No, I am with Richard on this one. The Linn and Naim hegemony (in the UK at least) was pretty brutal to rivals in the 1980s and early 1990s. And its followers too - Having a Linn rep say "I'll play it again because you aren't listening right." pretty much ended my link with the Flat Earth school. But it was in the 1980s and early 1990s. Its dominance was already waning 20 years ago.
For most of us, it's old news.
It was an extremely effective machine, though I don't apply the blame for the harm done to both companies in equal measure, certainly from the punter viewpoint and place most of the blame with Linn.
I spent about 20 years worshiping at the alter of the Linn/Naim church, to the point where I created and hosted an online library for the old Flat Response and Review publications. In my world for many years, they were right and everyone else just didn't understand. Many thousands were also 'signed-up' in those days and many still are.
Somes of the sales tactics were incredibly hard sell. Not the sort of in your face pressure you might expect from someone selling gas services at your door, no this was on a whole new level.
I recall once visiting a well establish South London FE dealer to listen to a pair of Rega Ela loudspeakers. I'd heard them previously but wanted to hear them again and to compare with a few alternatives. The dealer gladly assisted but about 30 minutes into the dem I was asked to visit the top floor demo room in order to hear the flagship Linn active system. The room was small and into it had been shoehorned a sprawl of racks and boxes feeding Keltiks. I was asked to listen and for my comments. The purpose, I was told, was to illustrate 'where I should be aiming in my system journey'.
I didn't much like what I heard. A rather bloated and forced sound that would have given me a headache pretty quickly. So I relayed my thoughts to dealer and after a 5 minute pause to adjust the active crossover (basically cut the overblown bass) I was asked to listen again. Yes that's a bit better I said - 'WRONG' proclaims the dealer - I've removed bass, so I've removed information and damaged the music.
The net result of this was that I left feeling I was dealing with idiots, bought my Elas but never went there again.
Not all were so bad though.
I was a customer of the London based Sound Organisation through much of my flat earth period and here the messages were far more subtle and effective. I wouldn't criticise the Sound Org. They at least had the good sense to back-off if it became clear that you were not particularly on message.
I went there to buy Kans and ended up with Gale 301s, Onix instead of Naim Nait etc, AT MC instead of Linn etc and they were happy to accommodate without a lecture.
As Richard rightly mentions, the fall-out from these times is still around today, and as a participant in the whole malarky, albeit at the user end but someone following the press reporting closely throughout, it perhaps explains why I'm so determined to challenge spin and bias today. It should also help understand the call for more objectivity in the way products are presented for assessment. The final stage will always remain subjective but how we get there, how we present products on a level playing field is vital.
There is however a danger in holding such a negative view of the unbridled bias and marketing in operation during this period. The danger is to also attack the things that were good, and I'd still argue today that many Linn and Naim products are/were excellent. I would happily use and enjoy an LP12 in place of my current P9 or Naim 72/140 in place of the Quad amps . No problem at all - it was all decent kit. It just wasn't world beating and it certainly didn't represent any sort of new dawn.
