Hopefully there will be a new 100 Classic or XS series or too many of us will be priced out and driven into the arms of the competition. In the US there is a 25% markup after currency conversion, kind of hard to fathom given how technology is closing the performance gap when compared to many other moderately priced offerings out there.
Well, there really is a lot of negative comment here about naim in Australia and its a real shame. I went to Audio Genesis yesterday and had a listen. The 3 new boxes are gorgeous, beautiful kit that sounded so good. A real tight powerful punchy sound that was just pure music. yes it is expensive, but naim always has been. I must say, thank God we have Harry, always fully committed to the brand, paid the bucks and got the products in for us to listen. They are really good, but many of us are already at levels above this with the old classics so no real improvement can be gained from them. It looks like naim are really targeting new customers, and if a certain level of quality can be now gained from minimal boxes well new customers will be lucky for discovering the brand later in their audio journey. I got home and listened to my 552 with active DBL’s and a bit off the “I want the new stuff” feeling went away. I’m really looking forward to seeing what will replace the 552, a mini S1 maybe? Thing is, I won’t be able to afford it, but I recall when the 552 first came out, I never ever thought I would own one. I had a lowly 112 and was happy. Things move on, become more expensive, but as owners, we did buy product that was built to last a life time so at some point, many of us will have to just be happy with what we have.
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Bryston do indeed make great amps. My dealer sells them as well. In Canada they are priced in line with Moon, McIntosh, etc, which means they are much less expensive here than Naim. They are priced like Naim in the UK because Naim is much less expensive in the UK and Bryston, Moon, etc. don’t seem to ramp up prices just because they are selling in a foreign country.
In my case, I was tempted by Bryston, but eventually decided to go with Moon. Bryston are a very small operation and can take quite a time to fulfill an order. When you call up Bryston with a question or problem, you are likely to get the company founder on the line (recently at least). Sounds a bit like Naim from many years ago 
.
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Why later? They might catch people earlier, with a quality product that might never need upgrading (depending of course on speakers)
I was just referring to the timing of a purchase, when it was time for me to make my purchase, the classic series was the available product, for people lucky enough to be buying now, they have new classic. At least with naim, they don’t change their line up very often so our kit remains current for a long time, again depending on the timing of the purchase.
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This scenario was suggested on the thread as well and it seems to me a bit unrealistic, when you think about what a round trip would really cost you and how much exactly will be the amount remaining, for me it is really not an option. Let’s say you need to stay there for minimum 2 maybe 3 nights at a hotel, than it is the logistics (with 3 big boxes!), you also need 3 big suitcases (good ones) to put the boxes in, I can’t imagine you will be only wrapping those in plastic at the airport, then you would to need also to pay the extra cost for the big luggage on the way back.
Final bill will approximately comprise the following for 3-4 day trip (in GBP):
~1.5K roundtrip flight
~500 for the hotel
~500 transport/meals,
~1K for 3 big (quality) cases
~200-500 extra cost for the flight back for the extra luggage.
So roughly 4K GBP for the whole trip, and the difference is what like 6K GBP in AUS pricing for the 3 boxes? If I am willing to spend like ~21K (17+4) GBP on the new kit and Aus pricing is ~23K (17+6) GBP, would I do all this just to save a mere 2K GBP (or even less). I cannot afford it, so I won’t do it anyway, but even if I could I would not consider travelling to the UK to just save this insignificant amount compared to what I am actually spending. What about if you have to take somebody else with you on the trip…?
Those numbers might not be entirely correct, but I hope you get my point.
ATB
Make, like, a holiday of it, like.
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I doubt anyone is actually going to do this, but ridiculous that it’s even a viable option. The price different is 27% or around $12000 NZD for the three boxes.
If I was looking to buy I can have a boozy weekend in London with my old mates, who i’d likely stay with so no hotel costs, and still bank probably $8k… sounds like a win to me… Of course if I buggered off to London for a week and spent thirty grand on an amplifier all the money I saved would have to go towards the divorce lawyer when I got home 
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People just stop buying, demand collapses, companies take the profit hit hoping to recover or go under or people take out loans they cannot afford.
Bear in mind here that Naim does not set the recommended retail prices outside of the UK - this is down to the distributor. A distributor should know how to price kit so they can give their dealers adequate margin to support their customers and for all to make some profit. If a distributor prices kit too high then ultimately it will affect their sales and the sales of their dealers, and I doubt Naim would be happy of they see it holding back their business. They will have a forecast of sales that will be shared with Naim’s sales team. Either they meet or exceed that forecast or they fall short.
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I wish our suppliers allowed that! We have RRP set by our ‘outside the UK suppliers’ and heaven help you if you transgress.
In the EU, and as far as I’m aware, still in the UK, it is illegal for suppliers to dictate retail prices to retailers. They can charge their customers whatever they want. Thus the term recommended retail price.
Of course some suppliers will try to make life difficult for retailers who deviate from RRP if they find out, although they are then treading on thin ice with consumer law.
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Yep this is the argument we have with them all the time 
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned already but there is also an extra level of distribution for overseas markets as well as extra shipping costs and duty.
In the UK it’s Naim to retailer and then the consumer.
Overseas it’s Naim to local market distributor then retailer and onto the flock.
Local distributor has all the costs of other parts of the chain and everyone is only doing it for profit.
Unless parts of the supply chain want to cut there margin it’s inevitable that export market prices will be significantly higher than in the home market.
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There are also additional import tariffs in some markets - IIRC NZ has an extra import tariff on amplifiers, probably to try to protect local manufacturers, which is why traditionally the power supply and the amp unit on NAP300 and NAP500 were split into separate products in order to save an additional tariff on the power supply section, as power supplies were exempt.
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…and for all these years we thought Naim made amps in multiple boxes to improve sound quality!
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Ha! Of course, what I mean is that instead of offering up just one product as two boxes as per usual, the NAP300 and NAP500 were effectively “sold” to NZ as separate items.
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I think Naim and their local distributor (Aus/NZ) has kicked an own goal and in doing so kicked their local customer base in the guts. The heavily discounted classic range and the over priced new classic range have in my opinion put an end to Naim in Australia. If I was starting out again I’d be looking elsewhere for better value.
I originally got on the Naim train for the way it sounds but what kept me there was the retained value that made it easier to upgrade. It appears that greed and/or poor management has brought that to an end.
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Certainly a lot of that around these days, no doubt about that
Yes and they nearly always have the same excuse - covid.
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