Martyn Miles
pfm Member
The Rogers LS3/5a Classic is priced at £2,800 and people buy them, so there’s no reason to suppose
people won’t buy the Harbeth ‘XD.
New Naim management and products
- Thread starter PerF
- Start date
The Rogers LS3/5a Classic is priced at £2,800 and people buy them, so there’s no reason to suppose
people won’t buy the Harbeth ‘XD.
I can foresee a new product coming, something along the lines of this :
Vervent want a bit of the analog cake, better late than never.
Ptah
pfm Member
That will be quasi-ineffective though.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Agreed. It was functional for its low power purposes. I had a 42/110 at the time and thought this combo influenced or begat the Nait ('70s/early '80s)
It said Naim on it. I walked into the shop wanting to buy it. I did like the sound but in hindsight I wish I'd bought the Exposure X. It was a lot more powerful and would not have been as difficult to match.
Miss Ariel
pfm Member
I had an original Nait with the red LED.My first piece of Naim gear and enjoyed it but like you Mike and Mr Pig thought it was a bit underpowered,maybe it was the 15 watt? out put.
It was a nice piece of kit though,But the 42 -110 was so much better with my Kans.
For me the golden era of Naim gear.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
With hindsight. Must admit that I wasn't aware of Exposure in those days; thought Exposure stuff was later (but maybe your purchase was later; the Nail 2, possibly?) I bought my 42/110 used from a dealer around '82/3 so it may already have been old hat by then. This wasn't my main system and I used the combo with LS3/5As in the office cum library. Again, these speakers weren't particularly 'special' then (if I'd known then.......!)
I did try the 42/110 on my Leak 2075 behemoths but they didn't get along well at all!
I think you're right about the 15 watts. The 110 was, I vaguely remember, around 25/30. At the time, there was the 160 (I had the bolt-together one), the 250 (which quickly followed). Actually, all that era's Naim production was good, honest and dependable kit. The C/B and first (and maybe second?) Olive series. Also the 101 and 01 tuners which needed a Jodrell Bank array to fire them up. Not sure about the pre's, though the 32/32.5 then 72 were around in the eighties. I didn't get a 52 until the late nineties but it was around earlier.
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I compared the Nait2 to an Exposure X, I think it was. The Nait sounded just a tad sharper and more insightful. The Exposure was fuller and warmer but they were both good. One thing that put me off the Exposure was that the dem unit in the shop already had flakes of paint missing off the facia. The build quality just didn't look very great.
I also demed an Audiolab 8000A, which was terrible, and I think maybe a Linn Intek? Not sure on the last one, it was a long time ago. There was another amp. I certainly know I saw and heard the Intek at some point and remember thinking....why?
Musically, I have to give it to the Naim. It told you more about what was being played than any of the others but between it and the Exposure there was not a lot in it and I the real world the Exposure would've been much easier to live with.
As I see it, Focal bought Naim. It's not a tie-up. Naim are no longer in independent company.
Gervais Cote
Predator
Don’t know if there is any tie-up but a Naim amp sounds way better with Harbeth speakers than all the Focal I heard so far !
I wonder why Naim would package their amplifiers with Focal as they do? I think hey have to as they're owned by Focal (obvious I know)
I have Naim and PMC which has good synergy!
What is this? Is it dedicated Naim/Focal shops or something?
suzywong
Wot, no electrons?
Yep.
IIRC, there's Lyon, Arizona, Seoul and I think one in Australia. They appear to be pushing the "lifestyle" Uniti range rather than separates.
Mission statement:
"Focal Powered by Naim luxury" stores give you access to an unrivalled sound offering by combining complementary acoustic and electronic solutions from Focal and Naim Audio. Aligned with the values of both brands, these stores are experiential and luxurious, with a global outlook."
There's a lot of discussion on the Naim forum, with the usual split of "It's the end of life as we know it" and "it will take Naim to new heights", and is coupled with the change of dealerships in Aus & NZ that generated so much negativity from folks in that part of the world that the moderator shut down the thread
or as one wag over there put it, "it’s a bit like the Ford Cortina powered by a Lotus engine".
A cynical sort of person might hypothesise that this is the start of a rebranding exercise, and that in a couple of years the "powered by Naim" bit will disappear.