Hifi News Review of Naim Statement

[Purité Audio]

A second hand pair of Genelec, K&H etc and a laptop, not saying it would 'run rings around',but might be easier to site in room, the Genelec placement filters and active room correction in their 'digital' series are extremely useful.
Keith.

 

[S-Man]

Seems reasonable Keith, depending on if the listener prefers a 'musical' or 'accurate' sort of sound. However, I thought davidsrsb was talking £2K new.

Edit: I would prefer the sound of the CD2 + Gale 401 system over the Devialet "Ood spheres" or Grimm LS1, but then I prefer a 'musical' version of imperfection to an 'accurate' version.

 

[paskinn]

The point Tony l was presumably making was that this sort of 'Statement' behaviour is just vulgar and coarse. It has almost nothing to do with performance, and everything to do with, yes, making a 'statement'. And that statement is the same one made by people driving too fast in huge 4x4s and has the same unpleasant feel to it.
No doubt there are a few people who really are enthusiasts and buy the Naim out of genuine admiration.
But not many. We live in turbulent times, and this sort of ostentatious greed feels desperately out of tune with what most people feel and experience.. But then when companies are bought by venture-capitalists, this is probably inevitable.
Is there anyone who believes it is necessary to spend £150,000 to get an accurate, high power amplifier? In 40 years of playing with audio, a lot of it fairly exotic ( but not 'statement' exotic, } I've come to believe that above a quite low point there is virtually no correlation between price and sound quality.
The reason is that there is little agreement about how audio ought to 'sound'. So anything goes....

 

[abbydog]

The 52 preamp happened because Naim users demanded something better than the 67 and 72 available at the time, but I don't think anyone expected it to cost so much. I was working at Grahams full-time then, and we wondered when it was launched if anyone would ever buy such a 'ludicrously expensive' preamplifier as the 52. it took less than six months before I was asked if there was an even better Naim preamplifier in the pipeline by one of the many 52 owners.

Nothing to do with the SP10/SP11, burndy and Absolute Sounds and all, then?

 

[Werner]

a symptom of a failing audio market where increasingly few well established companies are chasing

What failed market? The audio market has upped and moved its tents to a different square altogether. Too bad some are still not aware of it.

 

[TLS]

The point Tony l was presumably making was that this sort of 'Statement' behaviour is just vulgar and coarse. It has almost nothing to do with performance, and everything to do with, yes, making a 'statement'. And that statement is the same one made by people driving too fast in huge 4x4s and has the same unpleasant feel to it.
No doubt there are a few people who really are enthusiasts and buy the Naim out of genuine admiration.
But not many. We live in turbulent times, and this sort of ostentatious greed feels desperately out of tune with what most people feel and experience.. But then when companies are bought by venture-capitalists, this is probably inevitable.
Is there anyone who believes it is necessary to spend £150,000 to get an accurate, high power amplifier? In 40 years of playing with audio, a lot of it fairly exotic ( but not 'statement' exotic, } I've come to believe that above a quite low point there is virtually no correlation between price and sound quality.

+1!

 

[S-Man]

The point Tony l was presumably making was that this sort of 'Statement' behaviour is just vulgar and coarse. It has almost nothing to do with performance, and everything to do with, yes, making a 'statement'. And that statement is the same one made by people driving too fast in huge 4x4s and has the same unpleasant feel to it.
No doubt there are a few people who really are enthusiasts and buy the Naim out of genuine admiration.
But not many. We live in turbulent times, and this sort of ostentatious greed feels desperately out of tune with what most people feel and experience.. But then when companies are bought by venture-capitalists, this is probably inevitable.
Is there anyone who believes it is necessary to spend £150,000 to get an accurate, high power amplifier? In 40 years of playing with audio, a lot of it fairly exotic ( but not 'statement' exotic, } I've come to believe that above a quite low point there is virtually no correlation between price and sound quality.

That all sounds a bit desperate leftie.

Most desperate lefties spend money of Range Rovers and electric gates if they get the chance:

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/oct/22/national-lottery-winners-spend-money

 

[SCIDB]

Was it SEMEFAB?

Hi,

The transistors are from SEMELAB in Lutterworth Leicestershire. They have been doing Naim's semiconductors for years.

I did a placement there in the 80s.

Dean

 

[S-Man]

And the die?

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Indeed £150,000 could help a lot of people in dire straights back on to their feet.... rather than be spent on an amp for a mansion that probably only gets used at the odd party...

 

[S-Man]

Let's vote for a "Statement Tax" on Thursday!

Oh wait, I forgot. They already paid £25K in VAT.

 

[merlin]

Unless their accountants were able to lose it or claim it against marketing or entertaining.

 

[S-Man]

Yes, that's the unfair bit!!!

 

[Alan Sircom]

What £2K modern system would run rings round a Cambridge CD2 + any decent amp from 1990 and a pair of NS1000s or Gale 401s????

By my reckoning, the inflation-adjusted price of NS1000s would be around £3,600 per pair, and a pair of Gale 401s would be about £2,100 today.

 

[S-Man]

Read the original post....

"+1 and by paying a little more a modern UKP2000 digital system system can run rings round something costing far more 25 years ago"

 

[Suffolk Tony]

The point Tony l was presumably making was that this sort of 'Statement' behaviour is just vulgar and coarse. It has almost nothing to do with performance, and everything to do with, yes, making a 'statement'. And that statement is the same one made by people driving too fast in huge 4x4s and has the same unpleasant feel to it.
No doubt there are a few people who really are enthusiasts and buy the Naim out of genuine admiration.
But not many. We live in turbulent times, and this sort of ostentatious greed feels desperately out of tune with what most people feel and experience.. But then when companies are bought by venture-capitalists, this is probably inevitable.
Is there anyone who believes it is necessary to spend £150,000 to get an accurate, high power amplifier? In 40 years of playing with audio, a lot of it fairly exotic ( but not 'statement' exotic, } I've come to believe that above a quite low point there is virtually no correlation between price and sound quality.
The reason is that there is little agreement about how audio ought to 'sound'. So anything goes....

I agree, as you go up the hi-fi ladder, the law of diminishing returns applies in spades. But if you can afford to do it, why shouldn't you pay for that gain? At what point does money spent on hi-fi become "ostentatious greed?" If you're going down that road, to the vast majority of the world population expenditure of a couple of hundred quid on something to play music on would be regarded as outrageous.

Steve Sells, the designer of the Statement, has always hankered after building an expense-no-object amplifier and presumably the greedy old venture capitalist vultures have supplied the necessary funds. It appears it was a good investment so they'll make money out of it. Good luck to them.

 

[davidsrsb]

What £2K modern system would run rings round a Cambridge CD2 + any decent amp from 1990 and a pair of NS1000s or Gale 401s????

How much would that bundle cost these days adjusted for inflation? Far more than 2k I suspect

 

[Alan Sircom]

Read the original post....

"+1 and by paying a little more a modern UKP2000 digital system system can run rings round something costing far more 25 years ago"

The Yamaha NS1000 is a tough one to better, if you like what they do. I didn't, and still don't, but YMMV.

The Gale 401 on the other hand... I prefer my loudspeakers less ghastly, IMO. They may look nice in a kind of Jason King manner, but there are car alarms with more subtlety and character. But I guess now that Cerwin Vega is out of the picture, it might be hard to find something that replicates what they do.

Personally, I consider that a win for humanity.

 

[davidsrsb]

By my reckoning, the inflation-adjusted price of NS1000s would be around £3,600 per pair, and a pair of Gale 401s would be about £2,100 today.

The CD2 was 650UKP in 1989 so 1560 now. Add in a mid price Creek/Rega/Exposure and you are looking at 5k++

 

[Tony L]

I agree, as you go up the hi-fi ladder, the law of diminishing returns applies in spades. But if you can afford to do it, why shouldn't you pay for that gain? At what point does money spent on hi-fi become "ostentatious greed?" If you're going down that road, to the vast majority of the world population expenditure of a couple of hundred quid on something to play music on would be regarded as outrageous.

I know you weren't replying to me, but as I kind of started this particular thread tangent I'll try and clarify what I was on about: back when I was a kid lusting after audio kit the high-end 'statement' kit was very expensive. I knew I'd never be able to afford it, but even so it didn't cost multiples of a decent house the way so much does today. Almost all of it was actually much less than the average annual salary. As such it stood as a realistic beacon as to what was technically possible, and those buying the normally priced kit lower in the range really felt they were getting something via technology trickle-down. It served as a great advert.

The current 'statement' market (not just Naim, I'm talking generally here) seems aimed from the outset at Russian oligarchs, footballers, oil sheiks etc. It lacks the relevance and is IMHO more likely to create a reaction of "f*** off, you have to be kidding!" from normal audiophiles than one of aspiration. It smacks of vulgarity in a Harry Enfield 'Loadsamoney' kind of way, and in a way something like say Tannoy Autographs or a KSA100 never did. They were just what a big 15" corner horn or 100 watt class A amp looked like, they needed to be that big, heavy and expensive to function. There was an honesty and integrity of design/intent that I fear is lacking in today's ultra-high-end.