[8thnerve]

We are thrilled to announce that we are now officially a Naim Audio and Von Schweikert Loudspeakers dealer.

I listen to these products and wonder why they are not the most popular hi-fi brands in the world.  Naim Audio has come VERY far in the last 10 years with products that have even more of the famous PRAT that Naim is known for, but now have all the other hi-fi virtues that we search for, incredible finesse, soundstage, impact, tonal accuracy and one of the most analog sounds I have every heard from a CD player.  Perhaps their price is the only thing that holds them back from being more mainstream, but that may change soon.  In January, they are releasing the new CD5i and the NAIT5i.  At $1650 and $1350 respectively, they will offer 99% of the performance on the CD5 and the NAC112/NAP150 combo at an incredibly reduced price.  Watch out for these two...

And Von Schweikert, well, what hi-fi dealer would bring in a line where the $6000 VR4 III just trounces their $22,000 Watt/Puppys or $12,000 B&W Nautilus 800s?  They like their profit margins the way they are.  It's too bad for Von Schweikert that their product perform way beyond their price point.  Their $2500 VR-2s are just incredible.  Solid bass below 25 Hz, speed that rivals if not supasses Martin Logans and Maggies, and scale that is at this point about 95% as big as the $19,000 Avantgarde DUOs with about 90% of the dynamic power!!!  The VS home thater will be complete soon and I can't wait to hear what that sounds like.  It will be powered by modded Carver ZR1600 and ZR1000s, and the processor will be the incredible Arcam AV8.

A happy holidays to all!

Best Regards,

Nathan Loyer

[ckoffend]

The new Naim CD players sound interesting, haven't heard Naim in a while.  I always expect it a bit dark for my tastes.  But its has been a while and they are one of the great company's in this industry - duly respected.

The Von Schweikert statements and comparisons to some of the other speakers and the dealer issues with selling the Von Schweikert speakers is a bit confusing for me though.  I have not owned or listened to all the VS speakers, but have owned the 4 JR.  A respectable speaker without any fairly major flaws.  Even a speaker I suspect many people could live with happily for a long time.  This I consider a compliment.  The statement about them being in a completely different league than the Wilson's and B&W's (especially when price is factored in) is not one I can agree with.  Having owned all three of these brands I can agree with a certain degree of similarity to the B&W house sound and that one can get most of the way and in fact better sound with the VS against some of the B&W, the comparison between the VS and Wilson's I don't see at all.

The sound from these two speaker manufacturers are very different.  This being the case, you will have people that hate the Wilson sound and therefore are much more impressed by the VS.  Personally, of these three brands, I would normally opt for the Wilsons (having owned the Duettes = A+ for a monitor) and the Watt/Puppy (5.1 for what that's worth).  But this is my personal taste having owned all three brands referenced. 

Of course synergy is always a factor, play the B&W and VS with Cardas and they improve.  Play the Wilsons with Transparent and they improve (all in relationship to less synergistic cables).

Personally, I think VS has lost their dealer network out or a marketing plan, one which we will see if it works or doesn't.  There seems to be a rather large belief that the highend dealer base is disappearing - hard to dispute.  To me, the VS speakers sound like a lot of speakers.  They do some things very well and are impressive in several regards.  But to label them as a better value than B&W and Wilson is not a fair statement - other than as a purely individualistic subjective statement.