Since he is, as you say, an ex-Naim dealer, isn’t that what you’d expect him to say?
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Interesting that no mention of the UI transformers in the Vitus amps.
Different to many amps use of a toroidal one. Increasingly larger for reserves, but still a common technology found in almost everything.
Most Naim bashing goes to the continued use of tried and tested, but nonetheless outdated methods of getting those watts out.
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Yes, others bash Naim on this design, and offer (cheaper) alternatives, but users still come to Naim’s solution even it is way more expensive. Why? because it still sounds better.
Normally that would be the case, but he is, by a considerable margin, the most honest, competent dealer I have ever known. His departure from Naim was more due to run-ins with a new distributor than dissatisfaction with Naim products. And he had been an LFD dealer for many years before that, carrying both brands concurrently.
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Yes I agree, not easy to see the hypothetical place of a big Naim integrated.
The SN3 is on the level of 112/200 maybe.
A big integrated could exist somewhere between 252/300 and 552/500.
A box in the form of Statement design, standing on the floor.
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Fair enough, AHT, and those of us fortunate enough to have a knowledgeable and honest dealer know full well, how lucky we are. 
I’m also a bit in this quandary, except that in the US prices for Naim are WAY different than in the UK or Europe. Here’s my situation. I have the SN2 with HCDR… The SN2 out puts 80wpc into 8 ohms and 135wpc into 4 ohms. I need more power due to moving into a much bigger room. So a Naim 250DR is $6895.00 thats kinda nuts for an amp that has the exact same specs as my SN2… a 300DR is $13,990.00 That’s completely ridiculous. Not sure what to do yet. But I do know $14K is never going to happen…I guess I’d need a preamp too, or I’d be a Mullet… 
Perhaps look for more efficient speakers?
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Wattage is just a part of the whole picture, my experience is that a 75 wpc into 8 ohms may sound louder than a 130 wpc into 8 ohms. However, loudness does not equate quality.
Yes i had a play with my fact 12’s, mainly because i could now reduce my rack size down from the 3 racks, back to 2. This ment i could move my speaker’s away from the corner more, without encroaching on the racks. This and some toe adjusting to get the soundstage and image at their best, as it did need adjusting compared to the naim set up. But i have adjusted them a bit more tonight as the amps fully on song now and i pulled the toe back a bit.
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Fully on song… go on Dunc! 
ATB Peter
This does rather beg the question of whether the altered speaker location is at least partly responsible for the changes in soundstage and presentation.
Can you run the Naim amps whilst maintaining a closer speaker spacing?
Well yes your right at that level, but if you are making the jump to a 500dr and 552dr, you are spending well over 20K and thats with your trade in boxes, plus thats without all the other bits you may need.
All off a sudden the £19K sia025 looks quite cheap, plus its operating at a higher level than the 500 series. Even the vitus sia030 at £31k looks cheap compared to the new price of the 500dr/552dr and thats on an even better level again than the 025, thats what i would have liked but the 025 is afree upgrade the 030 isn’t.
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I ran the speakers in the same position as the naim to start with and it still sounded better, even though the amp hadn’t warmed up much at that point.
It was just fine tuning abit and seeing if i could get it even better and i have
100% agreed. Almost without exception, friends and visitors to our house in the UK view multiple racks of hifi electronics as visually invasive. Worse, they occupy too much usable floor space at a time when younger generations can only afford to buy ever smaller places to live.
In short, Naim is fighting the market desire for more compact systems. Naim’s classic & 500 series systems will simply follow the path of their ever shrinking niche. Fortunately, Naim has the presence of mind to launch the Uniti, Supernait 3 and Mu-so products. I wish it would go further and do a multi-box half-width range, as this enables component separation while occupying less floor space.
I am another long-term Naim owner who is looking at swapping a 6 box, 2 rack Naim amplifier for a single or 2 box alternative for when we move to a smaller house (empty nester syndrome). Vitus is right up there on the current shortlist.
At the end of the day, Naim has the freedom to choose its path. Let’s all hope it chooses well. The current range of amps is so long in the tooth that we are well overdue a new range of replacement “Statement trickle down technology” successors. And no, the DR upgrade is not sufficient to fall into that category.
We wait with considerable interest and a mildly twitching wallet!
Best regards, BF
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Seconded.
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The Linn solution is just a single streamer + a pair of active speakers, no rack is needed.
Spot on really and not much to add really, other than dont wait to move house to enjoy the vitus go for it now
But the Linn stuff sounds dreadful in my opinion. None of the life or texture of Naim.
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Indeed. Exquisite idea marred by really poor execution. The active speakers have sounded flatter than a flat thing on a flat day on the occasions that I have heard them. Vastly overpriced too.
The ATC actives may be conceptually old fashioned in comparison but are far cheaper and sound so very much better to these cloth ears.