HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Very informative. By the 1990s I had long since lost interest and things had got worse. If we had the Internet in those days I am sure things would have been a lot different.

My introduction to NVA was when in 1996 I went to Doug Brady Hifi (Warrington) to buy (audition) a Naim 42/110 as I had decided that I needed to go down the pre/power route so having listened to the Naim kit I asked what else did they have (as I had all afternoon) that I could listen to. Can’t remember one of the amps but the third listen was to an NVA P50/A60 which I’d never even heard of and well it was so much better than the Naim I bought it there and then knowing nothing about RD or the company - I think they were quite surprised really and they checked I was sure in my decision and well here we are………

Sandman wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 4:34 pm My introduction to NVA was when in 1996 I went to Doug Brady Hifi (Warrington) to buy (audition) a Naim 42/110 as I had decided that I needed to go down the pre/power route so having listened to the Naim kit I asked what else did they have (as I had all afternoon) that I could listen to. Can’t remember one of the amps but the third listen was to an NVA P50/A60 which I’d never even heard of and well it was so much better than the Naim I bought it there and then knowing nothing about RD or the company - I think they were quite surprised really and they checked I was sure in my decision and well here we are………

Here's a couple more posts from the archives, that indicate that Doug Brady were acting with relatively high levels of integrity and open mindededness for that era:

Richard said:
Nytech, Onyx, Ion and many others, all victims of the Linn / Naim flat earth shut out from the 80's and 90's. The way it was done is these companies were "allowed" as long as they didn't take too much business from Ivor or Julian, if they did the reps were instructed to ask the dealer "do you really think this is a good product", code for get rid of it, and the dealers complied as they didn't want to lose or compromise their Linn or Naim accounts. And in some cases there was out and out warfare with competitive product sabotaged by the reps especially if people were saying it was better. This happened to Pink Triangle.

I could with time compile a list of over 30 companies finished off by this process, or who went export to survive.

To which Gromit added:
And, sadly, this pretty much sums it up - I myself was 'victim' to some of this back in the 80's at a (now long gone) dealer in Cambridge. They stocked Royd speakers - at the time they were fairly 'new kid on the block' but were nonetheless an interesting manufacturer. I went with a friend to audition some speakers at said dealer, and the Royds were high on his shortlist.

Dealer also stocked MS ms20's (a great little speaker - sealed box, simple with a large-ish bass driver) but all he wanted to sell was a par of Kans. Can't really remember the Royds but they were, imho, demonstrably better than the Kans. I stated my preference for the Royds at which point the dealer started putting more and more amplifier in front of the Kans to make them 'work'. I still didn't really get it. We left the shop, and no sale was made. Whilst yes the Royds would've been a great choice, we decided between us (friend and myself) to go elsewhere with our business.

Had the same situation when I bought my Exposure X - I'd got a CB Nait 2 at the time, had heard 'good things' about the Exposure (and always found the Nait chronically lacking in dynamic headroom, even with efficient speakers) so jacked up a dem at my local dealer. This was when I was living in London btw.

I asked the dealer to switch the Exposure on for a good hour before the demo, but in the end the amp was still sat cold on the showroom shelf when I turned up. Their own demo Nait was turnin'&burnin' when I arrived so clearly warmed up. Even so, after the first 20 seconds from cold it was obvious the Exposure was a better amp so I bought it. Bottom line is I firmly believe the dealer was clearly going to hard-sell me some more lofty Naim product.

Oh...had the same thing when I bought a Manticore Mantra turntable vs a Linn Axis. Dealer made the mistake of thinking I didn't have a pair of ears. :D

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=44996&p=58602&hilit ... ler#p58602

All of which paints a picture of the hi-fi culture in the UK in the 1980's to 1990's and explains why Richard was eager to get out there into people's homes with the promise of improving the sound from their hi-fi systems...

I missed out on all that shite, it was the late 90s early 2000s when i was buying stuff from hifi dealers. I went in, asked to listen to x, and that was what i listened to.
They were abit nonplussed when i bought quad 11l speakers and partington dreadnought stands after telling them the b&w cdm1 nts id gone to listen to sounded crap and to remove them for whatever alternative they had in. They had some awful naim things, some awful rega things, some kefs which were passable, and the quads. Bought some pink bi wire cable too which i still have somewhere
The salesman himself was actually quite surprised by the quads on the end of the mf a3 amp id taken with me to listen to them with.
They were (are) a linn/naim dealer, but also stocked a fair bit of other stuff too, and never tried to push anything on me. Probably why they are still in business when pretty much all of the other dealers in the area have gone

Hmm, even Dale, my business partner was a bit of a linnie. When i told him i'd started using a Kenwood KD600 he was horrified, "but direct drive turntables aren't any good" he replied. "This one is pretty good" i replied, better than my RB300/AR legend, which is comparable to your Ittok/LP12. At least we agreed that linn amps were boring and naim amps were best suited to "country and western" music (which is the only music genre i cannot abide).

We did a few home demos, they worked out good. We needed to have done more.

Fretless wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:32 am The Sound Organisation in York did have a series of demos of NVA equipment. I first heard an all-NVA system with Cubes there, probably in 1987/88.

I'm very pleased to read that since I thought I might be going crazy with no one remembering NVA at the Sound Org York.