Remove one letter and Naim could be going for the high end Coffee market 
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You will recall that yesterday they were very excited.
However, I have just received an email from Naim who today are thrilled by the partnership announcement.
I have sent a reply advising them that I am neither thrilled nor very excited just b****y disappointed.
In all honesty, I knew as soon as this thread started yesterday morning that the actual announcement was going to be complete pants, but it was great fun reading your guesses (television, cassette player, Aro etc.,) and generally just playing along with it.
I will say no more until the next thrilling, ecstatic and very excited launch comes around.
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How hard exactly would it be for Naim to say whatās happening with the 272 replacement, which might actually be of interest to their client base?
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I know right? Its keeping me awake at night.
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Does it come preloaded with engine sounds?
Naim is not the company it used to be. We all have to get used to it. More interested in the extremely rich. People suffering at the moment with this COVID thing people losing their jobs recession coming make no mistake about that but in the Naim world price increase and just rub salt in the wounds hereās a car that very few in the world can afford or even want. How about a price decrease for the customers that put you in the position you are now in.
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Mike, Itās a tough one - pretty much any announcement from Naim that isnāt about a new streaming pre-amp, new Aro, Naim toaster, turntable or cassette deck is going to be met with a good deal of disappointment here on the forum.
As for whether any of these things are actually coming then Iām sure weāll know once Naim are ready to launch and make any announcement. And that depends on a number of things, not least the ability to have a reliable source of parts to build them and the ability to supply distributors, dealers and customers worldwide. And right now I would guess thatās not so straightforward.
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Absolutely. We had a free moment where we could dump all our creativity on a topic. Good moments and happy to read that you survived the chocolate.
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Yes I did survive, but it was a close call with the chocolate.
I just hope that HH doesnāt come to any harm when eating his hat.
ATB,
Mike
I do tend to agree unfortunatelyā¦ I have been a Naim consumer, and dare I say it ridiculously loyal for the last 16 yearsā¦ but I have opened my eyes recently and looked outside the camp ā¦ and I kind of feel Naim might be starting to get left behindā¦ certainly in the digital and DAC space
Itās the applied innovation in their core product sets that perhaps doesnāt appear strong enoughā¦ and boy I know from my professional world it is a hard nut to crack but it does need to come and be supported from the top within the company culture.
In my experience, and I am definitely not saying this is universal, but when leadership has become distanced from its customers and the passion that started the company, this failure to suitably evolve can happen and can lead to a decline.
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Youāre right: no one will sell their Naim stuff overnight - but it will certainly make me think twice when the time comes to replace some of my equipment.
I personally have no wish to be associated with a firm that deals with the 0.001% (if thatā¦).
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Iām not sure what benefits it will bring to we mere mortals, nor am I convinced that this is the most cost-effective way of achieving any such benefits. I wonder what the ROI is for this work. Iām sure that it was a lot of fun for those involved in the negotiations and the development, but I have my doubts about any benefits.
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If companies are going to survive in such a specialised market, none of them can afford to be āLike they used to beā. Without new customers Naim will go the way of many others, and itās of no use to any of us to see them go down the tubes. Us old hi-fi types are rapidly decreasing in number, and I suspect form a very small part of Naimās business.
If Naim are selling a line of product at a certain price, and making a profit, thereās absolutely no logic in reducing their prices. I wince at the cost of Naim kit these days, and worry theyāre becoming uncompetitive, but itās their call, they know their market much better than any of us. If appealing to the super-rich helps them survive and continue to support their elderly line of traditional products then Iām all for it.
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Not really - surely expectation management is part of her job and all she has achieved is to piss off nearly everybody in their core customer base! Certainly appliers to me.
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I found that Naim and Linn were right all along- āsource firstā but my choice of source comes from neither of these 2 companies.
I am so heavily invested in Naim amplification - when a top source from Chord and a pair of active speakers (maybe with a preamp that can properly drive XLR cables - ATC comes to mind) is maybeā¦ what I really need
Would you be prepared to ditch your system for the AE1 actives, Simon.
I was mortified when I recently ended up with a Rega Aethos rather than a SN3 (to be fair there were serious synergy questions, with the Aethos having a far better connection with my Harbeth speakers)
Perhaps we expect too much of Naim?
Looking at some of the bigger Japanese players (with far more resources) their product range is (perhaps) not as exhaustive .
Throw in the longevity, build quality and ability to repair , I think they do exceptionally well , however in the field of computers I suspect an Achilles Heel is beginning to show, but from what I can gather that also applies to others as well.
If starting afresh (with the same budget as my current system) based on thirty plus years of ownership I would still go for a mainly Naim system , though I would try and reduce the box count
I disagree - there is no product that could be launched that would avoid disappointment from some people. You cannot please everyone all of the time - different groups of people would be disappointed with different things
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No, not AE1 activesā¦ they are fun but a bit of a toyā¦ I treat them like auxiliary speakers.
āAppealing to the super-richā is not exactly the order of the day.
Most people (and that includes those who are well-off like me) seem to feel contempt, more than anything else, for that class. Which is why I feel itās a bad marketing move - @anon37685938 is right.
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So itās a rather boring announcement about new car hifi
Never mind
Move on