Old Naim product Service problems

Your last sentence says that you don’t want to pay the costs for round-trip shipping (the equipment to wherever it can be serviced).

So, I’ll throw your own question back to you. How the heck do you expect to get it serviced?

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How about other countries?

It depends on the country. The Netherlands is quite good (Latham Audio); it all depends on the distributor. Some kit might need to be shipped back to Salisbury.
Are you going to get your hifi serviced? Because there are solutions out there for you, but shipping will be necessary.

I understood that he tries to find a non Naim dealer or some electronics shop to service the olive boxes inside his country.
I say to him “Good luck “ :joy:

Well, he hasn’t said that, but good luck to him indeed if that’s the way he chooses to go.

Naim will, of course, wash their hands of any equipment that has been tampered with by someone who doesn’t have Naim accreditation.

Fools and their money…!

Still, pretty harmless amusement for the rest of us!

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I wonder how much it may cost shipping a 52 and 3x 135 from South Korea to US Av options. 200/300 dollars, more ?

Naim won’t “wash their hands” of any equipment that has been serviced or modified outside of their standard. If it turns up at the factory for any service or (more likely) repair work then Naim first remove anything that’s obviously non-standard, including any sub-standard soldering and then restore to Naim’s standards. Obviously if certain parts have been damaged or removed and can no longer be replaced then that may make restoration impossible, but Naim will always try their best to restore an item.

One of the most extreme examples I recall (and I’m sure @NeilS recalls well) was the NAP250 that someone had just bought at auction and sent in for a service. Neil called the sales office and asked us to come down to the service department to take a look and tel us what was wrong with it. On the face of it, it looked perfectly fine. I think I mentioned that the wiring looked a little bit “off”, the soldering a bit scrappy and the cable ties weren’t quite right. What I completely missed though was what Neil pointed out - that the only original Naim parts were the transformer and the amp and reg boards. Even the internal sled was non-original - it had been fabricated. The most serious thing was that the material used was slightly thinner than standard, and according to Neil this would adversely affected it thermally and the thermal protection would not have operated properly. IIRC Naim gave the new owner the bad news, they took it quite well considering, and agreed for Naim to remove the amp & reg boards and transformer and rebuild them into a new/old legitimate NAP250.

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I’m sorry, Richard, if I mischaracterised Naim’s response - I was just trying to warn the OP against finding some cowboy to mangle his equipment.

The example that you give there is horrifying, and may put off some potential Fleabay purchasers looking to acquire Naim units on the cheap.

The only time that I ever bought Naim equipment from Fleabay was when I bought my AV-1 processor. When my bid won, it turned out that the seller was Grahams in London, who were the dealers from whom I bought my Naim equipment in the first place.

Xmas truce guys?

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seconded

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We always try to offer a return to Naim spec with modified equipment. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to do simply because we don’t necessarily have the parts required any more.
I certainly do remember the “fake” 250! Would have loved to hear its backstory.

Regards
Neil.

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Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think there are many companies that entertain that sort of service. Upgrading my NAC42 to a 42.5 was not possible, but the service of a 1985 NAP110 was happily. They are working very well in a second system where I am happily listening to a wonderful sounding WQXR at the moment. I hope that the service department thrives for the future and also those teams that carry out this work on behalf of the distributors

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Naim’s commitment to service must be regarded as historical and one of the key factors behind the brand’s success, so investing in maintaining this advantage over competing brands must be in everyone’s interest at Naim, not only among the long-serving Naim employees, but also in management across the channel, may we really hope!!

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its certainly a big part of why I was so interested in the brand.

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The durability of Naim equipment, even after decades of service, is part of the tradition, the image of Naim!
It’s a pleasure for Naim to refresh a nac 12, 22 … a nap 120,110,160…
In addition to the always remarkably satisfactory musical performance!

27 years ago I started Naim audio with a Nait1 and after 5 years of saving money I upgraded to a used CDS1, 32.5, Supercap and 250 and a few years later bought a 52/52PS, 135.
At that time, there was no Naim import company in my country, and I am still using Naim Audio because I was impressed by the excellent customer service of Vulian Vereker and Mark Tucker.
As the importing company changed a while ago, the old Naim Audio Service was discontinued, and it is regrettable that the old Naim had to be sent overseas while paying a lot of shipping and customs fees.

It seems a real shame that items being returned to the manufacturer for repair and ultimately sent back to the owner in another country are even subject to such charges.

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I don’t think that the OP will grasp the irony in your remarks.

I suspect I may have missed part of the conversation?

As with many things in life, we can feel hard done by (I often do!), but ultimately it is what it is, but at least there’s an option if you want to use it.