I only have to look at what I paid for my big system back in 2004, €27000 for a new CDS3, NAT05, NAC252, Supercap, NAP300, headline2 and SL2s, with a good trade in for my 202, 200 and CDX2 which were a few months old. I already had an XPS2 and Hicap2. The eye watering price of the new classic means that there will be no more Naim purchases for me. The servicing and recapping prices in 2021 were already enough to put me off as well. It’s silly money when you think about it
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Yes recapping is now so questionable pricewise. Even if you can find someone to do it down here. I am contemplating a shipment to the UK but funds will need to come first. Hopefully the UK still do recapping when the funds are together!
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There used to be a guy in Brookvale that was pretty good.
Put it this way, do you have non Naim options that offer superior sound for the next step up in terms of cost over what you have now?
- If yes, then take a deep breath and just “let go”. Unless the Naim logo was tattooed somewhere embarrassing, Naim’s pricing problem isn’t your pricing problem.
- If no, then have the distributor really got it wrong? If you’ve got nowhere else to go with superior sound quality for a better cost at the next step up, then it sounds like they’ve got the price right and got their customers cornered.
The second hand prices are a different matter. I don’t agree that any manufacturer has a responsibility towards the value of their second hand market. I’d always assume when I buy anything that the monetary value is instantly zero. I tell myself that before any purchase and if it bothers me, I consider it the universe telling me not to buy it in the first place.
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I guess it’s like all things change is never easy. The second hand market and trade in values were always healthy here and I do feel that some of the pain we’re feeling is the direct result of changing distributors and marketing strategy here. But ultimately you are right there’s always other options but that’s not fair on those who have invested in Naim and it’s not good for Naim as a brand.
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Don’t think I don’t sympathise. Because I really do. I’m just trying to offer a zen approach (no pun intended). My own reevaluation of where I go from here happened during the first big price hike in 2020.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I don’t really feel angry or left hanging by Naim. I just sort of feel like I’m not the target anymore. For the older stuff, I’m still happy with Naim and even ordered a new “old” classic bit (albeit just a StageLine) after the NC range was launched.
The truth is, I can afford to upgrade beyond my current system. I just cannot afford to do it with Naim. That’s only a problem if I let it be a problem in my head.
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I thought I had one more major upgrade in me I feel (unless things change) that’s probably not going to happen now. The up shot is I have a great system and if it ends up being my final system I can’t/won’t be unhappy.
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Having the decision to get off the treadmill made for you can be very liberating though. You stop daydreaming about a new box and start spending hours reading about music instead… or possibly how to put a smaller system in another room.
There really is a silver lining to most of this stuff if we care to stand back and look.
Naim will either look at these comments and make a change and thereby legacy customers in ANZ happy. Or they won’t and customers will find another way to be happy and Naim won’t get their money any more (assuming they wanted it). Either way, the customer can be happy if they so choose.
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Yes! This was the exact point I tried to make in a thread I started asking what Naim was doing to our used equipment prices having noticed a deluge of previously hard to buy used ndx2’s at reduced prices but my post was met with the usual defensive blind arguments - I concur the new products, whilst being sold under the ‘classic’ umbrella won’t plug and play with existing kit and because of the marketing actually makes existing products obsolete- this eroding values and my confidence in buying Naim. Seems to go against one of the attractive ethos’ of the brand
I don’t think this is entirely fair. Things have evolved with Naim, as evidenced first by the Statement, and now the classic kit is following suit. Nothing has become “obsolete” - it still does the job it was designed to do, and Naim still support things like the early streaming platform (@Stevesky mentioned further updates in the pipeline). Naim have also tried to find ways of making the new power supply compatible with older products (and likewise, the older XP5XS, XPS and 555PS compatible with the new NC222) and there are new cable assemblies so you can use new with old and old with new. It wouldn’t be right to hold development back just for the sake of trying to keep absolutely everything new or old cross compatible. Things have to eventually progress where progression make performance sense, but in doing so, Naim have gone out of their way to try to keep as much compatibility as possible.
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That’s not what I’ve said at all they’ll always be new product and new tech. My argument has nothing to do with anything being obsolete, it’s about pricing and discounting.
I wonder if there were the same rant and raves going from chrome bumper to olive to classic ?
I do find some people’s arguments rather odd.
Naim decided to move on and that’s how it is. Either like it or lump it. I am happy that stuff is still serviceable even my chrome bumper amps. The pricing is a bit of a rip off but hey ho that’s the way it is. Still cheaper than the “and now for something completely different” a la @Dunc 
and I think I just maybe able to slum it with what I have
I take your point(s) Richard, however the market will have its own view and at the moment I see more Naim used kit for sale and at lowering prices- than in recent times- of course this may have more to do with other wider factors however folk who own 252/500 level kit tend to be more immune to blips in the economy and I have noticed more of this level of kit now being offered for sale… whatever Naim’s intentions it could be that customers are now looking elsewhere and this coincides with the jv, plans to manufacture abroad and new products that some don’t see as seamless evolution from the old
Like it, just like, i very much like what i have.
Cheers dunc
Or a new range being launched meaning people want the new kit?
I think it’s something that happens when new kit arrives, especially when it’s something that has been wanted by so many for so long (NSC222). As well as selling off old demo gear , dealers will be taking a lot more in part-exchange as the first big wave of purchases of the new range takes place, and of course others may be trying to sell privately to finance their new acquisition.
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Very glad to hear it. I would imagine it’s pretty good sounding as well the new kit.
Someone I used to know a few years (early 2004) ago had an top olive system with SL2. He added a CDS3 and eventually went active. Never heard the active setup but the passive one was rather good.
I wonder if it is possible to have a benchmark for the cost of olive kit at the new when the classic stuff came out.
Personally and think it was mentioned that one should buy with not too much hope of it retaining value for sale when upgrading. I feel the pain but life’s a bitch and all that . Sounds possibly selfish but I do not worry so much that my stuff goes down in value. Of course if it retained value then so much the better
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Very much so.
Cheers