I would love to know how others with a new mechanism fitted to their CDX2’s are getting on. Mine came back about 5 weeks ago and immediately had issues skipping through perfect conditions disks. It went back for another re-look and the engineer confirmed a reading fault, reworked the transport and fitted another sled motor. It came back and…. still skips… Its gone back to Salisbury for another re re repair and I am starting to worry it may never be right again…
. Have others been more successful??
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Very odd. One would assume it got through the 24 hour soak test OK at Naim.
Did you try it in soak mode? (press and hold PLAY while switching on).
This is clearly not good. So, your CDX2 went to Salisbury, had a new mech fitted - and was effectively DOA on its return…? And has now gone back again - twice…? I think we must ask for Naim to comment on this - @NeilS - ??
Based on what @mij29 has reported, I would surmise that the replacement mech’s are not of the best…? I guess they are NOS ( New Old Stock) - which may explain this… ? Or are we looking at potential damage in transit, ex-Salisbury…?
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No I didn’t, but did spend a long time listening to many disks. Some simply microskipped five or so times across an album but then play fine when run through again. Others had huge skips and eventual complete break down and disk rejection. As mentioned, these are all brand new or eel looked after flawless CD’s. There obviously was a fault with the first mechanism replacement as it required reworking and a new sled motor. I don’t know what that does however. I wonder how old these mechanisms are and if they simply have stuck or time degraded parts inside them??
That’s all correct… Fortunately, the trip from East Yorkshire back to Naim HQ has been in the original box plus an outer cardboard ‘wrap’ extra box I fabricated to try to prevent transit damage. This has actually been remarkably effective at keeping the Naim box in good shape; but the air miles racked up are getting fairly high!
I wonder if the current CD player Naim still make could be adapted to fit the CDX2 and maybe avoid NOS issues like this happening??
It would require a big R&D program to re-engineer the player for the CD5Si’s mechanism. It’s not just the mech itself but the entire control circuitry. Naim spent years refining the Philips system to optimise it to make it the best of its kind. With the CDX2 now discontinued, I doubt it’s a practical proposition.
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All the “Philips” mechs are essentially NOS. They aren’t officially made any more, and haven’t been for years. In the case of what’s out there, AFAIK, these days it’s a matter of sorting what bits are good from the bad and then making up one good mech. They are all subject to Naim’s long standing testing and soak testing procedures though. But mechs are mechs… Luckily any mech change by Naim is warranted by them just in case there are issues that manifest later after testing.
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That’s logical - and was what I had suspected. Thank you… 
I think that might explain some of what has happened, here - maybe. But - the unit would have been extensively tested at Naim HQ, before being sent back. So how come it didn’t work correctly when @mij29 got it back…? Twice.
That’s the mystery, but mechs can be somewhat capricious.
And - can be upset, by ‘transportation’ (in its many modern forms) - ??
Thanks very much indeed Richard, it’s great to have such an insight from an engineering and design point of view and I fully appreciate that Naim are doing all they can to keep our players going with whatever parts and kit they can.
Aside of the skips; it really does sound sensational; really really good and definitely not something I would like to lose or have to go to streaming… 
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Mine seems to be working fine so far (I’ve only tried two CDs) - although the player apparently travelled upside down all the way from Focal… the shipping label was on the wrong side of the parcel (which was wrapped in black plastic).
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Sorry to hear of the ongoing woes with your player @mij29 . As I mentioned in your other earlier thread, I’m sure that you appreciate that it is just not feasible for us to monitor each player in the way that an end user can and will. We do our utmost to ensure that everything that we can check is in order & subject each unit to the soak test Richard mentions above.
While it’s possible these microskips may not be picked up by the diagnostic, a complete breakdown/stop definitely would be.
I’m hoping that this is just bad luck & we’ll have more success this time around.
BTW - the sled motor performs the vital task of driving the laser carriage to the correct position under the disc via a worm drive.
Regards
Neil.
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Thank you Neil, and many apologies for the long delay to acknowledge this excellent explanation and insight into the challenge of keeping these transports in best health.
My CDX2 came back for the third time double quick, and I am delighted to report that not only does it sound truly amazing again, it hasn’t once skipped on any disk played, new or old! Thank you and all at Naim service for comprehensively resolving this issue for my player! 
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Hi mij29,
This is great news & thank you for the feedback. I just wish we could have reached this outcome in the first place - so apologies for that again.
Enjoy your CDs!
Regards
Neil.
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It’s on the way to Focal Naim for an assessment. Hopefully UPS is gentle.
Charles
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I had the mech replaced on mine two years ago and it was recently stopping half way through a cd and returning to stop. Contacted my retailer Harry in Sydney who said it could be the mech again or the lens track but before sending it in maybe clean the lens…did that and it’s working perfectly again 
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I had the same/similar with my CDX2, I used camera sensor cleaner on sensor wipe wrapped on a cotton bud.
The only regret in my Naim life was selling the CDX2 when I moved to streaming, its not that NDX disappointed, far from it, but I do miss the up front presentation.
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Just fired up my CD player, which has been idle for at least two years! So far so good and hopefully as it warms it will sound better. I am however playing through the nDAC/555DR used for streaming from the Innuos Zenith.
Phil
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