If anyone has any experience with repair or recap service in East Asia (Mainland China or Hong Kong?), could you please give me some information about your retailer experience?
I have a NAIT5 and CD5i (120V) that I purchased in the U.S. I am currently living in Japan and have recently experienced unstable ups and downs in volume with the NAIT5 and contacted NAIM headquarters and was told that it could probably be repaired but would need to be tested and accepted by an authorized retailer.
The problem is that there is currently no authorized retailer in Japan and I will probably have to contact a retailer in China. I have no experience in dealing with Chinese retailer.
Your best bet is to enquire with Naim support as to what their recommendation would be with regard to repair of the NAIT 5 in your part of the world.
The fluctuating volume of the NAIT 5 sounds like the encoder for the resistor ladder has failed. IIRC Naim fit a different part (ON in place of the old Ti) but it dopes require additional parts and also a firmware change. @NeilS can explain more.
Thanks guys, I already had contacted to Naim support, then I have to contact to an authorized retailer as the support said I should have to do it.
The problem was there is no authorized retailer in Japan, and I have no idea how good/bad retailers in China (or other east asia region) are.
(And I donāt know whther the retailer do repair/recap by themselves, or will send it to Naim HQ in UK. If the later case, I wonder that could I send my unit to some retailers in UK, where I can gather retailers info more easier)
You could contact some UK dealer to see whether they would be happy to do this for you. The import/export paperwork can be a bit daunting though for anyone not set up for or used to doing such things.
FWIW I send my gear from Japan for servicing to the UK.
Mixed results with customs charges going back. Both times the documents pouch with the carnet info for avoiding customs was mysteriously missing by the time the units got to the UK and I was hit for about 800 quid. But I donāt trust the distributors in this neck of the woods.
Iām HK native and did contact the only Naim dealer for service here. I sent an email for enquiry, and came back to me after one month on phone.
To be fair they are very friendly. but unfortunately know nothing about Naim, and even persuading to ābuy newā, saying āvintage gears donāt worth itā ā very disappointed, which the last dealer was far better. I had reflected this dealer issue to Naim UK. I donāt blame on Naim as the market here is declining.
I would say that HK dealer isnāt reliable at all speaking of service, you better take feeling Zenās way for service.
Thereās only really South Korea as the other option for servicing but I hear it can be a challenge.
Given the location, if there is no existing relationship with a dealer in the UK to handle servicing, I would strongly suggest contact NANA in Canada and inquire about that as a possible servicing route.
Given the various flight path restrictions between Japan and the UK, Canada is comparatively a direct shot.
Currently I have no positive info on retailers in East Asiaā¦ Currently I try to contact to
retailers in UK. When I decide what I will do, I will report.
Many dealers wonāt want to get involved at any price. Because they worry about the responsibility of offering support so far away or what to do when something goes wrong like a defective unit and there are arguments about who pays for shipping etc. different service expectations and so forth make the prospect of selling and supporting a customer overseas quite worrying for most dealers. And they cannot even test 100v units before shipping them out.
My UK dealer has known me for decades. And they know that I understand things go wrong and I will be understanding. But when I asked if they would assist another Naim owner in Japan they said ānot a chance.ā They do have a lot of overseas customers but all started out as UK customers with a well established relationship.
I had damage to speakers in transit sent to Japan and the insurance claim and communications were a nightmare. My dealer said, āthis is exactly why we wonāt deal with unknown customers.ā
A couple years ago, several people on the forum pressed Naimās other forum rep to formalise the support route for East Asia and Japan but they left the company without doing that.