As probably many know now, there’s no service anymore for Superline, NDS, and CD555.
You can just send for repair. For more information, you can read the thread about Superline service disappointment, actually running.
NDS was in the list for service, till some days. So I presume Naim considers it needs one. However, as powered by an external ps, I wonder what needs service. Or perhaps it’s not mandatory.
I have what I feel is a related question that’s occurred to me after reading your initial post. Does adding an external power supply extend the time before needing a service for ndx2/ndac/222/333? Maybe all these extra power supplies we are buying could actually save us money
Benefits most, I agree. But still, we don’t know really if the Nds, and all streamers, even powered by a ps, degrade after some years, like after 12/15 years. @dmu has a similar question.
You already know the answer to your question. Naim is simply causing confusion and choosing to ignore direct questions such as this to make you second guess what they’ve preached for years. Yes, the NDS should be serviced. It has a lot of tantalum capacitors that degrade over time. Tantalum capacitors are used in almost every product they make and they always get replaced during a service.
It sure would be interesting to hear from Naim if the ground plane in the ND555 is different than the ground plane in the NDS in so much as it is unproblematic to service the ND555 but not the NDS.
In any case Naim should have known the issue with the ground plane since they build these things for a living and also service them and have done so since the dawn of age.
There was back in Aug 2023 a few comments about Statement servicing. Steve Sells commented that the HQ system was 9 years old and going strong, they might compare to a new set in a few years to decide on the servicing interval. Begs the question how much thought has gone into servicing them?
The " engineering " should cover full product life cycle not just initial design.
Im thinking that naim have not given much consideration to maintaining the item during the design. Their older products used single layer boards and well spaced components. New items appear more congested and may be multi layer. Component level servicing may be near impossible, leaving board layer swap out the only option.
Well, maybe not, and an “investigation” is underway, whatever that means. But we are talking about a company who’s whole business model and reputation is built around the ability for servicing and longevity.
For what it’s worth, Latham Audio (the Benelux distributor), had told me that there is no service for the nDAC and the streamers when I inquired about the servicing costs back in December 2023. Obviously that contrasts the official information from Naim, with all these items listed under Band 7.
Also have a look at the posts in this discussion:
PS: No DACs/Streamers in the AVOptions Service Pricelist either. It seems that some clear guidance from Naim on these products wouldn’t hurt after all.