chebby:
bloatedgut:Think Ferrari and Agent Provocateur and Versace, Naim... they take their brilliance and flare for design, presentation and marketing, then add a massive premium for the badge..
I have no personal experience of Ferrari etc so cannot comment on their merits vs their price. But Naim?
A "massive premium for the badge" ?
I have been playing my Naim gear for about 12 hours a day on average (sometimes 16 depending on my shifts) and it is therefore best value gear I have ever owned.
Not only that, but the free/supplied DIN cable (a 'massive' £75 if bought seperately) and the 'grotesquely' priced 7 metres of Naim speaker cable (£105 in total including all the soldering and banana plugs) are all it needs to sound fantastic.
Factor in the very respectable resale values that used Naim kit commands (even 20 year old stuff) and the fact that Naim support extends to everything they have ever made in the last 37 years and you can understand my suprise at you including them in a list of companies who merely trade on their 'badge'.
Take the latest Naim offering (the naimuniti). £2K gets you an amp, a CD player, DAC, DAB/FM tuner, and wireless streaming all based on modules from proven designs like the CD5i and Nait 5i and the tuner from the NVi and the DAC from the CD5X. That is terrific value. (Read the reviews and listen to one through something like the PMC FB1i's - as I did yesterday - then say it is all just 'badge'.)
They are currently shipping 20 naimuniti's a day (many of them to people who have never bought any Naim item before) and all handbuilt and tested in the UK. They are fully employing all 130 people at their Salisbury plant right now and even paying overtime to get everything out and meet demand. Given the current economic woes in this country I think that speaks for far more than just trading on a 'badge' !
Well Mr. Chebby then it comes down to personal taste (although I admit that new Naim gear for £2000 seems a bit more value for money than other things)... however it is an extremity itself to interpret my original post as simple saying that brands like Naim trade on badge alone... most people are not fools so if you have an expensive luxury brand at its heart there is usually a reason, a good product. My point is that you pay over the odds for that brand, it has cache, it seeks to trade on that... lets walk through the main words that you appear to of missed in my original post.
"there are some brands which are brilliant... they take their brilliance and
flare for design, presentation and marketing, then add a massive
premium for the badge..."
Hmmm there does seem to be a hefty nod towards admitting that these brands are good at what they do... but they are all, in their strategies, aimed towards the luxury end of the market and that means that sometimes they produce products and add a hefty premium. That is fine... I am not being all bitter about that (okay, a bit) but I am more socialist in my stereo leanings. It actually comes down to how you view how you should listen... I am more Arcam than Naim... I am more Lotus (under Colin Chapmen, of course) than Ferrari... so although I take your points please do not paint me as the Panto Fagin here. My points on Naim are valid despite your others factors (re-sell value, including cabling etc).