On the contrary
Shortly you will find second hand price of Classic seperate products become very attractive.
I’m sure Nac/Nap of any size will be affordable also for so called “normal working person”.
1 Like
I doubt it very, very much.
And it’s ‘separates’ 
2 Likes
Not me.
Say a 272/200 for the price of a new Nait 5i, its not unrealistic in my part of the world.
Guess its the same downunder.
For Pete’s sake Naim… get out a higher level of integrated ! The SN3 is great but only up to a certain level.
2 Likes
No ! not for long standing loyal customers, who no doubt will feel a little ripped off for their loyalty. You have to be careful not to price yourself out of both the wider market and current customers who may well feel the time has come to move elsewhere. Their current audio products will work perfectly well with some other other brands.
7 Likes
No, because I didn’t assume, which is why I asked if it was assumed!
For Earth’s sake 
stop whinging
Stay with what you have or buy a decent “old” classic, olive or chrome bumper system
5 Likes
Thanks JOF. I am already at NDX2/XPSDR/252/250DR level all Fraimed with SuperLumina. The point I make is the New Classic pricing at 200 level suggests future 300NC plus level will be out of my league. It seems I’m not alone and it is not just in Australasia.
4 Likes
I feel like the last few years have been a bit of a trick. They have known the new stuff was on the way for years. The price rises may have been put in place to make the price gap to new classic not seem as big. There was probably no need to rise the prices of the old classic line multiple times. Now they drop the price to get rid of the old stock making it feel like a bargain. Well it’s not, it’s just back to normal.
Another thing that has annoyed me is the withholding information of the ability for the old classic line to use other speaker cable. They do have zobel networks after all. What’s that all about? The complete opposite has has been said over and over. That could have been easily rectified a long time ago.
7 Likes
Yes yes but then we have been getting warnings of this with price increases since 2021. I’m afraid Naim is out of reach for more and more people now. As long as the current stuff is still serviceable who cares what the company is doing with their crazy pricing. The same goes for the price of Linn and many others
1 Like
Not just Naim, Linn put a 20% price increase through here in NZ on Friday… I’ve been in discussions with my insurance company to replace my broken Troika and because they didn’t settle it in time the value of the claim jumped by $1000 (NZD)… the ‘entry level’ LP12 is pushing $9000… I bought a Rega P8 for one of my setups last year for $4800, the same configuration is now $6250… (2023)
Naims pricing is really too high in Australasia but its an industry-wide thing as far as I can tell… Re the New Classic boxes Its still cheaper for my to fly to the UK to buy one at full retail and bring back than buy from the local distributor, the saving over two or three of the new boxes is 000’s of dollars…
Not complaining here as I’m not really in the market and happy with my olives (my complete 82/HCDR/250/LP12 set up cost less than half of what a new classic box is here) but it is interesting in the context of the discussion.
5 Likes
I assume you would have to pay some import duty and taxes if you bought from the uk?
Hifi dealers and manufacturers’ markups are outrageous, relative to value add in the former and raw material/assembly in the latter. That’s why there’s lots of product choice yet most younger folks aren’t really interested. Pricing will revert to the mean or the industry size will decline rapidly.
3 Likes
Those building a classic system are in quite the dilemma now I think. Either stay as is now, grab a clearance item if upgrading, or wait for a second hand opportunity. It’s possible that not many second hand opportunities will be coming up, due to the very high cost of upgrading.
Take the 250 as an example. The classic DR is on clearance for around $9K and used $5.5k or less, the NC 250 is $15K new. So, upgrading to a classic 250 is good buying at the moment, but swapping a 250 DR to a NC 250 is pretty expensive.
Then the 300, currently around $13K on clearance, less than a NC 250. Expect the replacement 300 to be twice the cost of NC 250, so circa $30K. So, if you are at 250 and are looking at 300, with the classic range, grab a discounted model at $13K, sell the 250 for maybe $5.5K, net cost still $7.5K. But for the new 300, probably a net cost of $24K or more……
So, I feel, if you are looking to upgrade within the classic range, grab a discounted item now. Going forward there may not be many upgrading within the classic range, and the used market will be pretty quite.
Even the price jump from a Nova at around $10K to the new 222/250 ($30K) is crazy. Though I guess the NDX2/SN3 is holding some relative sanity there as an option at the moment.
How sustainable the new pricing will be in the NZ/Australian market is another matter altogether.
4 Likes
From what I’ve noticed, younger Gen seem to be more inclined to go with the options that are recommended by the audio reviewers taking measurements and trying to show that you can get good performance with a lot less money. This year I think I’m going to try those options and see how they compare to my NOVA.
2 Likes
There’s a good article on Future Audiophile on that subject titled “Revising the Conundrum of And/Or When Buying Audiophile Components”, it presents several quite intersting points worth reading.
1 Like
Yeah but if buying new and exporting you would not be liable for VAT and there is a rate arbitrage of 5% in NZ’s favour. If tax is paid in the UK it’s just carried as personal property so no tax…
Overlaying that is a significant general slowdown and the doubling on average of debt servicing costs I suspect most households discretionary spending to be under pressure for the next few years… Naims launch timing is pretty unfortunate IMHO…
2 Likes
That depends on what you compare. Are they equal to the NAP 250 for people who are focussed on timing and/or the fabled “Naim sound”?
As for amps made in Canada, I have a couple of Brystons, which to my taste in speakers are outstanding amps. Their new price is far from low cost, in fact in UK rather in the same price league as Naim, but to me their capability makes them worth the cost (secondhand that is). It tells you something when the standard warranty is 20 years.
2 Likes
The real question around that is do they make outrageous profit, or is the market for quality hifi so small that they need the markups to make a reasonably decent living?
1 Like