How dare you!
Personally I think Olive was the top design. Not fashionable but classic.
If they could have kept them all to the same shade of Olive that would have been even better.
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Quite! This has been discussed many times; itâs just âone of those things that makes life interestingâ.
I have two âolive brownsâ in a sea of âolive greysâ. Curiously, both are the active XOs; one is a NAXO 2-4 & the other is a SNAXO 2-4.
My Supercap is the most Olive Grey (2nd from top)
CDSPS is oldest (top) and most brown.
135s were reboxed at the same time as the Supercap was purchased but seem to be much browner.
Yes, earliest was quite a brownish olive green, with the last almost a grey-green. Of course, Naim offered a fascia matching service and many got swapped out at service time so you could well have a very early Olive bit of kit with a grey-green fascia, or a late Olive item that has had an early brown-olive fascia subsequently fitted to match it with other items in a system.
Iâm generally not that concerned with cosmetics but Naimâs current black boxes in a Frame is as elegant and timeless as any system needs to be.
Adding grey as an anniversary colour scheme seems almost a bit cynical.
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I assumed mine had degraded over time rather than there was a change.
Just sent mine off for a service. I should have asked for the full fascia matching.
I donât think Naim can do it these days as the supply of fascias has dwindled. Itâs 20+ years since the last olive kit.
Shame.
In my mind my 52 was my new amp. I was shocked when I checked the serial number and realised it was 20 years old.
A mere youth! My ânewâ last year NAT02 is 30.
I love the Olive look as well. If Naim run out of glass fascia wonder if this is an opportunity for someone else to come to the rescue to keep these classic looking and amazing sounding amps going.
Naim and Focal have been constrained by trying to fit in with the 10 year wedding anniversary metal, tin, probably not the first choice of finish either company would have come up with for a special edition.
Looking at the more recent photos, the tin (and concrete) look of the Sopra No2 appears to me to be more attractive than the Naim box finish, particularly as Naim apparently had to compromise on the knobs which remain black, and look a bit weird (half completed) against the tin box facias.
But I am sure, as the tin system is not aimed at me, Naim couldnât give a monkeys what I think, and why should they.
Letâs face it there are only 50 tin special edition systems to be produced and I am fairly confident they will sell out pretty fast from the FPBN stores.
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Olive is the reason I left Naim back in the day. Canât stand it.
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Not the first time i heard such an opinion which was partly why i wrote earlier that naim has lost itâs way after the chrome bumper series. Some people that i respect who were in fact critical of the black series.
Care to elaborate?
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Fact is that ANY change to anything finds some vocal people who hate it. The existence of such people says little about the merits of the change
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For a company that lost its way in 1989 theyâve not done too badly.
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Nigel
Letâs just say that after getting my chrome bumper amps serviced and having a means to directly compare that with black series 252 and 300, i can understand why people do not like the changes. One even told Paul Stephenson that he thought it was another step in the wrong direction.
That said i like all my naim kit but the later kit is certainly drier if that makes sense.
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I know exactly what you mean. The new stuff is certainly more refined, but that really doesnât justify the idea of Naim losing their way in 1989! Thatâs a few steps too far, and the fact that you are happy with your 252/300 suggests that you donât really believe theyâve lost their way at all. Itâs just a gradual evolution.
Correct but as i already said Iâm a bit concerned with certain things and trends which i donât want to echo here. Some of what have already been covered anyhow. I guess time will tell how things will turn out. Yet another transient to the system that needs to be recovered from. I sincerely hope that there are lessons being learned from all this
Itâs probably more hope than expectation. Letâs see.
Olive is by far the best looking Naim kit imo. The 3D-ish logo is so beautiful and stylish. Why on earth did they change it to the current arch design? Probably because it couldnât be done in a metal fascia but still.
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