New Product Announcement on Thursday

GregW posted:

Frank F posted:

Jon Honeyball is correct, it is another Naim teaser but they should bear in mind that this type of marketing can backfire.

I was planning to order a 250 DR today. It's unlikely; based on what's rumoured, Thursday's announcement will change that, but I'll be holding off until Thursday.

I suspect that a new amp would be almost as popular and as likely as it turning all of your music into the Smiths

wenger2015 posted:

tonym posted:

You joke...My wife had her friends round in our conservatory & one of them pointed to the Muso and asked if the round thing on the top was to put her coffee cup on to keep it warm. And she wasn't joking!

In future I think your wife's friends need to possibly have their coffee on deck chairs in the garage 

Very sensible suggestion Wenger.

rjstaines posted:

wenger2015 posted:

tonym posted:

You joke...My wife had her friends round in our conservatory & one of them pointed to the Muso and asked if the round thing on the top was to put her coffee cup on to keep it warm. And she wasn't joking!

In future I think your wife's friends need to possibly have their coffee on deck chairs in the garage 

Very sensible suggestion Wenger.

I have brief moments of genius 

As I guessed earlier yesterday Naim could start from the ultimate integrated and accordingly discontinue the current  preamp line in favor of a new based from '06/10/16' and improved line.

I do think 152XS, 202/282/252/552 will be replaced ,too . Tuner /AV/tape sources look a little obsolete nowadays and a rethink of ancillaries inputs eventually occur. Hopefully such a product would cost a lot(£30000 ?) and the revamp process to concern 'pure' preamps accordingly  . Later maybe power amps and PSUs ,too with a total rethinking of hicap(to discontinue) .

Current preamp/sources to be left untouched at the top of a sort o 'uniti' scheme ,to be improved much later .

Someone said there are 4 new products to introduce ... so perhaps a new 500 series - Streamer, Preamp, Power amp all with built in power supply rather than the old style separate supply (it worked for the statement line) and then a separate 500 series integrated.  Or perhaps the Streamer is simply a digital output device and the DAC is modular (to allow upgrading) and built into the pre-amp or integrated.  New deigns (based on the statement / MuSo look) with trickle down plans for replacement classic line next.

Just imagine this thread when we actually know something...

Well, a very good chance to be ignored and plenty of new threads to be opened dissecting the new toy(s?).

Adam Meredith posted:

jon honeyball posted:

oh, and the meridian modular amp thing was damn clever. A great piece of industrial design, and very clever thinking about how to build up an amp to your needs. OK I wasnt a fan of their "furry grey" finish, but you cannot knock the thought that went into it.

I am, some might guess,  not a fan of using the phrase 'too clever by half' pejoratively, but the Component Amplifier bravely and ingeniously showed the world was not yet ready for at least one solution to the 'it's got too many/too few/the wrong inputs' problem.

I read the original (Practical HiFi & Audio?) article on the design and thought "This is it".

'It' turned out to be a poorly made (the plastic front flaps wouldn't stay closed), partially implemented (I don't think we ever saw a TAPE input module), hydrozoa of a product. It quickly wouldn't fit on a Sound Org table (or standard shelf), then requiring a, never produced, U-turn module - otherwise resembling a mute accordion.

In addition - it sounded less good than a Creek 4040 and we couldn't give it away. Neither could Meridian.

The Case of the Less Better Mousetrap

Yes, it was brave, maybe even misguided. But it was worth trying. 

I am sure the Classic line will be replaced at some time in the future, but with the DR upgraded power supplies/power amps and the (relatively recent) launch of the 272 all in Classic clothing, surely now is not the time. This new thing (or things) has the new house style of MuSo and Statement and I am guessing it is an extension/addition to one of these lines.

It would hack too many people off if the Classic clothing were changed so soon after many of us have either upgraded to DR or have purchased a 272.

Mind you I have been wrong many, many times before!

An all in one product to compete on the level of Devialet? 

Being slightly more serious I suspect this announcement will largely be around the Uniti range. 

Regards,

Lindsay

Well if its got a great big transformer in it, it's not going to knock off a 552! 

Any preamp that's going to reach for the stars performance wise, has to have an external power supply!

So unless you want a preamp with lower performance, start saving for the old analog dinosaur!

People have mentioned an ARO2, I just can't believe that with the revival/popularity that vinyl is experiencing right now, that the worlds best tonearm is not being made any more - this truly baffles me???

Mario.

Mario posted:

People have mentioned an ARO2, I just can't believe that with the revival/popularity that vinyl is experiencing right now, that the worlds best tonearm is not being made any more - this truly baffles me???

Mario.

What about an element which has a ADC + bluetooth chipset and connects to the bluetooth antenna of the UnitiQute? The antenna could nicely be stowed in the tone-arm itselve.

Ardbeg10y posted:

Mario posted:

People have mentioned an ARO2, I just can't believe that with the revival/popularity that vinyl is experiencing right now, that the worlds best tonearm is not being made any more - this truly baffles me???

Mario.

What about an element which has a ADC + bluetooth chipset and connects to the bluetooth antenna of the UnitiQute? The antenna could nicely be stowed in the tone-arm itselve.

The thing about the forum is you can't always tell when people are joking or just bonkers.

i am sure it must be something SUPER!!   

nigelb posted:

It would hack too many people off if the Classic clothing were changed so soon after many of us have either upgraded to DR or have purchased a 272.

Mind you I have been wrong many, many times before!

As I recall the start of the current series design came with the Nait 5 and CD5 didn't it?

I'd say the product in the video at least is much more likely to be a "high end" Muso-style all-in-one player/streamer/amp -- what Naim would like existing wireless speaker and existing Muso owners to aspire to, a real "hifi" that you can add speakers to without getting lost in the world of separates.

Perhaps Naim is not seeing Muso ownership as the hoped-for stepping stone to multi-box "Classic" systems, and for whatever reason the existing Uniti range is either not filling that role effectively or it needs a refresh to bring it up to the Muso aesthetic.

Adrian_P posted:

I'd say the product in the video at least is much more likely to be a "high end" Muso-style all-in-one player/streamer/amp -- what Naim would like existing wireless speaker and existing Muso owners to aspire to, a real "hifi" that you can add speakers to without getting lost in the world of separates.

Perhaps Naim is not seeing Muso ownership as the hoped-for stepping stone to multi-box "Classic" systems, and for whatever reason the existing Uniti range is either not filling that role effectively or it needs a refresh to bring it up to the Muso aesthetic.

 

As I've mentioned before: something like a SuperUniti 2 

Yes, perhaps similar to a SuperUniti 2 in features, but styled and marketed as an aspirational "lifestyle" hifi product rather than SuperUniti, which is more of an old-school hifi product aimed at those wishing to reduce the number of black boxes they need. Subtle but important. Is the writing on the wall for old-school separates, other than the bonkers Statement statement?

It will have a silly name.

I've got it!

Four products, right?

It's an update to the Uniti range with the MuSo aesthetic. The four products are UnitiQute 3, Unitilite 2, Uniti 3, Superuniti 3 and UnitiServe 2 (but it now works properly). OK that is six products so either the range has been rationalised (possibly the Unitlite has gone or the Qute remains as is) and/or a server (and possibly a ripper) has been incorporated into the boxes, rationalising the product range down to four.

Think about it, the Uniti range has been discounted at dealers, very little has happened to the range recently, the Uniti range is stand alone (i.e. not buried in a rack) so there is the freedom to use the new top mounted volume control and the UnitiServe had been a thorn in the side of Naim and us long-suffering users so it needs a redesign. Naim have also stopped updating the firmware for the US a long time ago. All the new units will have the next generation DAC installed which will be retrofittable to Classic Naim streamers.

One last thing. The new Uniti range (indeed if that what it is) might also feature MQA enabled Tidal hi res streaming - assuming MQA is still alive and kicking. And if the MQA bit is true, it would explain the looong delay in the issue of the latest streaming firmware update.

I'm right, aren't I? Tell me I'm right.

From the recent Mu-So products, I can definitely see the company leaning more toward a lifestyle products range. Which is not to everyone's taste, I know. But at least it does keep the prices more reasonable. I've had my UnitQute NAP100 combo now for two years and love it. I'm sure the SuperUniti would be much better, but it's out of my price range, for now. Maybe this new product will bridge that gap, and give me the one thing my system lacks, DSD streaming.

nigelb posted:

I am sure the Classic line will be replaced at some time in the future, but with the DR upgraded power supplies/power amps and the (relatively recent) launch of the 272 all in Classic clothing, surely now is not the time. This new thing (or things) has the new house style of MuSo and Statement and I am guessing it is an extension/addition to one of these lines.

It would hack too many people off if the Classic clothing were changed so soon after many of us have either upgraded to DR or have purchased a 272.

Mind you I have been wrong many, many times before!

The Nait XS had a new fascia less than a year after it was introduced (so called XS-2, not to be confused with XS2...), so I wouldn't be at all surprised if a new Classic range (different looks) were to be introduced soon.

I am an old dinosaur so I hope this knew product is not just about streaming, but will have the capability of burning Cds on a hard drive and have large storage space.  Also I hope the product will be at a reachable price not silly prices reserved just for the top 5% rich list (eg Statement good product but who on this forum has it?).