Linn - love it /hate it/don't care I'll argue anyway thread!

No attacks on NAIM, oh please!

 

Comet didn't do that, like all the discount houses they wanted you in and out the door in minimum time with the most of your money left behind - normal capitalism. The salesmen couldn't give a sh1t what you bought as long as you bought. On the other hand the FE shop especially Linn agents were contracted to give Linn a specific percentage of their turnover as the deliveries were booked and the payments were programmed by standing order, what chance did the poor dealer stand. Some told them to piss-off but a lot succumbed to the pressure because the industry from reviewer to magazine to dealer to salesmen had to do it, they had committed themselves to the process. You seem to think there was choice in this

 

Ask your partner if he still has a copy of it.

 

So basically mate, stick your questions about your deck choices up your arse, because this lot would rather in fight with each other than give you a sensible answer.

;-)

I have an SME 10 and V you are most welcome to listen to if you ever happen to be coming by Sheffield.

 

Richard.

Did you ever try to sell to FE dealers at the time? Did they refuse to give you an appointment or were they dismissive of NVA after a demo.
Sounds like a loaded question but there must be a reason that rega, exposure, mission/Cyrus, NAD, Onix were stocked alongside the Linn and Naim alliance?

 

Have you gone Gay Andrew?

 

Sq, I gave the answer I considered correct ages ago. The 'blogs of war' joined in and crapped the thread. I just won't stand by and see bitterness touted as fact.

 

Hmmm...the whole thing sounds like sour grapes to me because someone else built and marketed a better mousetrap. Why do we not hear complaints from other manufacturers? Why do we not see other manufacturers sky-rocket financially now that the playing field is level? Why do we see the same companies with the same market shares? Could it be a better mousetrap is just a better mousetrap?

 

You asking?

 

Criticism.

Which is fine.

 

I might suggest you re read some of the JV designed PA amps bile.

 

Doubt it.

 

That's exactly what I was told at Billy Vee.

BV: Come on upstairs and listen to something, we think you'll like it.

.....Boooooooooooom

ME: Can you adjust the level of the bass section in the Tunebox active crossover, seems a bit high for this little room?

BV: Sure <turns it down>

ME: Ah that's better <not great but now listenable>

BV: Rubbish! - we've stripped away musical information, surely you can hear that!!

and so it went on for an hour or so .......


I went to the Cornflake Shop.

 

I worked with the flake shop guys after they split. Both FE but with a hint of barking mad!

 

Not a better mousetrap, but better (in capitalist terms) marketing. Dominating and controlling a market place is always tried, and in the US you have anti trust laws to counter it as you suffered from it very early in the capitalist development process. We on the other hand only paid lip service to it, and even the laws that were passed such as the ending of retail price maintenance in the 60's and the sale of goods act at the end of the 70's were never upheld properly.

 

I have and it isn't.

He did design pro amps though, originally.

 

Disco lights actually!

 

They were great in the 80s.
FE definitely but so refreshingly different.

I bought my ES14s there in 1986.
They asked me what system I wanted up front (Roksan and Naim) and then left me alone with some coffee with instructions to shout when I wanted to swap the speakers for something else.

Funnily enough I also had my first cable dem at the same time.
They liked DNM speaker cable, not the newer stuff but the first version that was a flat grey ribbon containing very thin conductors indeed. Five meters of that on ES14s was clearly audible over NACA5 and so I bought it.*

Contrast that to the Billy Vee methods above, and note they chose not to stock or sell Linn.


* Lots of series resistance and very audible.

 

Christ, how far back is that?

 

How do you think Naim started. They sold Capital radio their monitor amps when they got the London commercial radio licence, it was because of a mate of his he got the order and that financed the company into existence. Don't believe the on-line rewriting of history, I was around at the time and saw it and knew him.