New from Naim – Solstice Special Edition turntable

I think they were in trouble before Covid. Covid was the final nail in the coffin so to speak.

Looking at your profile Geofiz, you have lots of gear. Are you from Toronto? I live in Windsor, but the dealer I have dealt with here (Audio 2) is in semi retirement, and only works out of his home now. I have been dealing with Audio Eden for the last few years, my initial reason was that they deal with Naim gear, and are located away from all the Toronto traffic.
They also carry other high end brands, and I ended up getting off the Naim upgrade train, and settled on a Nagra integrated. My final piece,that I eventually want is a set of Kharma speakers, and call it a day.

Need to update that profile. :grinning:

That’s a great shame. Very sorry to hear. I liked Gunnar and he did me a great deal on a secondhand turntable that he’d just taken in on trade that I gave to my nephew in Ottawa.

I see What HiFi’s October edition has a 2 page spread on Solstice but it’s not a (proper) review, just a product description and explanation (borne of their demo inside the Naim demo room?).

Yes, it’s a print version of this, essentially:

Lucky for you that you didn’t buy one then…:wink::sunglasses:

Customer units arriving at people’s homes in Germany….

Yet no demo units to the UK, let alone any customer units… (eg mine - ordered on the day of launch)

It’s clear that in trying to do something to appease the UK dealers, Naim have not only disadvantaged them, but disadvantaged all UK customers.

The word Debacle springs to mind…. :roll_eyes:

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I can understand Matt’s frustration here. “Debacle” is perhaps a little strong here though. I think Naim have tried to arrange things to offset some of the challenges everybody is currently facing with shipping delays, and while intentions were good, it would appear some countries have received their first batch sooner than expected. To have everything perfectly co-ordinated around the world would seem an impossible task - you do the best you can. And of course how those units have been distributed is somewhat outside of Naim’s control, as the distributors and dealers will make their own calls.

Matt, best wait on Clare’s update.

I’m sorry @MattCray it has to be said. There are folks waiting months for Unitis, 552s etc and it’s not just Naim. I’m waiting weeks for some new fencing material, it’s just how things are at the moment.

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It’s a very different case actually - this is a situation that’s been engineered by Naim.

They could have looked at the customer orders they had and fulfilled them first.

They could have prioritised dealers by sales volume.

They could have prioritised markets by sales volume.

They could have not shipped any until they were all ready.

They could have not shipped any customer units until all dealers had demo stock.

Their stated policy was the ship dealer demo units first. They’ve not done that.

They’ve shipped all demo and customer ordered units to export markets BEFORE they’ve finished (or started) shipping Demo units to the UK. The UK dealer network is STILL waiting for their 20 demo units. They’ve not shipped any consumer units to the UK.

They are blaming overseas shipping delays - which is an odd one, because the overseas markets are all getting theirs. But the UK aren’t.

This series of policy decisions has put UK consumers - who possibly ordered their units before customers in export markets - at the back of the queue and weeks (months?) behind those customers in smaller markets.

I stand by the word dabacle.

This isn’t accidental. It’s a direct result of some rather dubious and ill considered policy decisions.

PS… I’ve been waiting 4 months for a new pair of 555PS - that’s not a debacle - it’s a manufacturing issue - and I understand it. This situation with the Solstice is different.

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Matt, where have you seen or heard of units arriving at customers homes in Germany?

I might be putting two and two together a little, but here….

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No, thats’ not Germany.

Is it the UK though? …that’s the point of my post.

It’s another customer unit arriving in a market that’s not the UK. Where dealers don’t have demo units, and customer orders remain unfulfilled.

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No. Looks like North America.

Well - I’ll take your word for that.

Doesn’t change anything I’ve said though… :man_shrugging:

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You don’t have to take my word - the clue is the voltage on the side of the boxes (115V)

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The second line of my two line reply was the key one… :blush::roll_eyes::joy:

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I’m sorry Matt I’ve got to laugh but you’re making this seem like some critical Issue of State as opposed to a new bit of hifi.

@Richard.Dane don’t mind if you delete this :grinning:

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