Splitting off the market positioning / branding / financial performance conversation from the ND5XS2 discontinuation thread.
An interesting topic as I remember working for a Linn &Naim specialist in the early eighties just before CD got a footing and we were sent a brown non descript box filled with empty squeezee lemon shaped lemon juice bottles to give out to indicate one of the above manufacturers thoughts on CD & digital,(guess who!)
But time and business requirements move on and I had gone on to other things before CD players arrived from the above.
So fast-forward to today and I have said this in the past, being the owner of Naim Olive, CB & Old Classic, Naim as I knew it doesn’t exist anymore .
Rosey tints off for the moment I love the original VW Beetle, flat smelly air-cooled four pot, would it meet safety and market requirements today .. no imagine if VW had tried to carry on with it
2 Likes
So here we are.
1 Like
Forgot that copying the links to replies doesn’t bring over the whole thing. Oh well. Above for reference.
Naim’s product list and 23/24 accounts below courtesy of Hungry Halibut.
So the real question is whether Naim still exists in 10 years, and if so, does it resemble anything that we’ve come to know over the past 50? What’s going to be left? New Classic, Old Classic replacement, lifestyle products, boats and cars and home theatre, Statement stuff for the mega rich?
They did actually. it’s called the Porsche 911.
3 Likes
but for now Porsche is in a free fall, operating profit margin from 14,1 % to 0,2. Turn over down with 13 %.
1 Like
Not sure what that has to do with the technical evolution of the VW Beetle, but ok. I’ll play.
So Porsche is suffering? Hmmm. Ownership structure change, divergent strategy in launching electric products that faithful / hard-core buyers don’t want like the Taycan, killing off popular and profitable products like the 718, and making the one thing everybody loves (the 911) a bloated expensive caricature of its former self. And now they’re wondering why the financials are suffering?
Wow. Sounds a lot like an audio company we all know.
6 Likes
Interesting article on an honest headphone website published on 10th Feb, about legacy hifi brands. If people thought it was just here on the forum that people were discussing changes in the industry. A search for “legacy hifi brands are dying out” should find it.
5 Likes
Topline up YoY 3%. CoS up 16%. Interesting.
1 Like
Just did a quick read - not bad. Going over the same thoughts from @ratrat , @daddycool @feeling_zen and @frenchrooster from yesterday’s discussion.
A link to another article on the same site: 40% of Audiophiles May Be Gone Soon, and No One Is Replacing Them is also good.
4 Likes
Is there a pandemic that targets audiophiles with a 40% mortality rate?
Did it start in a lab in Salisbury? 
15 Likes
Roy Gandy had the wisdom of handing over the business to an Employee Ownership Trust, so hopefully they are much less likely to end up in the hands if venture capitalists.
12 Likes
From the reports , stop buying high end before any makes disappear. 
Well many a serious high end respectable brand of yesteryear sunk to a low level.
Remember Altec Lansing? Well now this is one of their more expensive products
All gradual shifts of course and different manufacturers are at a different part of the journey to that destination. I understand you evolve or die but some paths taken cannot be undone.
Perhaps naĂŻve but nonetheless a genuine question from me: Could that still happen at Naim?
That boat has sailed, i guess the time when that could have happened was either before JV passed away or as instructions in his will. I think he left the company to family members who wanted the money out, perhaps it also needed to much inward investment.
6 Likes
Thanks. As I thought but I’m glad I asked.
Supplementary Qs:
Could Naim employees buy Naim Audio back from the present owners, always assuming they could raise the money?
Would that even be desirable?