Naim Audio

Naim Audio Limited

Type	private limited company
Industry	Manufacture TV & radio, sound or video
Founded	4 June 1973
Headquarters	Salisbury, England, United Kingdom
Key people	Paul Stephenson
Products	Hi-fi equipment, Audio-visual equipment, music recording label
Revenue	₤18 million
Owner(s)	Focal & Co.
Website	naimaudio.com

Naim Audio (pronounced 'name') is a British manufacturer of high fidelity audio products for domestic use, based in Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. Founded in 1973, it is a highly successful and well-established high-end European audio brand. In August 2011, it announced a merger with French loudspeaker manufacturer Focal-JMLab.

History

Naim began when the late Julian Vereker started Naim Audio Visual in 1969 and created a sound-to-light box which he hired out to film production companies. His disappointment with the sound of professional recording equipment at the time led him to design his own power amplifier. The company Naim Audio, was incorporated in 1973.

The first Naim power amplifier, the NAP160, was sold in 1971; the two-channel NAP 250 amplifier, launched in 1975, is perhaps Naim Audio's most well-known product, as its basic circuit layout was shared by all the company's power amplifiers until the introduction of the flagship NAP500 in 2000.

Other Naim products, such as the NAC52 pre-amplifier, the ARO uni-pivot tonearm and the SBL (Separate Box Loudspeaker) have also assumed cult status among devotees.

Digital audio

During much of the 1980s, Naim asserted that Compact Disc was a far inferior medium to the vinyl gramophone record. Early discs often lost something in the transfer compared to vinyl, and Naim continued to design their products in this context. However, by 1990 technological advances allowed the production of the Naim CDS, the first CD player considered worthy of the Naim brand. The announcement in 1989 that the company was working on a CD player shocked the marketplace. The CDS CD player has since seen two major revisions (now in its CDS3 incarnation) since its launch in 1991; while subsequent lower-priced extensions to the line are often used by hi-fi reviewers as references at their respective price points. The CD555, which is the "money no object" flagship priced at £15,000, is heralded by Naim as "the ultimate CD player".

Design characteristics

Naim has a devoted following gained through a combination of its products' performance, build quality, upgrade and after-sales philosophy: Committed to after-sales support, Naim boasts they can service all products ever manufactured by them.

Naim's design philosophy is characterised by the incorporation of over-engineered power supplies to ensure fast and generous current delivery to the audio circuitry. Naim also market independent low-noise power supplies as an easy and effective upgrade path for their pre-amplifiers and CD players.

Their unique design approach can be seen, for example, by their use of materials – the semiconductors, heavy toroidal transformers, iconoclastic solid aluminium black cases – their obsessive attention to earthing, screening and isolation from electronic interference, through to their preference for XLR connector, DIN connector and the BNC connector (as opposed to the RCA connector used by almost all other manufacturers). However, bowing to market forces, RCA phono plugs are now fitted as standard, in addition to DIN plugs on most Naim products^{[citation needed]}

The company's pre- and power- amplifiers, especially, are electrically matched and are designed to be used together. Dire warnings attach to experimentation with other manufacturers components, particularly in the case for some "high-end" loudspeaker cables, whose inductance/capacitance characteristics present unstable loads to the high-current devices used inside Naim power amplifiers – these have been documented to cause damage to same.

As with other brands such as Arcam and Cyrus, the company's instruction manuals state that "better and more consistent performance will be achieved if the system is left switched on for long periods."

The business

During much of the 1970s and 80s, Naim adopted a symbiotic relationship with Linn Products, and their names were often mentioned in the same breath. At that time, a Linn Sondek LP12 turntable, Naim electronics and Linn loudspeakers was the preferred combination for many a serious audiophile.

The two companies had almost the same sales and marketing strategy, and shared many of the same retailers/dealers. The company's emphasis on selling products through comparative demonstrations in a single-speaker environment was a move away from marketing space of the chain electronics stores in favour of small independent retailers [in the United Kingdom].

The two companies diverged during the 1980s, at the dawn of digital audio. This was partly due to the convergence of technology, but also because Naim had significantly fewer dealers than Linn. This presented problems for Linn dealers trying to sell Linn speakers which were specifically designed to work at their best with Naim amplification. Both Naim and Linn began broadening their product ranges and started encroaching on each others' historical areas of expertise: Naim began making loudspeakers and Linn began making electronic components.

In 2010, Naim employed 140 staff. Naim's products are exported to more than 40 countries; half of its £15 million turnover is export. One-third of the business was from CD players. In 2011, 60 percent of sales went to export markets.

Ownership

At the time of his death, Julian Vereker held half of the share capital of the company. The other half was in the hands of employees, including Paul Stephenson who owned 16 percent. Vereker bequeathed his shares to Naim employees upon his death, and these are held in a trust of which Stephenson is trustee.

Merger

On 19 August 2011, Naim and Focal-JMLab announced a merger of both companies. Focal & Co., the new entity that will be formed to own the two existing operations will employ 325 people in total at two sites, in Saint Etienne, France, and Salisbury, UK. Pro-forma annual turnover of the new company is £48 million.

According to a Q&A issued by the company, both brands will coexist and continue to operate independently. They promise no management changes, the same customer focus and experience as before. The industrial logic cited as "all about growth – not about finding financial synergies", with the focus on brand development through greater collaboration on R&D projects.

The shareholders of Focal & Co are those that respectively owned the company prior to the merger (namely Jacques Mahul, CM-CIC and the management of Focal and Naim), suggesting the merger being executed by an exchange of shares for shares in the holding company. No ownership statistics and no valuation were mentioned.

The Naim Label

Naim also went into the record business in order to supply Compact Discs which were both technically and musically good enough to satisfy analogue/vinyl disciples. This was to be Vereker's personal project. The first CD to appear on the Naim recording label was Electric Glide by Gary Boyle, one of the company's favourite vinyl demo records.

Milestones

• 1971, NAP 160, first Power Amplifier, discontinued 1986
• 1973, Naim Audio Limited formed
• 1974, NAC 12, first Pre-Amplifier, discontinued 1980
• 1975, NAP 250, Power Amplifier
• 1975, NAPS, first pre-amplifier Power Supply, discontinued 1978
• 1977, NAXO, first Electronic crossover for active loudspeaker systems
• 1980, Moved to current premises at Southampton Road, Salisbury
• 1981, Linnk, Moving-Coil Phono Pre-Amplifier (Manufactured for Linn Products)
• 1981, NAC A4, Speaker Cable
• 1983, NAIT, first Integrated Amplifier, discontinued 1988
• 1984, NAP 135, first mono Power Amplifier, discontinued 2002
• 1984, Hi-Cap, pre-amplifier Power Supply
• 1984, NAT 01, first FM Tuner, discontinued 2002
• 1985, Won the Queen's Award for Export Achievement
• 1986, SBL, first in-house made Loudspeakers, discontinued 2002
• 1989, ARO, Unipivot Tone-arm
• 1989, Range upgraded and new look (olive casing)
• 1990, NAC 52, flagship Pre-Amplifier, discontinued 2002, replaced by NAC 252
• 1991, CDS, first CD Player, discontinued 1998, replaced by CDS2
• 1991, DBL, Loudspeakers
• 1992, CDI, extended range of CD Players
• 1995, AV1, first AV Processor, discontinued 1999
• 1995, Armageddon, Power Supply [for Linn Sondek LP12 Turntable]
• 1995, Super-Cap, Pre-Amplifier Power Supply
• 1995, Prefix, Phono Pre-Amplifier, discontinued 2008
• 2000, 5 series
• 2000, NAP 500, Power Amplifier
• 2002, Range Upgraded (Reference range) and new look
• 2002, NAC 552, flagship Pre-Amplifier, supplants NAC 252 as flagship pre-amplifier
• 2005, n-series new range of AV products of which nVi integrated DVD/amp combo
• 2005, CD555, flagship CD Player
• 2008, Superline, Phono Pre-Amplifier
• 2008, HDX, Hard Disk Player
• 2008/9, Nait XS, Integrated Amplifier
• 2009, NaimUniti, All-in-one Audio Player
• 2009, Naim DAC, Stand-alone DA-Converter
• 2009, Naim Ovator S-600 Loudspeaker
• 2010, UnitiQute
• 2010, Naim wins Queen's Award for Enterprise
• 2011, Naim Ovator S-400 Loudspeaker
• 2011, Naim merges with Focal-JMLab

Source: Naim Audio

External links

• Naim Audio official website
• The Naim Label official website
• Complete Naim Audio Reference Set-Up