FIFY 
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āIs 70s Hi-Fi Just as Good?ā
Pioneer Receiver, Garrard Turntable, Teac Reel to Reel, with JBL 88 speakers, yes my memory says it was just as good!
ā¦and my hearing was a hell of lot better 50 years ago!
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This is so true. Can you please remind the Naim design dep of this before they bring out more modern black finned Uniti/Solstace/Statement products that donāt do it for me?
How something looks, and the room it is in is crucially important to the listening experience in my view. Listening enjoyment isnāt 100% about sound quality. Itās also a lot about how the environment makes you feel that you listen in. What does the equipment make you feel like to use.
Does it remind you of a happy time? Does it evoke the Third Reich (McIntosh)?
Iāve never understood the āI donāt care what it looks like as long as it sounds goodā brigade. If music is an emotional experience then a listening session is not just your ears.
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The cables are better, surely ?
The new products look more like the original Naim product lines than Classic does though, using straight angles and a monolithic design approach. Out of the 4 lines, Classic is the one that deviates the most using 3-pane fronts and angled/curved surfaces. 
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Thatās right ā he listened to ONE
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I discovered that Naim had made an electrostatic prototype in the past. Someone elsewhere found them impressive sounding.
Maybe Richard can remember.
Yes, Naim developed an electrostatic speaker - the FL1. It was the project of Guy Lamotte who also worked on the NAT amongst other products and was the main man behind the Aro. It was actively driven and aimed to greatly improve on the potential of the Quad ESL. There are some articles and interviews about the FL1 from magazines like the The Flat Response/Hifi Review and Hifi Answers. Thereās also a dedicated website which transcribes the articles if you do a search on Guy Lamotte and the Naim FL1.
While Naim was started by Julian essentially because he was disappointed with the performance of hifi and recording kit back in the day, he did acknowledge Quad kit as not without some merit, particularly the ESL.
He had a pair of ESLs that were fully rebuilt by Quad prior to Naim starting work on the FL1 - I guess they were sort of a baseline benchmark from which to work. I then owned them for some years and then James at Tom Tom bought from me.
The problem with the FL1, so I was told, was that it proved really difficult to produce. The tolerances required were far tighter than on the Quad ESL. The stator to membrane distance was dramatically reduced - and performance greatly increased - but it did require extremely fine tolerances and stators that were finished to a level that just wasnāt really possible back then. Add to that, the projected cost - this a time before general acceptance of 5 or even 6 figure price tags for speakers - and the project was eventually dropped, but not before greatly impressing those who were lucky enough to hear a pair play.
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I found it.
General information[contribute]
The Naim Audio FL-1 is an electrostatic speaker.
Christain Steingruber(December 2001): The Naim Audio FL 1 was a prototype built around 1987, when the marriage between Naim and Linn came to an end.
The designer was Guy Lamotte, a Frenchman, who also invented the series 5 modification of the Naim amps and some Naim tuners. He wanted to build an ESL as rigid as possible. As admirer of the Quad ESL 57 he used similar dimensions. The FL1 actually looks like a battleship version of the fragile 57.
Some prototypes of the FL1 were built and thought as very promising. Hifi-Review could hear the FL 1 in the Salisbury factory and spoke very enthusiastic about the demonstration (January/February 1987 issue). Hifi-Answers also reported about the FL1 and that it would be available within short time.
Unfortunately designer Lamotte was not too happy in England and left both country and company, without finalizing the speaker. According to Mark Tucker the costs had become very high and the company decided to stop the ESL project and to build conventional speakers instead.
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Speaking of prototypes, here are 2 Naim components that were only prototypes, never produced.
Nat FM 301 and AV1 surround
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IIRC, there were three or four NAT301s. The one in the picture with Paulās old NAPs and the wooden Buddha was one we had on the windowsill of the Naim sales office. I seem to recall it was joined by another one at some point. Of course, it did eventually appear as the two-box (potentially three-box had the AM tuner head made production) NAT01
The AV1 did make production, although I would doubt that many were sold. I do have a bit of a hankering to try an AV1 at home. I keep an eye outā¦
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My Audiomaster Image 2, bought in 1978 IIRC. Robin Marshall design . Still in use today, and sound superb. KEF B200 canāt remember the tweeter. Please excuse rubbish photo.
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Looks like the Peerless 1inch silk dome tweeter very popular at the time and versionK010DT still available today. Similar drivers to some very fine old Monitor Audio speakers.
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Ferreting around in the loft a while ago I came across this lot in a box. First āproperā hi-fi system bought about 1974 from a dealer in Barnet.
Put it on an old TV stand and surprisingly it all still works, but not exactly top end 
. Brought back a lot of happy memories - tuner still set for Nicky Horn and YMWLI.
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Mr Tibbs
Gale 401 speakers.
I loved the look of these and still do.
Always wanted some with my lecson ac1 and ap1.
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Well said that man!
Wow, I didnāt know about this.
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Two pairs of 1970s B&W DM4 still getting used every day and still sounding good.
And the dogs there for pets and hifiš
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Iām a sucker for VU meters. One modern amp with a 70ās look I would love to give a listen would be the Technics SU-R1000. Especially with a turntable and itās āIntelligent Phono EQā.
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The Technics SE-A1 and SU-A2 were objects of sheer lust for me while at school. I still have some of the magazine issues from the time ('77 or '78) where Technics did a colour double spread ad for these two. A remarkable number of things to adjust and fiddle with too - lovely stuff for this 10 year old, then and now!
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