Great idea. I may suggest it to the visual merchandisers. They’d like the thinking.
With the Muso it was sited in an alcove near an escalator in menswear - it didn’t sound great. Hopefully, they’ve learned a bit more by now, as it was a while ago…
A mainstream audio brand pays almost 3 million Euros a year to sponsor the Mercedes F1 team - including having Lewis Hamilton promote their products, which he wears at every race. Looks like they’re not getting their moneys-worth if no-one’s noticed 
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I’ll have to look more carefully at the next Grand Prix.
I wonder who this up market hifi brand might be. Worth investigating if Merc and Lewis are rand Ambassadors.
That’s the only reason I’m with Santander !!!
I wouldn’t exactly call them upmarket, more of a lifestyle brand 
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Are you saying the Atom is pants?
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It’s Bose, or so Mr Google tells me. Better Off with Something Else.
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I’m sure all audio manufacturers would gladly swap bank accounts with Bose though.
99% of average people on the street doesn’t know Naim and haven’t a clue.
What they know is brands like Sony, Bose, B&O amo.
Presumably why they’ve chosen to do business with JL. Almost no-one will have heard of Ruark until they diversified but they seem to be doing well and have stayed with JL for years.
It’s good business by Naim as the Muso products have been selling for some time now and nibbling away at the masses.
Involving him would be a major Naim fail. I’m sure they realise that. McLaren F1 must be shting themselves. Looks like it’s days are numbered now.
Total supporter of JL Waitrose and Richer Sounds BTW. Employee owned.
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A so called driver of a good car.
So-called possibly because he does actually seem to have done rather well… 
7 times WC and now a Knight. He’s done alright. 
Missing the point or maybe I was not clear when I said “ other “
It’s not the first time that hifi companies have tried to gain a foot hold in the market with placements in these types store.
Harrods was the chosen one 18 years a go, big fail
Apple stores were going to sell a ton of Muso’s and again a big fail… doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is madness.
To me it shows that all these manufacturers are getting scared… they will at some point realize that they do not need any brick and mortar stores and just market and sell direct to the end user.
Naim would be in a great position to do this right now by releasing a simplified selection of boxes.
Before I get flamed let’s wait and see what 2021 brings us.
How would that work, might be ok for the Musos but I couldn’t imagine me buying a separate without listening first or at least the support of my dealer who might take it back if it doesn’t suit my needs but couldn’t see a large department store let you return it.
May work for existing customers like most of here but wouldn’t do much for new business.
I don’t think you’ll get ‘flamed’ for these comments, as the general subject of how to promote & market hi-fi and what one might call ‘quality consumer hi-fi’ at the lower end e.g. Mu-Sos and Unitis, is intriguing and obviously challenging for a business of the scale of Naim. It has to explore many routes to the consumer, with due balance to cost/profile et al - all part of the ‘marketing mix’.
And while Linn in Harrods didn’t appear to be successful, one doesn’t know what the financial arrangements were for their space e.g. concession terms, as is often the case with places like Debenham’s (now largely ‘gone’) and Harvey Nichols in the UK, or something else. Personally, I thought it was a poor choice of location but then folklore has it that many shops on the prime shopping lanes of the world pay such high rents that they barely make money/break-even and exist more for profile and marketing purposes than as profitable vending outlets…unless you have a super high margin product like Apple, of course.
That’s pretty much already the business model outside UK these days. Go to a box shifter who is unlikely to have much more than an all in one to listen to and make your purchase. No try before you buy, no set up support, no returns - and more expensive. I’m not sure about delivery but you can certainly purchase on line and just swing by to pick up.
Ask a dealer why they don’t promote higher end kit and they say it’s because they don’t feel they can support customers properly if things go wrong with such expensive kit.
Support used to be provided by the long time distributors but Naim have fallen out with them. Seems to be a recurring theme…
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It can be the same in the UK with overseas brands too.
One reads a glowing review of a product in a UK-based mag only to find out the distributor has only one of the kit in the country, sometimes even that the distributor operates from home (as I found out once)…and they really aren’t interested in arranging home dems.