Focal Powered by Naim in Cannes

Stacking is a deliberate choice, from a commercial point of view. It takes less space and the WAF is much better. Bigger wife acceptance.

It’s not about blind loyalty or nostalgia. It’s rooted in a preference for products that sound musical, are reliable, and represent good value for money over an unnatural commercial pairing that foists USD$60,000 limited edition tin systems onto the marketplace and sees the brand as a lifestyle product

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Just appears ironic that so much fuss and debate is put in to racks and optimisation and Fraim etc then here’s a brand outlet that clearly has staff that haven’t been trained properly. Either that or Focal don’t care as much about the Naim brand as us owners seem to.
Given that the seperates are designed to be isolated to work as intended it would be at least appropriate to display them as such.

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In your opinion…Are you sure you haven’t just proved my point?

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You’ve only got to look at the dogs dinner that Focal made of the Statement system at their factory demo room. I think (I don’t know categorically before being shot down) that the parent ownership doesn’t in itself mean they manage the brands as one cohesive whole, they both generate income in their target markets, in Naim’s case based on their heritage and luxury associations like Bentley and Sunseeker. How much that’s aligned to the founding spirit of Naim as a British HiFi manufacturer is questionable beyond the glossy marketing and “lifestyle” messaging.

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So it’s a natural pairing? Because so many Naim owners were using Focals before the tie up?

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Certainly not much love for Focal speakers on here but whether that means the overall profitability of the whole enterprise is harmed by the association is another matter.

It’s a shame they weren’t allowed to keep making their own in many respects, and I actually own Focal speakers although it’s a recent addition, before that I’ve used mainly PMC.
It was clearly a managment decision to isolate the brands from a portfolio diversity and manufacturing perspective, let’s not forget, Naim made many highly regarded speakers over the years.

As a wife, I completely disagree :grinning:.

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Thanks for an interesting report flame! But they should think about whether this is so clever…:sunglasses:
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I have to say the Naim gear is shown as if it’s just jeans on a shelve. There’s little or no consideration on how it should be stacked. Bit strange for a company that is fussy about stacking and sells a rather expensive option.

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What are the two boxes? Is it the phono stage sitting on a power supply, or two power supplies?

It’s fundamental to the design of most of their products so yes, seems to be style over substance.

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Yup, for the Solstice TT next to them.
NPX TT power supply (combined TT motor and Phonostage supply)
NVC TT Phonostage, a DR enabled product

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Sadly it maybe an indication as to how and where Naim sit within that partnership. I’d be pushing the company ethos if I were king. :grin:

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It doesn’t just go against our forum better judgement, it goes against the intended setup of the products.
It’s like seeing a Mercedes with a sun lounger strapped to its roof so you can top up your tan after a long drive to the coast.

Ah, I’d missed that. I guess when the 282 gets upgraded, it might have a single box power supply to replace the Hicap and that silly little thing.

Unfortunately they’re probably told to do what they can with the resources they have and focus primarily on margin and maintaining exclusivity in the brand.
Innovation is certainly lacking based on their current offerings, supply chain excuses aside, the competition seem capable of producing very capable alternatives that even on this forum are proudly discussed by their new owners, Klimax DSM springs to mind.
Even Statement, as capable as it is, is nearly 10 years old, there’s only so much “trickle down” they can squeeze out of that one before potential new customers find what they lust after at that end of the market elsewhere, and probably costing less with less overall system complexity.

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I had that silly little thing for almost 10 years before I finally had the guts to ask my dealer what it was. It was part on my old pre amp (102 I think) plus hi cap.

You’d expect they’d have something in the works, even with constrained R&D budgets and component supply challenges.
Naim aren’t likely to give up their power/electronics seperation methodology any time soon but when you see and hear what others can achieve in a single box and be convinced it performs as well as something Naim offers that takes many multiples of boxes to achieve the same result (and at enormous cost, system complexity and running cost to fuel it) you think Naim would be taking a long hard look at themselves and putting some serious thought and engineering in to keeping themselves relevant for the next 40+ years whilst preserving their appeal and remaining competitive.

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