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Naim Solstice vs LP12 Klimax

If there are any there readers that have actually bought a Solstice, perhaps we can encourage some comment.

Meanwhile, some here reckon the whole thing has been a disaster, with Naim supposedly forcing major dealers to take them and then no-one buying. If that were true, I'd expect dealers to be desperate to stop having a £16K sculpture siting in the shop and to be only too tally to arrange home gems for anyone interested. Is that happening?

I have not seen any second-hand items on eBay yet myself, but there is/ was one ex-dem going for 80% of list price.
 
When I had a dem recently of a P10 the dealer did have a Solstice on display, he didn’t even acknowledge or mention it’s existence. This was a little odd as I was existing LP12 owner looking at upgrades.

Dealers will probably have a hefty margin in place on these items but if naim start using heavy handed tactics they will simply drop them.

My regular dealer dropped both Rega & Linn over a decade ago & they continue to thrive.
 
Dealers will probably have a hefty margin in place on these items

Margins are usually high in retail - Does vary much between brands.

Items like high priced Solstice probably low in percentage but high in $.
Vervent did create some fancy "specialist" stores, exclusive with Focal/Naim to provide a higher direct profit.
 
That's an interesting business method if truth.

It's not unusual. I don't know about today but Linn used to give their dealers a quota they had to meet. They had to sell so many of each Linn product to keep the franchise. The more clout a manufacturer has the more you'll be expected to do.
 
It's not unusual. I don't know about today but Linn used to give their dealers a quota they had to meet. They had to sell so many of each Linn product to keep the franchise. The more clout a manufacturer has the more you'll be expected to do.
It’s how retail works, brands will give out quotas & there will be incentives on the back of volume. This is very prevalent across the motor industry. It’s as much carrot as stick, pointless stocking a product you can’t sell.

It works the other way round too, for example, Tesco are in the process of de-listing Heinz over terms.
 
Good Evening All,

Do people still use turntables? How quaint........ (pin removed from grenade and exits stage left...........)

It reminds me a bit of the old Smash advert with the laughing 'robot's/ aliens..........

Regards

Richard
 
Finally the barely concealed desire to see Naim and Linn fail by the more gobby members of this forum saddens me.

I'm saddened by the number of thin-skinned Naim/Linn owners/fans who seem unable to accept any criticism of the erstwhile duopoly.
I speak as someone who was a very happy Linn LP12 owner for over 25 years.

I'm a realist, not a hater.
 
News to me? I do know all their dealers had to take one and the last time I spoke to my local dealer, which wasn't that long ago, they still hadn't sold theirs. It doesn't matter how you try and spin it, this turntable was not a success.

As I have been saying for over 10 years, it just reflects the market for expensive turntables, and references to the ones mentioned on this thread: just two mediocre turntables to boot. If anyone was seriously interested in buying a top flight turntable today they would be looking at other makes with a better established line of performance...
 
I am pretty new this forum, and probably don't understand how it all works, but in any event I am confused by this thread. The question was whether members had actually heard these two turntables and could usefully compare them.

Common answers seem to focus on explaining that: -
1. Anyone owning/ liking either must be daft or deaf, and objecting to that description makes them 'thin-skinned' too.
2. Despite the vast prices, both are mediocre turntables.
3. Naim dealers only accepted a Solstice because they were forced to do so, bullying/ blackmailing dealers.
4. Linn previously did the same, which is why there are now so few Linn dealers.
5. No-one who had heard a Solstice liked it, and anyone who says otherwise (or says that they like an LP12 more) should be ignored as irrelevant.
6. We are all idiots for having turntables at all when we 'should' have gone digital in about 1983.
7. A thread on the Naim site covers the Solstice - there must be another (there is, i just looked at it and added a link) and it must have less generous remarks but it can't be found because Naim have suppressed it.
8. Those here or anywhere willing to express a view on A versus B are 'wrong' and should be ignored because they should instead have focused only on turntables (some clearly excellent) about which we were not asked.
9. There is no need to hear a turntable, as we can assess value for money by looking at a price sheet and a spec sheet.

I am not sure we have as yet helped to answer the question. Perhaps those strongly expressing/ supporting these ideas could start a different thread (called perhaps 'I am right and you are all deaf/ over-rich/ morons' or 'All turntables are the work of Satan') and allow those who would like to see answers to this question (which they can value or ignore as they choose) to do that.

Have I misunderstood how this is meant to work?
 
Hi @Nero - It's been known.

To be fair, even after a modest sherry, I can often distinguish between questions seeking answers (e.g.'Does anyone here own the Audi in the car park with all those police standing round it?' or 'Has anyone seen Dave?') and questions with different aims (e.g. 'What do you all have against that nice Donald Trump/ Boris Johnson?' or 'I have noticed that (add name of a racial/ gender/ ability/ religious group) seems only modestly represented here, so why don't we abuse them all evening?' or just 'Did you spill my pint?').

I treated the question at the top as being more equivalent to the first type of query, rather than the ones likely to lead to a broken nose or a night on one of those rather firm and narrow beds that the Met offers. I may need to revise that view, or the pubs I visit...
 
Was the Solstice sold effectively enough I wonder? A strictly limited run might not be a great incentive unless the margin is very generous.
The success of the LP12 was down not to Ivor’s engineering insights but to hard nosed selling over years. The thing’s still going half a century later!
 


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