Tony L
Administrator
Some blurb over on Analogue Planet. Cart spec sounds decent with a micro-line tip and boron cantilever. Comes with a record too! Hopefully they’ll send one for review to Stereophile at some point.
Naim Solstice officially unveiled . . .
- Thread starter Bob Edwards
- Start date
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Didn't know about the cart. Wonder what it is. I agree, then, that it does start to represent a v.f.m. package, assuming it's good, that is. A bit strange that they've included a phono stage (a la Prefix?) and I wonder how versatile that is, or whether it's simply geared to their cart.
Sloop John B
And any old music will do…
20 pages on a Naim topic, about one new product. They’re obviously doing something right.
.sjb
.sjb
garyi
leave blank
I would have to disagree here, the audio format of the audiophile is now streaming. Sure a niche of people have a record player and cd player, I expect a few even have digital tapes. The so called massive resurgence in vinyl is a stretch to say the least it was totally and utterly on its arse and now its doing better than that.
I find it really odd in this current climate why naim don't make a DAC with USB, These all in ones are great for around 3 years then the software is obsolete. The determination not to have a dac is bizzare in my mind. I can see a real market for showbox dac and shoebox streamer for those that want all naim. Heck they could even put a lump of copper in the bottom of a bigger box and call it dac500.
flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
Have you ever run a company and had the responsibility of paying staff and suppliers? NAIM do.
Of course he has and does, I mean he must do seeing as he knows everything about everything!
What does that have to do with whether or not they are in a position to design a turntable that is better than everyone else's?
flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
They, like all companies, need to make a profit. How do you know it’s not better than other turntables?
pocketkitchen
Registered User
It doesn’t have to be better than everyone else’s, though. It just has to appeal to the customer base Naim think they can sell it to. When so bought my Linn all those years ago, I didn’t compare it to everything else. I really wanted one, listened to it, liked it and bought it. If they think they have a market and can grow their business by supplying what their customers tell them they want then why wouldn’t they. Companies do have a responsibility to their staff to try and further the business. The fact that I don’t much like the look of it and won’t buy one is immaterial.
SteveS1
I heard that, pardon?
You have answered you own question. Commercially they prefer to keep selling proprietary solutions it's quite lucrative. There have been various examples of not wanting more widely usable solutions, staying with DIN plugs until compelled to add RCAs, quality DACs in CD players not accessible, no dig outputs and so on.
They successfully sell the idea that to add useful features somehow degrades performance and there are enough people who buy that idea. A decent DAC with a range of connectivity would have rendered a lot of their range redundant. A bit like producing a decent one years ago would have wiped out their CD player sales and instead they mucked around with piles of shite like the HDX.
Yes, I understand that, as do Naim clearly but this is a business/economic argument. An explanation of how Naim shareholders will make money on this turntable. That doesn't interest me. I am a music lover and my sole concern is whether a product is relevant from a performance point of view.
Lots of companies make profits by selling products that are not the best available, McDonalds seems to be doing ok, but I don't see why I should applaud them for it?
Tony L
Administrator
I’d argue streaming was just the mainstream/mass market consumer format for folk looking for background music etc. It is cheap, totally corporate, and it pays musicians next to nothing. Music fans of all ages still buy physical product as it supports the artists they care about and that sense of investment brings a greater connection. Have a look through the system pics thread on pfm. There are very few here without a music collection, and I suspect the few that have abandoned their physical formats have other reasons for doing so (downsizing in old age, illness etc). I’d certainly put money on the overwhelming majority of people with systems worth over a few £k having very substantial music collections. You just don’t invest that sort of money and then just take pot luck on whatever catalogue a streaming service may have, let alone what mastering.
Actually, I do know people with nice Hi-Fi systems who predominantly stream music. And I'm forced to admit it can sound damn good :0( We're just old I'm afraid.
pocketkitchen
Registered User
I take your point entirely but the product will stand or fall based on what the market as a whole thinks, not an individual. I'm not sure anyone has suggested you should applaud them. It's certainly not for me to tell anyone what they "should" do! Business interests do have to come into it though - no manufacturer exists on charity.
They've pre-sold the initial run to the dealer base, worldwide and many will be for demo stock. If they sell through sufficiently well, there'll be another run. If not, there won't. What I think is irrelevant. Talking to another turntable manufacturer yesterday who competes at this price level, they were pretty grumpy about the Solstice, which certainly suggests that the product isn't irrelevant.
sideshowbob
Champagne fascia aficionado
It'll sell, for sure, whatever it sounds like. And I don't doubt it'll sound good. It's just not an interesting record player design. There was a time when Naim and others made products that were individual, quirky, deliberately out of the mainstream. They sounded good but also were fun. This is bland luxury, like most of what they now make. It may keep them in business, and it has a market, but it's uninteresting to me as a piece of audio engineering.
Completely, totally, utterly wrong in my case. I got into hifi years ago because of my love for music, and was irritated and frustrated beyond measure by way the medium, vinyl, got in the way of my enjoyment. Surface noise, warps, rubbish pressings, all sort of exotic and impractical almost unusable record decks, styli that wore and so on. CD made listening to classical music so much easier and more satisfying, and now streaming (in my case from Qobuz) has opened up a world of musical richness and choice that was unthinkable years ago. Last night, as I was reading Andras Schiffs book, I decided I wanted to listen the the Schubert Piano Trio in Eb. There are 75 versions available in Qobuz. That is just an extraordinary choice. And as for that old chestnut about “supporting musicians”, according to this BBC article vinyl reached the paltry sales of £86 million in the U.K. last year, all the time using toxic PVC products. Streaming has allowed me to widen my interest in music and musicians enormously, because there is no longer a risk in listening to someone with who I am not familiar. And the musicians benefit for sure - I am off soon for a weeks music festival by a pianist who I probably wouldn’t’ve listened to in the days of physical media. Concerts are the way to support musicians. Even poor old Elton.
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
Streaming is a perfectly adequate format for background music, I use it to save stylus wear.
If I want to sit down and listen properly, its vinyl.
If I want to sit down and listen properly, its vinyl.
yeti42
pfm Member
I received an LP yesterday, it’s a new release so I didn’t check it out on qobuz first. First play through there wasn’t much to grab my attention, if I’d heard it as a stream I’d have played it only once but on a second listen to the LP I started to enjoy it. It often used to be the case that the records that appealed most on first listen wore out their welcome fairly quickly and some of those that took a bit of time to get, had staying power. Streaming isn’t all good.