So, two out of my three sources are Naim. And circa 2020. Yes, after nearly 40 years of listening to music, I have some Naim.
And one of the benefits ( for me) is that these items are maintainable by the OEM. I.e. if they do change bits for the better, they understand how these mods impact the original design.
Me, my pre and power amps are Musical Fidelity. And very nice to my ears they are too. But, and here is my point ( finally), MF are no longer interested in maintaining them. That leaves me in the hands of others. At best. MF will not even tell you the make/model of components for you to DIY. And I sort of get that when they have a service business.
My issue? My Nu vista Pre amp’s motorised selector is playing up. Noisey and when selected ( via the remote) it fails to find 2 of the inputs.
Yes, I can take it to a well known independant service provider of MF equipment. But.
So how many of us( and that includes me now) value the OEMs ability to maintain our stuff?
For me , sound signature comes first.
I bought Naim because of the sound ( that i relate).
Of course the quality of the after Sales (maintenance ) Is a plus.
I got this email from Naim back in June 2019, I can’t remember whether there was a follow up on the Qb.
“ Consistent with service options for the rest of our product ranges, we now offer a banded Mu-so repair service for a Suggested Retail Price of £200 inc VAT. This can be organised through your local retailer. Please note this new service plan only applies at present to Mu-so, not Mu-so Qb; we hope to have a dedicated plan for Qb at a later date.”
That must be something new - they serviced my circa 1990 P270 in 2015, and were still offering upgrades for many amps (though they had just stopped offering it for the Mk1 P270 at that point, I understood due to scarcity of some parts).
However my P270 only required replacement of a few components -and none of the big caps- to bring to full spec after ~25 years. Bryston amps carry a 20 year warranty, and are known for still performing well for considerably longer than that without any attention. I think the main area where servicing/repair is a significant risk in a 20+ year period is mechanical devices such as CD players, which in my experience have a much more limited life than amps before needing attention.
As Cardoso said, sound signature, intelligent design, and ease of use, are the main reasons I have Naim gear. But knowing I won’t have to trash it in 15 years if something goes wrong is very comforting as well, and cements the decision.
And I do like the way one can upgrade the SQ of a unit without having to completely change it out.
MF was sold in 2019. They are owned by the same Austrian outfit that owns Project? I guess Michael whats-his-name wanted a way out/ retirement? Yes, I can get my Nu Vista pre along to a well known servicer of MF gear that is half an hour north of Gatwick. But, if I want OEM support, it’s looking less and less likely. And certainly not in the UK. I guess what was a major part of the sale was the IPR. Which should suggest keeping yesteryears products as live? But the reality is going to third ( albeit well informed about the original design) parties if I wish to keep my MF alive going forward.
Well, not quite digital, but there are a couple of ICs inside my pre amp. Mainly concerned with driving the motorised pot as it looks, via the remote. I do hope that this IP is part of the MF sale. If not, I’m stuffed for support.
And hence back to my original piece about why we/ me buy Naim. Ongoing support.
It’s a very important aspect of a serious purchase, that I would be expecting 20 years use out of. Audiolab don’t support the English made equipment any more (they couldn’t tell me how to switch filters on an 8000DAC) which was disappointing for sure. Naim certainly have a good reputation for product support in the long term which steered me towards a NAIT 5.
As an aside Acoustic Energy were excellent in sending out a set of tweeter grilles (For 20 year old AE1s2s) FOC and quickly during the pandemic height with great communication by email. It’s nice to see that they still provide support for legacy products even though the bulk of their manufacturing is overseas now I believe.
I would think/hope that Naim has learned a lesson thru the last major software upgrade that left many Streaming/Dac units behind.
They always have the opportunity to overbuild their new products in order to future-proof them somewhat. I would think they lost some customers on that last go-around.
Also, much of the tech that became obsolete, was very new tech, and probably their first stab at it; and it was very well done.
I believe they have a much better understanding of the digital market, and customer requirements, now, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing a mass product obsolescent in the near future.
I buy it because I feel it is designed and made without compromise. The focus is only on the sound. And if this means that I can’t have speaker wires that won’t go round corners easily, then so be it.
I’ve always coveted Naim gear for the way music flows when you listen through their stuff. I have also been a proud owner of their equipment(Nait 5i and more recently a Uniti Nova)for 15 years or so now. Their reputation for after market service over many years with older components and being an English brand made over here is another.
Oddly enough, not providing good after service for things like recapping is something that European and American brands do very poorly compared to even low end counterparts in the far east. From Denon to Accurphase and everything in between, recapping pricing can usually be found on an online price list. Naim sort of stand out here as doing things properly but on a global playing field they certainly aren’t alone.
Most brands like Linn won’t mention recapping because, well, as it was explained to me way back in the 90s when I when I was in hifi retail:
If you tell customers about the realities of recapping you might scare them off. So most brands don’t do it. Customer’s don’t like to think there are ongoing costs so most brands simply pretend they don’t exist.
It’s preferable to see if you can get customers to keep buying new stuff.
Committing to long term service is committing to long term storage of spare parts. Many don’t want to do that.
For me, difficulty and expense of getting Naim serviced out of country is a major factor in me not choosing Naim for a second main system. I’m still committed to Naim for my primary listening system, but the huge effort (and honestly, risk) involved in getting stuff here or sending to Naim and back for work done makes more than one multi box Naim system untenable. If it wasn’t for the fact that nothing has to me so far delivered the same live immediacy of a Naim system, I might not even do that.
Of course in the next 5 years when no less than 8 boxes are due for servicing and recapping, depending on how painful that experience is or isn’t might change my view on how acceptable that expense and risk really is.
