up on the map and thought best of luck, seemed to be quite a few competing for Hifi money?
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Cultured Audio look to be doing pretty well. There seems to be quite a few dealers setting up in nice countryside locations (even Audio T, Reading has just done this). Probably better business rates. To be honest I prefer these type of premises - plenty of parking and nice peaceful locations.
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I had an Arcam 85 and Dyn 1.8s, Jon at Oxford home demo’d me a NDX2 and 202/200, the rest as they say is history. Great guys.
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Yes there are (were?) quite a few HiFi outlets in the Oxford and surrounding area. Must confess I never used Audio T but have used Oxford Audio and also latterly Cultured Audio. I believe that there have been some personality changes in Oxford Audio but sad to say I’ve not been in to the shop recently. My last system changes were facilitated by Mike of Cultured Audio who is a nice guy and very willing to accommodate demos etc whenever possible. No updates/changes envisioned for now.
In terms of the topic I believe that we are now beginning to see some of the repercussions of both “cost of living” and also on “HiFi preferences” on Naim dealerships. Is it a thing that people want same SQ but with less boxes? Aware this has been discussed on other threads.
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Used to use this dealer quite often in the 90’s when I lived in Abingdon. Bought my first proper system from them (Arcam Alpha 6 CD player, Audiolab 8000A and Epos ES11’s). Always sad to see a Hifi shop close because you never see a new one open. The pool of dealers is shrinking but I guess so is the number of customers.
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Three Naim dealers within 10 miles of each other will be a challenge. I don’t know how much of Audio T’s revenue was Naim related. Oxford Audio focus more on the high end. I did get a Turnatable from them just before the resergence in Vinyl, when Audio T didn’t have much of an offering. They are a great bunch there as well. I have been over to Cultured Audio, but not parted with any cash (yet). The rural location is now closest to me and no hassle with Oxford traffic and parking.
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The Oxford store was only 15 minutes from me (on a good run) and I got my Nait 50 from there just a couple of weeks ago. I’ll miss it but to be fair I haven’t spent much there recently.
Audio T at Reading are in a nice location and I am very pleased with them
My guess is that Covid years may have been lucrative with lots of people working from home and upgrading , now it is challenging
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Additionally, I suspect we’ve already lost a lot of hifi enthusiasts that were into Naim and there are not enough new people coming through to replace them. Only say this because there’s been a steady decline in the quantity of upgrade queries the past 10 years. I’ve noticed that across all the forums I frequent so it’s not Naim specific.
Shame about Audio T Oxford. Only went there a couple of times but they were always very helpful.
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Not sure that’s the case as stated in the area Cultured Audio have not long opened, over in Beds the Hifi Lounge, Essex the Audiobarn all relatively recent additions.
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Agree with the comment. In my own family/friend circle there does not seem to be the same desire to listen to music on HiFi equipment of any type. They appear to be very happy with sound systems that do not even deliver CD quality.
I suspect that times may get difficult for other dealers as well.
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On the same theme I was talking to a representative of a high end company today and the subject of the state of the market came up. As said it’s the budget and mid market that’s being squeezed the high end stuff is still doing very well and particularly on the international market.
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This is very true, same with my circle of friends.
The younger generation in particular. One friend said to me “you are the only one I know with with a HiFi system” But all friends who hear mine are blown away by the sound quality, just something they don’t want to invest in themselves.
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SB1911’s post could have been for my local Audio-T store in Enfield, which closed in 2022, a few months after I had demoed and bought my current Atom and Meze 109 Pros.
I had a relationship with the store going back to the early 80s, when it was AT Labs. Over the years every member of staff really went the extra miles in customer service, and they were so enthusiastic.
Like the other comments, in a very wide circle of friends and family, I am the only one with a decent hifi system. It’s the same with cameras… almost everyone I know except myself, uses nothing except their phone.
Most comment that it’s down to the cost of hifi and photographic gear, and that they’re just not willing to spend on what they perceive as overpriced gear, which is rather amusing when I point out some don’t bat an eyelid on spending thousands of £££s a year on fishing gear.
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Other people’s hobbies and interests are always ridiculously expensive. 
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This was true for me too 30 years ago - and I even worked in a hifi shop. It’s always been a fringe hobby.
Though one conversation I had with an ex Naim dealer in Japan a while back when I asked him to appraise my 282 (which I hung on to) was that head-fi was doing alright but frankly his customers for hifi were literally dying of old age and not being replenished.
I’d heard directly that Oxford Audio-T had been having issues for many years now, so not a major surprise. Certainly the model for buying hifi is changing. As an industry I think it is doing okay. We’ve seen some shrinkage as living costs soared but this is true of many industries. I don’t think this is a long term shift. Bricks and mortar shops in general are feeling the sharp end of buying habit changes for goods in certain price brackets. Hi-fi shops haven’t really reinvented themselves the way bookstores and coffee shops have over the past 25 years from places that sells books or coffee into destinations in their own right. I don’t know exactly how you would do that for a hifi shop but carrying on as-was certainly isn’t the model for long term survival.
There must be somewhere that has combined a hifi store with a record store? Get the youngsters into buy ‘vinyls’ and then show them how it can sound on a separates system. Even combine it with coffee like the rise in cycling cafes where cyclists congregate to drink coffee and talk Lycra
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My local one here in Sapporo headfi and rare CDs and vinyl on the ground floor. Not just the rack of Lina and Naim records you see at most dealers. I mean like a stock of new 20,000 discs. [addendum] I almost forgot they also sell hobby books and magazines.
But if it was me, I’d make it more of a destination that appealed to more than just the hifi buying member of the household. I’d definitely have a kids area, sofas not just in the dem room, and if in the countryside, I’d pair it with a farm shop or some place people already go as a family. All daft ideas but less daft than a cave of gear you can also buy online.
When I was working in the trade I started as a sort of dogs body doing chores and stuff, but I can tell you when people came in for a pre-booked dem, I made it a mission to get them a stonkingly good cup of coffee made to order in a proper mug and left them to chat for hours with my manager, mostly about anything other than hifi. It was really effective at selling those massive Naim systems 
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