Bargain!

Hi-Fi Corner
1

I’ve just received an email from Naim offering me a 20% discount on a range of their systems.

The poshest one is this:

IMG_7797
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If I had the necessary, I’d save over £50,000 on the £270,000 list price.

It raises a few questions, before I splash the cash:

  • does £50,000 of electronics to drive £220,000 speakers constitute a mullet?

  • are Naim now promoting passive biamping, having previously said it was generally a waste of time?

  • how do you connect four 350s to a 332 when the latter has only two XLR outputs?

  • what does this say about Naim’s view on the poor old 500 series?

If anyone had deep pockets - offers are available on smaller systems too - now might be a good time to buy.

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2

I) It doesn’t matter if it sounds good
ii) If the missive was from Naim, not Focal or Focal-Naim, it appears yes, as in passive.
iii) Presumably they provide the means as it appears to be being sold as a system.
iv) The 500’s days have clearly been numbered since inception of NC, but aside from that the 350 may simply be the better into those speakers, having greater power capability.

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3

Blimey!

4

Could it be that Focal need to keep the teams manufacturing the drivers of the loudspeakers busy, as historically many of the JMLabs / Focal drivers end up in high grade American manufactured loudspeakers?

5

A mullet system, indeed.
And would be curious to know how to connect 4 X 350 to the 332.

Maybe you received a joke April 1st mail, as you don’t like Focal, neither such big speakers dominating the room , neither so many boxes.

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6

Not a mullet, a 250 will drive those utopias and I heard a 300DR with them, very nice.

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7

I get the impression product is not flying off the shelves at many dealers.

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8

My email arrived 2 minutes ago, they obviously wanted to give you first refusal.

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9

Now got the email.

10

I think I’ll pass!

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11

Certainly not my cup of tea! I’m sure it all sounds great but the aesthetic of the speakers leaves me cold.

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12

Omg! Best way to undermine market confidence in true value of product is heavy discounting when new… this offer will have any thinking person very wary of spending thousands on these products. Not kind to tge customer who recently shelled out full rrp either. No better way to kill used values either. The more I hear about naim/focal tge more I regret putting my hard earned in to their products.

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13

Naim and Focal sound dreadful together, such a shame.
Martin

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14

I disagree. I’ve heared their lower ranges together it was the xs3 and focal arias and I thought it was wonderful. In the other room of my dealer there was a 500 setup with kudos and I preferred the xs3 and aria’s.

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15

I don’t agree at all that Focal and Naim sound dreadful together.
I have a 282 feeding a 250DR into a pair of Sopra N2’s. It is easily the best sounding system i have ever owned. Synergy works through the whole system in harmony with my room.

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17

Received the same email 10 minutes ago.

18

Got it as well.
It’s a discount that will be applied for two months. That is quite long.

Can’t help but thinking that Focal and Naim have a problem selling some stuff. Hopefully that’s not the case, and they just want to make the jump for existing customers easier.

19

Got the email. I can’t help but wonder how many people can actually afford to buy systems like that as a whole? Even with 20% discount :slight_smile:

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20

Why?
Ferrari for example offers each years such discounts, not ?
:joy:

21

My wife commented,

“Where would it go? The house is already full of camera gear and Lego!”

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