Naim To Share Manufacturing

Not for the lifestyle items like the Muso which I have no interest in, but if spending a tidy sum on a Naim component further up the range, then yes.

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Agreed,

I do love Naim stuff and currently have a lot of Naim gear/ enjoy Naim music. However, I think the company is moving to a different direction. It may not be what I am looking for. Naim is looking to expand and get more new customers but may not necessarily try to keep old Naim fan base.

Time will tell

We all have choices in life……Naim can make their choices……we can make ours.

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All my hi-fi is British, and that is how it will stay.

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You can produce awesome products and at the same time shitty products no matter country of manufacture. It’s down to what is important to the company and the efforts making that happen. Many have failed moving production through the years thinking “we just copy and paste” the process. What you never can copy and paste is years of experience, loyalty and passion for the brand you spent your life building up. They might make it but it is not a trivial journey IMO.

To read that top positions leave and employees leave says something. Something that for sure can danger a company that built their reputation on quality end to end. You cannot put that experience in a word document.

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Your loudspeakers are made in Canada.

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Yes, I was referring to the main rig electronics to be precise, though I have a Heed headphone system. Back in the day I wanted to upgrade my A60, went to dealers for a British amp (thinking Arcam or Rega) and bought a Naim, along with some Totems.

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Surely, the introduction of 200 and 300 series products means that they will be built in Salisbury (why have 2 locations making the same items ?).

This would free up some capacity at HQ. I’m guessing that “all in one boxes” and any separates below the 200 series will be manufactured in Slovakia. I don’t think that people will be bothered by this. It also allows management to claim that they outsourced as a means to keep costs down. There have been comments about the long lead time for orders so this will address the situation.

This looks like a good move for the business. Increasing capacity should mean increasing profits. The important question is where will production be in 10-20 years time ?

I think you’ll find further up the thread that the new 200 series is set for production in Slovakia……

I had one of those old A60’s, way back in the day. It had a beautiful wood surround, and I loved the sound…

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Expanding is obvious, even some old farts are buying new we are not really the future basic customers.

However I don’t understand why Naim will make same products on both locations.
This will create the question “where is it made” and leave buyers with choice 9 out of 10 would choose UK made, thats what gonna happen.

It would be logic to make the 300/500/Statement in UK and remaining in Slovakia.

Exiting times.

A Freudian Slip?

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The same here. I think Naim would have been bankrupted under Julian’s reign. He was just a different kind of guy compared to Paul Stephenson who took over.

Anyhow just speculating.

It doesn’t matter PerF is a string Olive guy I believe. I understand that fully.

Bloody hell, can’t believe that happened in 1985.

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I missed that - just too many posts !

Surely, this will generate some sort of snobbery. Salibury 200 v Slovakian 200. Which would you prefer and why ?

I would choose a Salisbury 200 over a Slovakian because I think it will hold it’s resale value better.

The Fender argument posted way upthread is, in my opinion only partly correct. Fender started outsourcing production and using the Squire name because they were losing sales of US instruments to some very good far Eastern copies and they themselves did not offer a low-cost guitar. They have managed this superbly and have gone from a business which was close to bankruptcy to the World’s larges producer of electric guitars.

Just for the record, my Fenders are US (call me a snob) but there are some Mexican models which are very tempting.

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History teaches us that nothing stays the same forever.
Being jolted out of a rut causes disturbance to the human psyche.
Change will come whether we like it or not.
Naim risk losing a lot if the quality is not up to scratch and there are lots of returns due to poor quality and/or performance. If this turns out to be correct then they may well find the marketing bill going up.
I could always vote with my wallet, there are more hifi manufacturers out there then you can shake a stick at.

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On the one hand this feels rather sad and the end of an era, on the other surely it’s highly positive that additional capacity is required rather than struggling to get enough orders to maintain production only at the Salisbury site.

Naim will not survive on nostalgia and sentiment alone in this day and age, and if potentially unpopular decisions have been made allowing HQ to oversee production/quality and training at another site, then if that needs to be outside the UK for business related or simply practical reasons I guess we and they just have to see how it pans out.

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Some people are never happy they want to moan about waiting times, slips in QC, price rises, lack of new products yet when the company tries to address all of those issues that’s wrong too.

There isn’t magic fairy dust or something in the air down in Salisbury that means products sound better because they are built there, these products are just a pile of components put together by trained people put those piles of components and train those people anywhere and the products will sound the same.

The problem is many of you pay out a lot of money and want to feel part of a small and elite club but that small elite club died with Julian V Naim is now part of a very big and very successful multi national company with all that entails and to be honest they’ve done well to keep manufacture in Europe and not Asia.

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I was exited in regard to the Statement amps.

Faced with the curve cooling fins and connected Focal speakers, excitement soon got tempered.

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