I recently spent £130 on a Creek CAS4040 and Aiwa ADF-350. Both needed DIY repairs to work. I am now considering a Marantz CD63 MkII Ki Signature to go with them. Am I mad? 
All this just because I won’t sell my Keilidhs.
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Certainly, yes! What else would you expect from a Linn/Naim enthusiast? 
Joking aside, your point is fair. The term “gold standard” certainly depends on the perspective of a Linn/Naim fan. It may be a fantasy to suggest universal agreement, yet for those who prize musicality and dynamic scale, that configuration remains the definitive benchmark of its time.
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But only for Linn/Naim fans. Yes I think it’s a great system and it’s what I aspired to back in the day, but I am a Linn/Naim fan. In wider terms things like the Isoibariks were not well regarded at all. You only have to look back at some of the comparative reviews of the day to see that Isobariks always fared badly compared to more ‘normal’ speakers.
Also looking back you can see that many reviewers and others started to move away from these set ups, particularly as CD gained a foothold, and also just because newer and more capable products were developed. At least that’s how I remember it and I lived through those times. They were exciting times and this was a fanatastic system to people like us who love what it did. I feel that your depiction of it is coloured by nostalgia and a rose-tinted hue in the wider context though. I don’t blame you though, and I’m sure I would love that system now. But in the cold light of day I don’t think anyone other than devoted Linn/Naim fans will be viewing it as any kind of gold standard. I recall reviewer Ken Kessler’s description of it as “an over blown disco system”! He wasn’t exactly a fan but to be fair I think most of the hi-fi world, other than us Linn/Naim fans, probably had a view not too much different and certainly didn’t view it as any kind of benchmark. One can easily get carried away with nostalgia and the reality rarely lives up to the memory.
I would likely remain unconvinced by any reviewer, aside from a few instances involving Chris Frankland or Malcolm Stewart.
You wouldn’t be convinced by KK and neither would I but that’s not the point. What I’m saying is that his view probably aligns more with most people’s (ie. non Linn/Naim fans) than ours does. Malcolm Steward was of course a huge Linn/Naim fan who is sadly no longer with us. Of course you will be more convinced by him - that’s because you like the same things that he did!
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I was convinced with him because he was right… 
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He certainly knew his stuff and I always enjoyed reading his reviews and articles. Sad that people like him and also John Bamford, another of the great hi-fi journalists, are no longer around to impart their knowledge and to entertain us.
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I’ve just sub-totalled my system and ‘if bought from new’ it would’ve came in at around the £35k mark. >Gulp!< 
As you wrote about Ken Kessler, I am thinking now that neither him, neither Paul Messenger, and Paul Miller or Paul Rigby have a Naim/ Linn system.
They are the most known audio British journalists.
Paul Messenger certainly did.
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Paul Mesenger has spoken in print about his 552/500 IIRC. But no I don’t think the others did, and Ken Kessler is a big Quad fan (wrote a book about Quad) - I doubt if he’d be seen dead with a Linn/Naim system! As for Paul Rigby I’m not entirely sure what his credentials are as a hi-fi journalist. As far as I can make out he has pretty much sprung from nowhere and has appointed himself as a hi-fi expert. I do find his musings interesting though.
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Martin Colloms is missing from your list, not only because he owns Naim.
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I don’t believe he does, does he?
You know better, as a British guy. I thought Paul Rigby is well known, but probably wrong then.
I remember, but I may be wrong, that his favourite cd player was Marantz ca12/da12 ( transport and dac) and his turntable the SME 30.
But to be sure, I google searched and I was wrong. It was Ken Kessler with the Marantz and SME.
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The newest review posted on the stereophile website mentions Aro, Core, ND555, 555PS DR, Superline, Supercap, NAP 250, Powerlines, Fraims and more. While it dates from December 2025, he surely had a lot of Naim back then 
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Oh, apologies - I thought you meant he owned the company 
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He does seem to be well known, now, and has his own website even. What I meant was that the other hi-fi journalists you mention all have a long history of writng for various magazines. They go back decades and have an established track record. Paul Rigby just seems to have sprung from nowhere and is a self appointed hi-fi guru. Or so it seems to me.
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Blimey !
We almost never experience such guy’s in here 
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