A thought experiment if you will.
Scenario 1 : Barco dissolve Naim as a hifi company. They keep on staff for service and offer jobs or wonderful redundancy packages to all other employees. They create a trust to keep the Naim forum open with Richard as moderator for as long as he wants.
Scenario 2 : Barco keep Naim going as currently but decide to shut down the forum.
Which do you think would impact you more? If you had to chose one scenario over the other which would you choose?
.sjb
You might get a better response if you make it a vote. 
I don’t actually see either scenario happening to be honest.
In many ways the forum plays the role that hifi shops used to serve: places to see, hear, and chat. With a purchase every now and then.
I don’t know other persons that like music like i do out there. And i have nobody else to share my love with. So the forum is important to me. I don’t know what will happen to Naim Audio but i hope for best.
I think the forum is quite unique in the hifi and wider world. It’s well run, atmosphere is friendly and discussion of Naim and non-Naim does make it like going to a dealer. Ended up buying my first UQ2 from stumbling across the forum.
I’m not in any way suggesting that. As mentioned it’s a thought experiment.
It struck me that although Naim products brought me here that I’d probably miss the forum more than I would Naim manufacturing- hence the thread.
.sjb
As I don’t have any Naim gear, and have no plans or expectations of so doing in the future (but don’t rule out the possibility under certain circumstances), it would definitely be the forum I would miss rather than the manufacturer, shame though it would be if that scenario were to transpire.
I have been a Naim user for 35 years and a forum member for around seven. I hope very much that it is kept on.
I don’t think without it that I would have bought my last piece of equipment (a Nait 50)
Naim sells excellent audio products, but the forum sells the real product: endless opinions. If one of them has to go, I’m keeping the part that lets me procrastinate at work.
I’d go for scenario 2.
So long as Naim the company is still in existence (surely the a priori of this place), Naim lovers and users could start their own forum. I don’t see why Naim staff and ex-staff couldn’t be part of that (unless they were not allowed by whatever parent company), nor why it couldn’t be as civil a place as this is under its current leadership.
As much as there may be diverse opinions on many things I think it’s the superb moderation and open nature of the forum allowing so many things non-Naim to be discussed which sets this place apart.
When my hi-fi interests were re-kindled around 10 years ago (having been quite happy with Naim/Linn stuff for decades) I was particularly annoyed with Linn shutting their forum soon after I found it, as there were many interesting LP12 discussions I’d never have known about otherwise.
I have used Naim and non-Naim gear, and participated in Naim and non-Naim forums. Naim gear and the Naim forum are both excellent, but the forum’s separation from its competition may be more extreme than the gear’s separation from its.
A company is just three sheets of paper sitting in Companies House. I have never spoken to a sheet of paper and feel no attachment or loyalty to it. The forum and the colourful members on it however…
It also has wonderful photos of “ hi fi porn” , and some very serious Naim systems.
I’m exactly in Gianluigi’s position: I don’t know anyone better than the Forum to discuss my hobby, and listening to music (preferably with a Naim system) is essential to me. Therefore, I can’t answer your question.
We have little real interest in new naim kit, any purchases would be on pre-loved market (including if we wanted 350s). So as long as service remained an option we would sleep easy. The forum holds a vast amount of knowledge, and seems pretty unique in the vendor realm. Would be a real loss.
So Scenario 2 would be the bad one for us.
Look what happened to the Linn forum. It’s not worth visiting.
After I made the decision to ditch all but one of my black boxes I couldn’t drag myself away from the forum so it’s an easy choice for me.
Lots of linn support on the Hi Fi Kabin.