The prices do seem high and will affect the value of non DR products.
I noticed this when I was looking for a used 555DR.
People have been (and still are) asking asking £3000+ for non DR models and are seeing little interest. Given that the cost for a DR upgrade and service is £2500 this brings the cost to £5500 or more which is too much. Even a used price of £2500 for a non DR CD555 seems high given that a used DR version can be had for £4500.
Here you go Matt…
When my HC2 was revealed as faulty a few years back my dealer immediately gave me a new HC2 DR and I paid the difference. A bargain compared to buying new and also why I’ve never gotten around to upgrading my XPS2 to a DR.
A Supercap will cost the best part of 2k to service and DR
A fair new used SC dr can be bought for 2k
That effectively makes a none dr SC worth what?
Nothing …for anyone who is looking for a DR
Thats pretty much where i came out on dr upgrades, i bought a 250.2 that had been dred and part exchanged…it was a steal for me, as for the former owner, not so good i would presume
Not many decent SCDRs around for 2k.
I was considering an older Supercap a few months ago, and prior to the new pricing/servicing requirement it might have been a good route to buy then upgrade to DR - problem was the older SC had been recently serviced so having to pay for another service within a short space of time would have been completely silly - you’d think if there was proof of a service in recent years they might drop the service requirement for the upgrade.
2 separate 2018 Supercap DR’s didn’t sell for £2500 on a well know auction site at the weekend. One dealer one private.
Exactly. The case and transformer are about the only things left unchanged.
Think of it as a new HCdr with a GBP400 discount.
Does a transformer loose some capacities after years ?
Not really - if it gets really, really old and is exposed to heat, some of the insulation might degrade and you could see a short, but this would likely take decades and would be more of a sudden death than gradual deterioration.
Thanks for all the responses to my original post but still nobody has answered the other all important question I asked, that being…“Is there a big difference in the SQ of a DR’d HiCAP over a non-DR’d HiCap? I suspect it’s a law of diminishing returns for your £1000 outlay though”. After all this is what’s most important. Getting a HiCap DR’d is an expensive exercise if the improvements are minimal.
I honestly believe that Naim have made a schoolboy error in the pricing they have imposed, especially given how many people have recently serviced units that are good for another 10 years or more, but just fancy the DR upgrade. I do believe that a HicapDR is significantly better than the non-DR version, but that is not a reasonable price to ask many owners to pay, and it smacks of a company that is run by its accountants to me. Sorry, Naim, I feel bad about using the forum that you are good enough to host to level criticism at you, but do the maths!
Hey Chrissu, just curious. You had some time ago the Chord Dave with nap 250 dr. You wanted to sell the 282. And now you have the ndx2. You run it with the Dave ?
Well I had the chance to compare them side by side few years ago
The bottom line is the HCDR is much better. Personally I think having heard both, I could only be happy with a HCDR.
That’s because the DR technology has 30 times lower noise floor than previous HC. This is really audible !
Hope that answers the OP question
Whether worth 1000 gbp. I was lucky that I didn’t have to make that choice as I bought a brand new HCDR.
I don’t know. Mobile phones cost 1000 gbp will be obsolete and lose much of that 1000 gbp purchase price.
Does it stop anyone buying another 1000 gbp mobile in the next 4 years?
As Richard says nice to have the choice.
If one cannot sell the HC2 then at least one may upgrade at the factory.
The HC2 still works, can be serviced and does the job.
It’s isn’t obsolete or redundant or stopped working.
It can be paired with all kinds of naim preamps old and new
Isn’t that wonderful ?
I response to your post Chris I don’t think it’s unreasonable to criticise (if that’s the right word) Naim on a forum it hosts because it’s of mutual benefit to both company and their customer. It’s important they listen to their customers. Look at the waning popularity of some other brands for not doing that. Naim get far more right than they get wrong though. Linn no longer host a forum. Overnight they unilaterally decided they will no longer support, service or repair CD players leaving a whole generation of their customers out on a limb. One of the main reasons I’ve ended up here. I won’t ever be buying any more Linn products. Musical Fidelity were another one. They were churning new products out like nobodies business. They were expensive but as a sweetener they offered their products to existing customers at a good discount. Only 6 to 12 months down the line the same products were in the bargain bin and way below the offered price. A lot of unhappy MF customers. They moved their production out to the far East to take advantage of their cheaper production facilites but that was never reflected in the price of their new products. Once you lose the loyalty of your customer base then it’s hard, if not impossible, to get it back. As long as Naim listen to their customers feedback (both good and bad) and respond to it they’ll have a successful business. After sales service (often lacking with lots of companies) is massively important to its customers.
As far as I know Naim’s service dept just about covers its cost and doesn’t make much profit. This certainly was said to be the case in the past…
@Devil_20,…Very good opinions you highlight here.
Linn doesn’t care about all their customers from the 1980s and 1990s.
We who made so that their business can grow.
I share your opinion,.it is many,many in Sweden,.who doesn’t even want to take the name Linn in their mouth any more.
And now I’m talking about those who’ve been real Linn-fanatics.
Exactly,.and the “nail in the coffin” for many,many was how Linn handled the question of the “LP-12 Radikal Problem”
Very sad that Linn,.with their actions.chosen to destroy their good reputation in front of so many.
/Peder🤔
When I bought my preloved 552/500 the job sheets showed 5 hours for each along with the parts.
At £8,500 to service and DR both, I will wait another 12 years at least.
I’m not suggesting that DRing is not worth it, but the gap very much depends on setup and with hearing diminishing it may not be noticeable.
Phil
