Interview by David Price, editor of Hi Fi World magazine, with James of Tom Tom Audio.

What in your view makes the Naim brand distinct, and why?

Naim have established a level of brand integrity and awareness that any company would die for and they have done this without the expensive services of any third party branding agency but by simply having a set of unique concepts and core values to which they have constantly adhered. We're not talking here of a vacuous mission statement written in meaningless marketing speak but an exceptionally successful business that has remained as the the UK's leading audio brand for over 30 years. When you think about that in the context of the 'here today, gone tomorrow' consumer electronics industry you realise just what an incredible achivement this is.

Naim Audio was founded by Julian Vereker who has now sadly passed away. Julian was a huge character and from day one challenged much of the conventional thinking within the audio industry. Back in the 1970's it was widely believed that only loudspeakers effected the sound of a system however Naim Audio turned convention on it's head. Julian put forward the then near mythical proposition that amplifiers could actually sound different and went on to prove it with his demontstrably better sounding products.

When you consider that Naim's products looked completely different to everyone else's with their elegant black minimalist cases and had a completely different topology with seperate power supplies and no tone controls, and justifiably cost considerably more than any other manufacturer you can see just how far Julian raised the bar and a legend was born.

Julian told the audio industry where they were going wrong and they sat up and listened, he ignited the white heat of British audio innovation and changed 'hi fi' forever. Naim were instrumental in starting a golden age for British audio which is still highly respected the world over. Naim continue to challenge convention and their single mindedness has won them a large and passionately loyal customer base the like of which no other audio manufacturer in the world enjoys.

Julian himself neatly summed it up.

"to me music is about people, if you can't hear what the people on the record are doing, there's not much point." Julian Vereker MBE 1945 - 2000