It’s hard to not draw the conclusion that Focal and Naim are now joined at the hip in a marketing sense, and with Focal as the dominant focus. Which is fine if you like that combination and if it sells well from a business perspective.
It does seem to run the risk though, that those entering the market that don’t like the presentation of Focal will not be thinking to try Naim with other speaker configurations.
So, it does seem to point in the direction of where Vervent are heading with the brands.
I did not go to the show, but if I did, I feel like I would have been let down in that room. In the U.S., and maybe I have blinders on, it seems like less and less dealers are pushing Naim anymore. My local dealers have not had any Naim gear on the demo rack for quite some time now which has made it rather difficult to try out a logical upgrade path. My only choice has been to buy gear preowned or new and hope it was a fit to my ears. I talked to another dealer recently that said they were going to stop selling Naim stuff as well. Seemed like they were being pushed too much to sell Focal. I’ve been listening to Naim equipment for about 16 years now and love it. I’m about to take ownership soon to a 500 DR and cannot wait to hear how it sounds with my NBL’s!
Lots of dealers aren’t pushing Naim simply cause of inventory issues at this time
Not just with Naim but many brands right now are still having supply issues
Lots of store have bare shelf’s due to this.
I’m sure once things settle down this lack of display/ floor demos will change.
In regards to dealers being pushed to carry Focal I do not believe that to be true in saying that there are bundles being offered that dealers who do not carry Focal will not have access to just in the same way a Focal dealer who may not carry Naim would have the same issue.
Atom Headphone Edition was voiced using Focal headphones. It sounds well to my ears and I have not heard Utopia, the Focal current top of the range. Perhaps there will be a move to voicing Naim gear up the chain with Focal speakers?
I really have no idea. But engineers and designers clearly listen to a lot of high end and perhaps low end equipment when producing systems which are designed to work together.
Not sure where you are located but in my neck of the woods, dealers stopped pushing Naim long before any supply issues. They would sugest alternatives not because they thought something else sounded better but because they could not offer the customer an aceptable level of after-sales service, were it ever required. My dealer doesn’t understand why I have stuck with Naim for so long, given the problems and poor response we have endured every time we had to work with or request something from Naim.
I believe the last Naim event at my main dealer was for the Statement in 2015. They have a Solstice on demo but have not (as far as Im aware) held an event to promote it (they started holding events again in Q3 last year). Though the full range of Naim equipment is offered for sale, when I was interested in purchasing an ND555 and Innuos Statement to run with my 552/500, a demo Innuos was no problem but the closest I could get to a demo of the ND into 552/500 was a bare NDX2 into SN3.
The system certainly looks very unbalanced and a bit of a miss match, maybe thats all they had to play with, or as others have said, maybe the room didn’t warrant any more, other than something that could just fill the space and sound half decent, i don’t know.
I agree that it would have been nice from a naim point off view, to see a much better front end feeding the statement and seeing the statement sitting there and then looking left, might have been a bit of a errr moment, but that is what was offered up and thats it.
What this has to say about all things going forward, i don’t know, but i do think, someone needs to take a good look at what is shown at these types of shows and come up with a much better plan going forward as i really can’t see the point in doing it like this, as surely you want to best present yourself at these kind of events and surely naim and focus can come up with a few different spec systems to take to these events?
I wonder about that too. I guess Naim listens extensively to an amp before it gets signed off for final production? Very curious how that works. What do they compare with, inside and outside Naim? Which speakers they use etc.
A couple of issues that I see in this loveless, no real compatibility relationship.
One (and I know this may sound painful to most here), it’s not really very much about Naim as a focus.
Naim is kind of being brought down to the level of a component (think graphic/sound card, PSU in a computer) feeding the actual super performer and star of the show, nothing too much more than well-chosen uniform black boxes (only to better emphasise and expose Focal modern design!) sitting back just “powering” and doing their thing with the rest of the backstage other crew staff.
This also brings me to another thing - the expression of this relationship is all about how Focal (the Queen Bee) sounds, I mean this is the sound actually on promotion here, right (think somewhat Harbeth designer and marketeers attitude to amplification being secondary, only naimed here) - and that brings me to the other issue … Focal’s specific sound signature (I think at least influenced by winning in the loudness war years?), which at least to me is possibly being a consideration if one was listening mostly to electronic music? It’s not that difficult to imagine that Naim might be associated with this type of sound whether their amps are voiced or not in this way. To me at least, the sound of Naim is very, very different.
And unfortunately, to me these two aspects will be defining Naim more and more as the shiny VerVent “FOCAL powered by naim” shops continue to pop up and play their marketing game on enthusiasts that come after us or are new to Naim.
Unlike for Naim, I see no much risk in this for Focal by the way, only a benefit - it’s their sound, it’s their Queen bee, powered properly by good renowned black boxes
Crikey, i now value my NDX 2 more than ever! Statement system here we come - imagine if you will, two tiny satellite speakers and a 350 watt sub on the end!
Good heavens and the day if they ever did this, most of what Naim stands for from the day JV started the brand with his team, becomes lost. I don’t think that will happen, if Vervent Group understand Naim as a brand with its roots and culture and apply sensitivities accordingly as they continue to market and sell Naim.
The truth though, remains the truth, whatever that truth may be, and is.
In a line, it’s great and equal. “Powered with Naim” and not “Powered by Naim” feels completely different.
“Naim Powering Focal”? Why the emphasis on Focal first and not Naim? Just because…? If they are truly sister brands on equal footing.
Sensitive when depicted on two levels and in different font sizes.
I’m sorry to be candid and upfront with my sentiments, RD, if you see the necessity to moderate, please do and I would support your work here on the Forum anyway, in any way.
No one likes this sensitivity, and we can inflame sentiments very quickly through our discussion here.
Sorry for the digress to the OP… shall we get back quickly to other systems from those of us who might have visited and enjoyed ( or otherwise ) what they did hear?
We are forgetting the impact of the private equity investors. Naxicap has sold their interest to Alpha. Alpha now call the shots and Vervent are the junior partners. I suspect many of the changes we have seen since 2019, personnel, price rises, parts stockholding, etc have been strongly influenced by the new investment group Alpha. So far I haven’t liked the change of direction to a new policy of Focal plus Naim as the selling entity. Naim and Focal have their separate identities and should be able to leverage them, as well as work together. Naim need their own development path, particularly if they are to continue to innovate, as with the DR modules. Naim streamers are old school, dacs are even older. I don’t believe there aren’t improvements that could be made. If Naim have to wait for approval of some joint Focal/Naim product then it dilutes what Naim are capable of.
Many many times down the road of history new owners have killed companies since the leadership didn’t recon what was core values, overriding product management etc. It takes one person in a top position to sink a great company and all its history in 5-10 years. No idea how Naim is managed or in control these days but we do know there’s been major changes to ownership and some of that IMO is visible with releases and strategic decisions made last years. If those decisions were right or wrong is another discussion depending on your values in building a company and brand. I’m in general against merging companies into major bubbles where they try to streamline everything looking at all companies like one. To many compromises gets in the way then.
Although Naim and Focal seem to be shackled together from a marketing sense when it comes to large shows and the Focal powered by Naim outlets, there still seems to be some autonomy for each of the brands through more traditional independent and small chain hi-fi shops. There also seems to be autonomy for each brand when it comes to R&D, and I very much hope that continues.
What concerns me is there appears to be a creeping movement to shackle the brands together by leveraging some kind of assumed or enforced synergy between the two brands, something manufactured by the bean counters rather than anything of real substance. Even though some of the more recent Focal product lines have supposedly been voiced using Naim amplification, most on here would agree that there is little natural synergy between the two brands, even though some seem to enjoy the partnership from an SQ perspective.
An enforced marriage however during demonstrations and exhibitions can only limit the SQ potential of both brands, and hence limit sales potential. It is also evident from Axpona that limited experience of how to set up a Naim system and how to properly balance a system will be hugely counter-productive.
The bean counters really need to listen to their customers and their dealer networks.
It is undoubtedly true that a greater marketing spend available from the parent companies is welcome and can only improve sales, but only if that greater spend is deployed carefully. Simply chucking the two brands together and hoping for economies of scale when it comes to sales, marketing and distribution is a recipe for disaster, particularly when there is limited synergy between the two brands from an SQ point of view.
Why the emphasis on Focal first and not Naim? Just because…? If they are truly sister brands on equal footing.
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