Naim’s frustrating distributed audio strategy
Posted by: JYOW on 17 May 2010
Naim’s frustrating distributed audio strategy
I don’t think I am alone in all this. My following BS’ing will probably make me an enemy of the state so be it.
I can call myself amongst other things a pioneer in distributed audio. Like a couple of folks here in the Naim forum I have enjoyed Slim Devices since they had the Squeezebox 2 and went on to experiment with different DACs and eventually upgraded to their more audiophile Transporter.
To get better sound lately I also bought into the iTunes concept and bought a Macbook pro to connect to a Weiss DAC2. And with Naim’s introduction of nDAC I jumped ship and switched to that to connect to my Macbook with M2tech Hiface.
And throughout all these years I have waited for Naim to come up with that simple streamer that delivers Naim sound. And repeatedly all I saw was near misses - Products that seem to be almost there but missed the mark completely.
It all started with the HDX…..
A very promising device that unfortunately also included all the costly unnecessary noise making hardware built in, which include a CD transport, 2 X hard drives, a touch screen that no one ever touches, and an espresso maker . But worst of all, this means that Naim has to develop costly rocket science to isolate all those noise makers that do not need to be there in the first place. So we have a worst case scenario here, customers have to pay for all the unnecessary peripherals AND the expensive measures to reduce the impacts caused by the noise made by these peripherals. The worst part is, it will only approach the performance of the same device with all those peripherals stripped off.
It is like a formula one car that has its brake full on all the time and a super engine to compensate for that friction.
The most ironic thing is since we associate price with performance, so everyone starts to associate the HDX to the similarly priced CDX2 , the CDS3 or even a CD555. Which makes me think, if Naim removes all the peripherals and stick the same DAC as the CD555 wouldn’t it sound way better than the CD555?
--
I guess Naim is struggling internally. On the one hand it wants to get into distributed audio. On the other hand, a high end client with no CD inside would kill the myth of the high end CD transport, which similarly is a solution that no longer needs that problem (of real time CD reading.) I speculate that a chunk of the parts cost and R&D that go into the CD555 is on the “quiet room” to deafen the CD transport. Well with distributed audio all that is not needed.
But from reading through past discussion I don’t think Naim has a problem with having both HIGH END products co-existing. There will always be people who only treasure the touchee feelee of a silver disc and a sexy transport. Those same people will not touch distributed audio with a 10 feet pole due to their own attachment with the physical world OR the fact that they are not comfortable with tinkering with computers. I cannot, for example, ever picture my father being able to get into distributed audio. So for these people the privilege of owning a CD555 is still very much valid.
But for the rest of us, please could Naim not worry about jumping into the purist high end distributed client with both feet.
It is very simple, just do what Linn does and do it better. Design a HDX like machine with killer server and playback software, killer Naim power section and killer digital and DAC section. In fact, it could be as simple as asking the Naim DAC to grow an Ethernet port. And all that talk about S/PDIF RF noise and transport jitter is academic.
When can we have a higher end Unity, UnitCute and a Unitserve without all the freebees? Is distributed audio only for the all-in-one UNI folks?
It really is ironic, all Naim has to do is to subscribe to the “less is more” concept. Which is what attracted me to the simplicity Nait 2 decades ago.
I sense an internal struggle over at Naim land. But just ask yourself, how many Uni’s and HDXs have you sold? How many DS’s have Linn sold in the past few years?
I don’t think I am alone in all this. My following BS’ing will probably make me an enemy of the state so be it.
I can call myself amongst other things a pioneer in distributed audio. Like a couple of folks here in the Naim forum I have enjoyed Slim Devices since they had the Squeezebox 2 and went on to experiment with different DACs and eventually upgraded to their more audiophile Transporter.
To get better sound lately I also bought into the iTunes concept and bought a Macbook pro to connect to a Weiss DAC2. And with Naim’s introduction of nDAC I jumped ship and switched to that to connect to my Macbook with M2tech Hiface.
And throughout all these years I have waited for Naim to come up with that simple streamer that delivers Naim sound. And repeatedly all I saw was near misses - Products that seem to be almost there but missed the mark completely.
It all started with the HDX…..
A very promising device that unfortunately also included all the costly unnecessary noise making hardware built in, which include a CD transport, 2 X hard drives, a touch screen that no one ever touches, and an espresso maker . But worst of all, this means that Naim has to develop costly rocket science to isolate all those noise makers that do not need to be there in the first place. So we have a worst case scenario here, customers have to pay for all the unnecessary peripherals AND the expensive measures to reduce the impacts caused by the noise made by these peripherals. The worst part is, it will only approach the performance of the same device with all those peripherals stripped off.
It is like a formula one car that has its brake full on all the time and a super engine to compensate for that friction.
The most ironic thing is since we associate price with performance, so everyone starts to associate the HDX to the similarly priced CDX2 , the CDS3 or even a CD555. Which makes me think, if Naim removes all the peripherals and stick the same DAC as the CD555 wouldn’t it sound way better than the CD555?
--
I guess Naim is struggling internally. On the one hand it wants to get into distributed audio. On the other hand, a high end client with no CD inside would kill the myth of the high end CD transport, which similarly is a solution that no longer needs that problem (of real time CD reading.) I speculate that a chunk of the parts cost and R&D that go into the CD555 is on the “quiet room” to deafen the CD transport. Well with distributed audio all that is not needed.
But from reading through past discussion I don’t think Naim has a problem with having both HIGH END products co-existing. There will always be people who only treasure the touchee feelee of a silver disc and a sexy transport. Those same people will not touch distributed audio with a 10 feet pole due to their own attachment with the physical world OR the fact that they are not comfortable with tinkering with computers. I cannot, for example, ever picture my father being able to get into distributed audio. So for these people the privilege of owning a CD555 is still very much valid.
But for the rest of us, please could Naim not worry about jumping into the purist high end distributed client with both feet.
It is very simple, just do what Linn does and do it better. Design a HDX like machine with killer server and playback software, killer Naim power section and killer digital and DAC section. In fact, it could be as simple as asking the Naim DAC to grow an Ethernet port. And all that talk about S/PDIF RF noise and transport jitter is academic.
When can we have a higher end Unity, UnitCute and a Unitserve without all the freebees? Is distributed audio only for the all-in-one UNI folks?
It really is ironic, all Naim has to do is to subscribe to the “less is more” concept. Which is what attracted me to the simplicity Nait 2 decades ago.
I sense an internal struggle over at Naim land. But just ask yourself, how many Uni’s and HDXs have you sold? How many DS’s have Linn sold in the past few years?
I may be wrong, but I think if Naim do this, they may well be shooting themselves in the foot. A perfect £700 streamer doesn't fit into the Naim hierarchy. It does make it an expensive streamer thoughquote:Originally posted by Mr Underhill:
Hi Patrick,
I just think that Naim are missing an opportunity to produce a minimalist box for about £700 that has one function, accept a digital stream and reconstruct it for feeding into the nDAC.
I think it is quite clear why Naim have chosen the direction they have.
From a technical point of view:
Because of the NaimNet and the experience with it it was clear to use the technology for HDX as a first real file-based Naim playback solution. The other milestone product from technical point of view is the nDAC. It could be partly the result of the Bentley project, and what Naim learned from its DSP based technology.
From a user base point of view:
Naim are probably right to assume that the majority of users do not want the hassle of setting up computer systems, networking in their audio systems, so the HDX (for the Naim owners) then the Uniti arrived mainly for non-Naim owners, but for Naim users as well of course. I am sure this forum communication is not really representative, there are way more users prefer the simplicity of a cd player against even the most simple network player. I think the forum members view of file and network-based playback not really representative for the rest of the Naim customers and potential customers.
From marketing point of view:
Naim needed a solution which has a feature set or a technology others, competition do not really have. Being one of the dozens of others of providing file based playback or network playback is not really a well promotable situation, mainly if you want to find new customers from the non - Naim world. This is why and how the Uniti was developed probably. The Uniti family is really unique. Easy to communicate its features in market segments and for potential new customers where other high-end audio brands are not well known too. I bet there are more non-Naim Uniti customers then customers with an experience with Naim. It would be interesting to see a statistics, but we will never know exactly
From a competition point of view:
When you are just about to go the minefield of unknown product territory where you have to fight against well established, strong and probably more experienced competitors, you have to be very careful. A bad first step can cause an unrecoverable loss in market share and competitiveness. The best way is to start with a product which is not directly comparable to the most of the competition and can build on a feature others missing or not so strong. HDX's simplicity and similarity to a cd player and Uniti's integration is something to build upon and something not really provided by the competition. With its large and mostly faithful user base Naim could be brave and to bring unique products to take some risk. This user base could be enough to cover the development cost and make the products profitable and let Naim to cover new territories and serve new customers and new customers mean more business for the more traditional Naim products. We saw in the last very few years that Naim now is lot more open regarding using their products with other manufacturers products. The Naim DAC is a very good example of this and I hope Ovators will be very similar and will work with all sorts of other vendor's products as well.
So all in all, I agree with the roadmap and product ranges Naim have chosen and to be honest I am quite sure we will not see a 700 GBP streaming only product in the near future or at all.
Sorry for the long rant.
From a technical point of view:
Because of the NaimNet and the experience with it it was clear to use the technology for HDX as a first real file-based Naim playback solution. The other milestone product from technical point of view is the nDAC. It could be partly the result of the Bentley project, and what Naim learned from its DSP based technology.
From a user base point of view:
Naim are probably right to assume that the majority of users do not want the hassle of setting up computer systems, networking in their audio systems, so the HDX (for the Naim owners) then the Uniti arrived mainly for non-Naim owners, but for Naim users as well of course. I am sure this forum communication is not really representative, there are way more users prefer the simplicity of a cd player against even the most simple network player. I think the forum members view of file and network-based playback not really representative for the rest of the Naim customers and potential customers.
From marketing point of view:
Naim needed a solution which has a feature set or a technology others, competition do not really have. Being one of the dozens of others of providing file based playback or network playback is not really a well promotable situation, mainly if you want to find new customers from the non - Naim world. This is why and how the Uniti was developed probably. The Uniti family is really unique. Easy to communicate its features in market segments and for potential new customers where other high-end audio brands are not well known too. I bet there are more non-Naim Uniti customers then customers with an experience with Naim. It would be interesting to see a statistics, but we will never know exactly
From a competition point of view:
When you are just about to go the minefield of unknown product territory where you have to fight against well established, strong and probably more experienced competitors, you have to be very careful. A bad first step can cause an unrecoverable loss in market share and competitiveness. The best way is to start with a product which is not directly comparable to the most of the competition and can build on a feature others missing or not so strong. HDX's simplicity and similarity to a cd player and Uniti's integration is something to build upon and something not really provided by the competition. With its large and mostly faithful user base Naim could be brave and to bring unique products to take some risk. This user base could be enough to cover the development cost and make the products profitable and let Naim to cover new territories and serve new customers and new customers mean more business for the more traditional Naim products. We saw in the last very few years that Naim now is lot more open regarding using their products with other manufacturers products. The Naim DAC is a very good example of this and I hope Ovators will be very similar and will work with all sorts of other vendor's products as well.
So all in all, I agree with the roadmap and product ranges Naim have chosen and to be honest I am quite sure we will not see a 700 GBP streaming only product in the near future or at all.
Sorry for the long rant.