Naim introduce a turntable - the Solstice Special Edition


After decades of rumors, Naim have introduced a turntable: the Solstice.

Built by Clearaudio to Naim specifications, a complete system is $20k. Includes a new Aro Mk2 arm, a Naim cartridge, power supply, and phono stage. Limited edition of 500 units.

More information here: https://www.naimaudio.com/solstice

Thoughts?  I'm frankly surprised it's not much more expensive.  
naimfan
extremely overpriced. Im sure there are better options out there for a fraction. Nonetheless, some wealthies will buy it.

Established audio brands adding a turntable to their line-up is an interesting trend which confirms that vinyl is here to stay. Not that I ever doubled that, but for many years all these big companies did. They now seem to think the vinyl market is strong enough to warrant such products. McIntosh (also by Clearaudio) and Mark Levinson (by VPI) immediately come to mind, but I’m sure there are many others.

I assume these products will mostly appeal to the ’one brand life style’ crowd, who feel they miss out if they don’t own a turntable. They don’t mind a hefty price tag, quite the contrary. Nothing wrong with that and as OEM it opens a bigger market for the turntable specialists, which is good for business and keeps the analog industry alive.

I'm pretty sure that Clearaudio builds turntables for other brands.  McIntosh is Clearaudio, is it not?  But Mac's don't reach that price point, even with a great cartridge upgrade.  
@rossb ,

"Funnily enough, the ARO remains the worst tonearm I have owned. I couldn’t wait to get rid of it!"


Although it sounded very organic on the LP12, better I thought than Linn's own Ekos, I can easily imagine it could be a nightmare to use.

Manually cueing turntables can be tricky enough with any deck, but a unipivot arm on a spring suspended turntable?

Not for everyone I guess.
The ARO was certainly an ergonomic challenge. But my real objection was that it sounded awful - thin, lightweight, no bass. Typical of the worst aspects of unipivots. I much preferred the Ekos I that preceded it and the Ekos II that replaced it.