0.0 I’d guess
That’s exactly the point, keeping the Naim sound throughout the entire system.
I think Naim can make a more consumer friendly high end unit.
It certainly isn’t affordable, and will be too frighteningly complex for most people – it demands a professional setup - Steve Withers.
I know there are some tweakers here but that “beast” takes the biscuit.
So if Focal are doing amplifiers, can Naim do more speakers (DBL update)?
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Ah, but are they…
Conspiracy theorists sign up here.
Had a quick look and wow.
Usability and accessibility should not be optional extras in a system. The more cash I throw at something the better the user experience should be. Granted, it seems this option is marketed to those who know what to do already. But the system this thread is talking about should be accessible to the same crowd who uses any level of Naim product.
4 Statement power amps or 6 NAP 500s into 4 DBLs? (For quadraphonic)
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Yes please!
Which is why I mentioned is as reference-level - Astral not designed to be a mass-market consumer product (though I’d love one if I had the money and space for it!!!)
Future product plans are one thing I simply can’t discuss, sorry!
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Yeah agreed, my comment is more leveled at the solution this thread calls for.
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Many moons ago I bought the AV2 and DVD5 when they were released, but I don’t think that Naim got any real ROI from them, although the R&D may have assisted with other products.
As a small company you have to pay licence fees on all the various formats and technologies, and you are aiming a product at a small part of a micro market. You also end up have a tiger by its tail, as standards rapidly change. If you are a large scale manufacturer I would imagine this is a good thing as it drives people to upgrade their receivers, but niche manufacturers probably need loooong runs.
I suspect that Naim had their fingers burned and are unlikely to move back into this arena.
A friend told me that the Focal is a superb unit, IF you have VERY deep pockets.
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Yes, it’s a tricky proposition for Naim, but hopefully now in their expanded group deeper commercial pockets have been created.
Stereo won’t be the de facto standard forever and Naim needs to move with the times or that little green light with fade out.
Well, plenty of things are already left behind by the move to 8K. I wouldn’t bet on HDMI being stable (unless you consider that 2.1 is already mainstream).
I’d say 2.1 is.
Interestingly with music surround sound has come and gone before - and even more interestingly a surprising number of peopke seem to liie Qube, which is mono, and muso, which is a sort of stereo but not hifi. For good hifi surround you need twice the amplification, which is the subject of this thread, but als twice the speakers - and given that decent speakers are neither small nor cheap the market is inherently a lot smaller than for stereo, and I suspect will remain that way.
This, and making folks transition to the “new standard”. Look at how 8K is being held back, not by the availability of 8K devices, but by the availability of true 8K source. I suspect the same will be true for a long time for hi res surround for audio.
We’ve had surround in various forms since the '70s. I’d argue stereo has held strong nicely.
I don’t think you need to argue. Even if we were to accept the quality argument, which I don’t at all, the history of audio is one in which the overwhelming majority of oriole, given the choice between quality and convenience/portability, choose the latter every time.
Surround has had a couple of “moments” but it isn’t going to get another.
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