Naim’s first turntable

It’s taken Naim Audio a mere 48 years to get round to releasing its first turntable. But then in the company’s earliest years it was focused firmly on amplification, often partnered up with Linn’s LP12 vinyl spinner. With the full hi-fi chain thoroughly covered these days (if you include sister company Focal for the speakers), Naim customers celebrating the revival of vinyl are obviously clamouring for a Naim-branded deck to compete their system.

So here it is: the $32,000 Naim Solstice, released as a limited 500-set ‘Special Edition’, which is possibly another first — we can’t recall ever encountering a Special Edition that wasn’t first preceded by a standard edition. But that may follow, especially since this release is available only as a complete package, comprising the turntable itself, the arm and cartridge, a standalone phono stage, and a dedicated power supply. You also get a bespoke accessory set, which includes essentials such as a digital stylus gauge, spirit level and hex tools to set up the deck, plus a special Naim-produced LP and a book on the company’s history and the Solstice’s development.

The turntable itself is labelled ‘Designed in the UK; made in Germany’; Naim confirms that Clearaudio has manufactured the deck, arm and cartridge, but is also keen to point out that everything is done to its design and specifications: the Solstice is not simply a rebadged Clearaudio product. But it certainly shares Clearaudio’s preference for a giant platter and a floating magnetic main bearing design, and why not? These produce great results in Clearaudio’s high-end decks.

While Naim has never had a turntable, it did have a tonearm, the near-legendary Naim Aro, released back in 1989 at a time when CD was on its meteoric rise. Long discontinued, it is resurrected here as the Aro Mk2, in a slicker build, and with improved ease of use. It remains a unipivot design, a style which can initially alarm people with the way the arm wobbles as you lift it onto the record, but which greatly reduces friction in playback. The Aro’s armtube is now made of carbon-fibre rather than aluminium alloy, and the bias mechanism uses magnetism to apply force rather than ye olde string and weight arrangement. It also now has easier height adjustment, and greater compatibility with a wider range of cartridges.

Talking of which, Naim has also designed its first ever cartridge, based on a high-end Clearaudio design, but with a specially-machined aluminium body, boron cantilever and microline stylus.

The partnership unsurprisingly ends at the electronics, with the separate standalone phono stage and power supply all Naim’s own work. The phono stage has a clean front but a wild back panel, with separate moving-magnet and moving-coil RCA inputs, and outputs on both RCA and 5-pin DIN, the latter Naim’s preferred connection to one of its own amplifiers (though of course nobody else’s). Meanwhile the power supply has separate power feeds for the phono stage and the turntable, and uses the company’s DR regulation circuitry as used in Naim amplification components right up to the flagship Statement.

We have little doubt that if the Solstice Special Edition set goes well (and with only 500 to sell, it’s hard to imagine it won’t) then the individual components will be released individually or in lesser combinations. For now, though, if you want a piece of Naim’s first vinyl spinner, it’s all or nothing. And we guess that’s what makes it ‘special’. More information: www.focal-naim.com.au