A question to all long term Naim lovers…do you actually service your components every 10 (or 15…) years? Or just keep using it until it stops working and at that point you decide to service or upgrade?
There’s lots and lots on here about servicing - just type servicing in the search function
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I think it’s a fair question. So for me, if I buy s/h and there is no history, I tend to get the items serviced to give me reassurance that it is back to factory. But, I’m working out that if you sell, you will never see even 50% of that service cost again. Power amps and power supplies benefit the most. My experience of NACs is not to bother—just get it repaired if it breaks.
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It is indeed a fair question - it’s just that there is lots of information already on the forum to answer the question
There’s very few answers on the forum ! Just experiences and opinions such as mine above.
Semantics no?
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To answer the question: absolutely! Keeping to the schedule keeps everything on song. The 32.5 was serviced 15 yrs ago, and the Prefix is overdue. The latest acquisition, NAP 200 has never been serviced. All will be within the next few weeks. Yes they are sounding good, but sub-optimal.
Yes, and every time I do it sounds worth it.
Would you buy an expensive car and ignore the service intervals?
Naim kit is designed to be serviced.
Bruce
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Cars are rather different: if you buy new I think you have to for some years to keep the warranty. Otherwise - and it applies whether expensive or cheap - cars are fundamentally mechanical with lots of moving parts that wear, and lubricant contaminated with dirst or wear material only causes more wea. Running with worn components can not only affect performance, but also longevity, and perhaps most important, safety. The only slightly comparable things in hifi are CD players and turntables, and in most cases I don’t think servicing actually changes lubricants or worn parts to minimise further wear, but only when so worn that performance has degraded.
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I service everything. Not just Naim. Everything needs recapping eventually (servicing is more than just that though), whether it be an amp or food mixer.
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Absolutely.
My 250.2 and XPS2 now sound amazing. They were about 15-18 years old.
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A rather literal interpretation of my analogy!
My point is that if a manufacturer of sophisticated and expensive equipment recommends service intervals then I think it is false economy not to follow them. I bet a fair few upgrades would have been avoided by people servicing an existing component.
Bruce
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No but I apply firmware updates when available.
Linn never recommend recapping their amps. Because at 15 years they really want you to buy a new one or get lost.
A few manufacturers take that basic stance. But you can’t really get around the service life of electrolytes.
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POI: LP12 main bearing oil changed every service.
Three years ago I decided to finish my system as I was retired. I updated a few PSs and got everything else serviced so that it was all ‘done’. Will I do it when I am 77? Will I still be alive? No idea, it just seemed like a good plan at the time 
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I have 3 x Olive 250’s. I’ve owned them all from new and after around 8-10 years, I noticed a degradation in sound quality, particularly if I’ve been away and have turned them off.
When turning them back on, if I hear a sound a little bit like “frying an egg” through the speakers, I know it’s time to have them serviced. If I don’t bother having them serviced right away, (the egg frying sound gradually stops as the amp warms up) I eventually start to hear distortion.
After servicing, they have always sounded noticeably better - and not just that start-up “eggs frying” sound.
So yes, I do have my amps serviced and, less often, I have had my power supplies and pre-amp serviced.
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Yes literal, but my point was the primary drivers for servicing with your analogy are quite different, and different attitudes to servicing the very different types of product are understandable, however your last thought is an interesting consideration! Indeed, if sound quality has deteriorated markedly it could drive a desire to upgrade, and even if not and upgrade is considered purely without a noticed sound quality trigger, it would make any difference between existing and new kit greater.
One thing I find interesting is that as far as I am aware the majority of amp manufacturers do not state recommended routine service recommendation, and there may be no obviously discernible sound quality deterioration after, say, 20 years or more. CDPs on the other hand in my experience seem often to have major problems after only 10 years or so of good use - but they of course mechanical. Whether routine servicing of mechanical components in CDP after, say every five or six years, or more sensibly X thousand hours (with a counter built in) would prolong overall longevity is an interesting question, and AFAIK hasn’t been suggested by manufacturers. (And that of course is more akin to essential car servicing than is amp servieing.)
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Most European and US brands sure. But nearly all Japanese brands have recapping services mentioned (and priced) on their websites. Even for lower end stuff. Denon, Yamaha, Luxman, Accuphase; they all do recapping.
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Do other high end companies suggest/offer servicing? I honestly don’t know.
If not it begs the question why Naim? I assume there’snothing unique about the basic components that make other brands impervious to time? Feels to me an honest company supports regular servicing and accepts components deteriorate rather than always selling you a new one.
Bruce
Edit, just overlapped the reply above.
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