Are Naim Members/Owners getting younger?

It depends - if they bring the demographic "up", then by all means welcome to the fold.  If they end up watering the product "down", then good riddance to them.

The more young people who realize that mp3 sucks the better the future of recorded music will be for all - unfortunately, as per the excellent article that was referenced on this thread some time ago, the musical habits of the younger generation are more geared towards highly compressed sound on headphones.

Hopefully Naim can demonstrate that there is a better way...

Well I'm certainly getting older Tony. I was 39 when I joined, now I'm 50.

I think that to most of Generation Next music is just a soundtrack backing other media; commercials, movies, TV programs, etc.  I don't think a generation raised on listening to MP3s through headphones is going to represent much of a market for high-end audio.  As I was demoing and piecing together my Naim system, my teens would walk through, shake their heads and say "Nobody just sits in a room and listens to music."

It seems that most audio systems in the near future will be tied into HT 5.1 systems or else just streamed from what ever digital storage is convenient, maybe multi-roomed.  Naim's new gear, just announced, makes a lot of sense to me, though I may never buy one.  I think compact is nice, esp the built-in headphone stage.

The notion of a 2.0 hi fi system in a dedicated listening room may die with the baby boomers.

Having just graduated from school with a bunch of 20-somethings, I could notice the lack of attention span in a number of ways.  In a movie, all they were interested in was bombs, boobs, and snappy one-liners.  If something had some dialogue in it, they had no ability to stay with it and lost interest almost immediately.

The carry over into music is that they would never sit through 70's type music with extended soloing...and as Joe said, sitting down with the express purpose of listening to music to the exclusion of most other activities (as opposed to having it as just background to something else) is a rarity.

Of course, that is a generalization, and as is the case with generalizations, there are many exceptions to the rule.  Will there be enough to "save" hi-fi as we know it?  Only time will tell.  Change is fine, and new products are also fine, but not at the expense of SQ.

I'm optimistic about this. The iPod generation must encourage more young people towards enjoying music. Naim have some new lower range products which will particularly appeal to many of them IMO, so hopefully some targeted brand awareness and advertising will have the desired effect.

The Uniti range and particularly the new DAC / headamp are key IMO. I think listening with headphones is cool and fits in well with using computers and/or more compact living arrangements that many have so Naim just have to get the marketing right.

Calling Salisbury; are you on to this? 

Julian

Agreed Julian. Both my son and daughter mainly listen to music through headphones but do appreciate the music from my system. I think, and hope, that as they get older, wiser and richer they will progress to better quality listening. I think products like the Unitiqute are a good starting point and fit with the download culture of youth today.

Steve

For sure, I am more and more often seeing young people go around with closed, bigger earphones than the usual plug-ins of the classic iPod setup.

It might well have to do with the generational need of secluding oneself from an enemy world, but might have the positive side effect of introducing them to a better sound.

M.

iPhone & Beats is all my son needs.  He thinks my multi-box 'listening seat' model is nuts.

He's right of course.  G

Perhaps we should onsider this anopportunity to "educate" the next generation into quality sound

I tried once......"Sit there.....can you hear how spacious, rhythmic and detailed it sounds now?"

"Dad, you're mad".

Tony's OP was under the question of are Naim users getting any younger?  So whilst I would agree with other posters about the newt like attention span of the younger generation these are not yet the new customers referred to.  As an aside I am surprised that no-one has responded to the "simplistic plug and play" referred to by Tony: reference to many other debates suggest that not all would agree with that. 

At 56 I felt that I should refresh my music system (musical fidelity > Kef) and started to look around.  I became aware of the benefits of the streaming options that were available above the level of I-tunes and my journey began.  The result was that six months ago I purchased a SuperUniti and although now another birthday has passed it has rejuvenated my listening habits.  A UnitiLite has now appeared in my office as this has allowed me to access all the music (now growing at a faster level than any time before) in two locations.  I would not have thought about improving the office system where it not for the availability of streaming options that are now available at a "reasonable" price.  

However none of my family and friends would consider the price of even a Qute to be reasonable so I am not sure that recent developments are going to make much of a difference to them.  However it does mean that even people such as myself who are not particularly technically savvy (says he typing on his I-pad) now have easy access to quality music that takes advantage of modern technology without reducing quality and, with the option of high res downloads, of improving on the original quality.

So, will all the recent developments attract more people to Naim and younger ones in particular?  The answer to the question of more has to be yes otherwise Naim wouldn't be doing it.  As to younger, we'll possibly and may even probably but it is also very attractive to an older generation who will take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Thanks for expanding the subject in a such a succint way. Good to know someone knows what I'm talking about.  

I'm certainly getting younger. I'm 53 going 22.

I'm not too clear what your question really is about, Tony.

I was about 30 years old when I bought my first Naim/Linn system. I'm now 66.

I'm not sure what the average age of a Naim customer was back in 1976 and i'm not sure what it is today.

In terms of cost/wages ratio I seem to recall spending about 3 month's salary on my first system (LP12/Nac12/Snaps/Nap160/Bricks). By the time I bought a CDS at £3k I was 48 and that represented about 5% of my annual wages. I'm not sure how many people in 1976 were spending 25% of their wages on hifi and i'm not sure how many 30 year olds spend 25% of their income on hifi today. 

My three daughters all love music. Not my taste in music, but they like their own taste. They are aged 28 to 34 so are similar to my age when I bought into Naim. They also buy decent replay systems but not Naim. Not because they can't afford it, simply because they prefer the sound of other manufacturers. But they don't spend 25% of their salary on their home entertainment. However, they do seem to enjoy their systems as much as I ever did.The introduction of Naim's new Dac/pre + Nac100 might be attractive to them price-wise, but whether they would spend their money would depend on functionality and sound.

I'm not sure what the average age is of the 555/NDS/552/500/S800 buyer is, but I guess ken c is a little over 30 and I know that Polarbear is definitely so.

cheers

Don 

I think many of us remember the excitment & enjoyment of listening to music as we did when we were younger but have forgotten how awful the the SQ was. I wouldn't want to go back to my Dansette!

We're on the Naim forum for G*** sake! Even their entry-level kit is fantastic! And a high-end system costs 2+ years wages for the average person and a damn sight longer for minimum wage earners. We are fortunate to be in a position to own a decent system. 

I'm also in my fifties and have had a variety of comparatively low-grade audio systems over the years. I've always been more interested in the music and buying it on whetever medium it was sold (live, vinyl, cassette, CD etc) than in its optimum reproduction.

This has always meant, for me at least, having a set of audio devices housed in a room with the media. If I wanted to listen to something that is where the listening happened.

Then came the Walkman - you could listen on the move, when you wanted to and at high volume without unduly disturbing anyone else. But not in high quality - for the best sound, you still had to listen at home. Now there are umpteen ways of listening on the move and at your convenience.

Portable devices have got much better - I wish I'd have had something as good as an iPod when I was a teenager! And they are portable - can you remember lugging round to a friends your entire music collection? A whole 30 LP's in a flimsy box?

And now you can listen to just about anything via the internet, download it to listen on many different devices, both legally and illegally. Just about everything is available for those savvy enough to find it - and this often means younger people. And these people make more music out of the music of the past - it is not irreverent to them to cut and re-mix.

The result of all this availability and consumption is that recordings themselves are not sacrosanct and the act of listening (or reading!) in a specific location as an end in itself has little meaning for younger people. Also, it can done without significant outlay. You can run Radio Paradise, Spotify etc from a smart phone.

Times change and so must we. I listen as you do but I do it using a streamer or on an iPod. I see this as the best of all worlds - I can access just about every CD I have and listen to it in glorious SQ from the Uniti in seconds. If I want to listen to something on the move I take my iPod!

Regards,

Vlad

Fantastic!LOL!!!Graeme,your reply really made me laugh.

Cerco!

Well, I'm not getting any younger! Fell on the icy pavement today - I'll be wondering if I've had my tea or not soon!

What I was trying to say above, in my own clumsy way, is that Naim owners systems and ways of listening are not indicative of how everyone else listens. Among my peers (age and income), most have a "stereo" (but don't really use it!) and only one other has a system from a high-end manufacturer (Naim, of course! - it's what inspired me to become a Uniti owner).

We're a sub-set of a sub-set of a sub-set..................

Regards,

Vlad

PS I've had a couple of automated e-mails from the forum which don't appear in the thread. It seems discourteous not have replied (sorry, Tony2011 and Quad33) but I haven't figured out how. Any top tips???

 Don't quite remember sending you an email. I'm as puzzled you are.

"Don't quite remember sending you an email. I'm as puzzled you are."

Tony, Are you sure you just don't remember?  I mean, you are are over 50!

(Says he who just turned 55 last week and has increasing CRS disease all the time.)

+1 Hi Vlad . I'm pretty sure I have not sent you an e-mail. I only use the forum to talk to members. 

PS. I have also not contributed to this thread.

Regards Graham.

I'm "following" this thread, so I get the e-mails of new contributions. Tony - it was nothing of a personal nature, as below:

Don, Vlad

Thank you for your thoughts. One of the reasons for the post was to seek opinions on Naim's new lines which for me  will appeal to a younger generation with their One-Box solutions. Maybe it's just a lot of gibberish.

KR

Tony

I've found this forum highly useful. Other forum members have been very welcoming and some make enormous efforts to help their fellow members. The music recommendations have been excellent - I'd never have discovered much of my last 6 months listening otherwise. Some don't mind having their legs pulled about their music inclinations - apologies to fans of Genesis, ELP and Zappa!

Regards,

Vlad

Anyone seen me specs? Oh, yeah. Top of me head!

I'ts all good, Vlad!

Regards

Tony

Been there.  Done that.  Got the t-shirt.