Hello, great community!
I´m considering buying a SuperLine produced in 2008, maybe used for 12 years. As this item does not have its own powersupply, maybe the age isn´t such a big factor? Or yould you rather suggest I´d look for a newer one? I´ll be using it with my 252/SC DR/250DR.
Greetings from Berlin, Karl Ivar
You should read this.
Bear in mind Naim don’t service them anymore, only repair if broken.
See the thread mentioned. Whilst there is no power supply with the superline, it does contain a lot of capacitors.
It is a long and tearful thread !
Saying that, my 2008 SL, that has not ever been serviced sounds good.
My only advice is to make sure you know you are buying an obsoete item and pay accordingly.
Thanks a lot for the advice! I´m working my way through the thread now. It´s a question between saving the money and get older gear, or keep looking for newer items. I did the latter on my 252/SC DR/252 and it feels good to believe they will sound great for many years to come. I might go for the same approach on the SL.
If you have read through that other thread and are happy to go with one, then make sure you dont pay over the odds for it, would be my advice on this, especially due to its age now.
But it is a nice sounding phono stage, especially if you can power it from your pre amp, it just starts to make less sense these days if you want to go supercap with it, and don’t already own one, as then the price goes up to a much higher level and certainly other phono stages come into play.
But get it cheap, very cheap, as if you want to move it on in say a year time, you will be faced with buyers saying the same thing.
When Naim service an item, it’s not just the power supply electrolytic capacitors that Naim replaces.
There are many small tantalum bead capacitors that are changed as well.
This is why low power components such as cd players, pre-amps an phono stages all need a service, even if they don’t have a mains power supply inside.
Best regards, BF
You’d better tell naim this. They no longer agree a superline needs a service.
Indeed. Such a shame.
My 52/52PS was last serviced 10yrs ago in Nov. I contacted Darran and was informed that the PS would be due 10-12yrs but the 52 itself could wait another 5 years. I’ll wait till spring for the PS as the weather should be nice for a run over the Woodhead to Sheffield in the old MX but I have no worries about the 52 even if it went overdue.
If I was in the market, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a used Superline, it’s just a preamp when all is said and done. If it sounds good, that’s all that matters. If purchasing the Supercap at the same time, I would however be more likely to consider an alternative as the combined cost takes it to £2.5k plus.
But I already have a Supercap 
. But no rack space 
.
No rackspace either, which stops me thinking about a SC. Or it did until this thread.
There’s never been any set service routine on CD players either. Like the Superline, they replace just what is needed to fix a fault and get it back into spec.
Ah, thank you Richard.
I simply recalled all the tantalum capacitors that the Service Dept. replaced when they also changed the mechanism on our CDS3. It came back sounding really rather fine!
Best regards, BF
I had planned to upgrade to a Superline however considering the service issue, I have changed my mind. I am still missing my CDS3/PS555 which became obsolete when repairs became impossible.
Defect maintenance rather than preventative maintenence then ?
I suppose so, yes.
I had my superline of about the same age serviced in early 2020 in preparation for leaving the UK and just before Covid complicated things. I can’t say I heard much difference when it came back two weeks later.
Power amps and power supplies serviced give the most impact. I guess the reservoir caps get hammered and are most likely to degrade over time.
Hi Karl .
Noone has asked what your turntable is?
I have LP12 and use Urika into KRadikal 2.
Personally I wouldn’t get a Superline as repair and service will become difficult, especially in Berlin. Naim have said they won’t service them any longer. If it goes wrong I don’t know what dealer support is like for Germany? Naim will still repair them though. I am not sure if they go wrong though, and what their reliability is.
It’s very much up to you. It’s a great phonostage, especially with a Supercap DR. And I have heard it. And it is wonderful.
Hi, all!! Sorry for not responding for a while and thank you so much for all the contribution!
At the moment, I have a Transrotor Max, possibly a 800 tonearm, a Hana SL cartridge and a Lehmann Audio Black Cube SE phono-preamp. My loudspeakers are Monitor Audio Gold GX 200 and the rack is Creactive Audio 1.
At the moment, I just got my 252/SC DR/250DR amps and I believe it is wise to first spend some time getting used to their sound and enjoy the wonderful change (earlier, I had an Electrocompaniet ECI1). This purchase is beginning of a dream I had for a long time on enjoying the high-end Naim-sound of the classic-series (I do not like the sound of the new classic) and at some point, I would like to continue with the phono-source, thinking I would like to upgrade the cartridge and the phono-stage, because I believe this will make the biggest impact of the sound of my current set up. (Please feel free to disagree and make other recommendations, if you’d like to)
Because of all this, I have put my eyes on the Superline and at the moment there is the option with the 12 year old item. However, I’ve decided to give it all some time.
I’m very grateful for any thoughts, comments and input.
Again, thank you so much for your contribution!
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