Output signal dead (NDX 2)

Pardon me, but who is Steve Sells?

Steve is chief electrical designer, he designed the Statement amps and new streamers.

Not really, they should do over a million switching events, no way of predicting which ones will fail.At some point this supplier will get edged out and a new circuit design brought in. My nd555 failed, i was given a new one immediately. Its the way its resolved by Naim and the dealer that is important to me.

I agree, and that works great in the UK. If it goes in New Zealand on a new unit youā€™d be waiting 6 months or more for a replacement.

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That is not good at all

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Amazing they disclose such information in front of a customer. You cannot do this in many branchesā€¦

I think Naim were pretty upset with this supplier after working for 3 weeks to prove the defect was a bad batchā€¦and then ignored.

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Touch Wood @Mike_S ā€“ where you live one doesnā€™t really want to send Naim gear back to the mother-ship too oftenā€¦ :wink:

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Well, from an industrial perspective, if Naim have sold x-amount of units and more than 1 fail because of this part, then we are far far away from Six Sigma. In fact, without having a clue, I estimate, they sell less than 10 units NDX 2 a week in Germany and assuming, it was released a few months ago, you do the math if there were - say - 5-10 fails. That would be an outrages equation in all industrial environment and heads were to roll.

Enter the HIFI world: Testing, testing, testing! And not Beta testing in the field. When looking at the price of this unit, it should bare a hell of a margin and thus provide enough patience to make it sustainable. Looking back at my high maintenance HDX unit I owned a couple of years ago, I am astonished, they still run into part failuresā€¦

Still way to go. But to say the least, the sound is amazing! Loving it.

Probably if the industrial environment is German, not in the case of Spain, and I would not know in the UKā€¦

However, it only confirms additionally the Systems Theory, which already anticipates that any complex system is as vulnerable as it is the most vulnerable of its parts, both our Biosphere and the NDX2 or any otherā€¦ I personally touch wood, because with the price they show and the money they cost, I hope that mine, with barely a month, will become obsolete before failing so loudly; In addition, I wonder what will happen if the random failure occurs out of warranty, at an advanced stage of its useful lifeā€¦

I donā€™t think these faulty relays are random failures but rather they are early-life failures caused by bad manufacturing practices or design tolerance errors by the supplier of the relay component.

Typically with that sort of failure, if it survives the first few hundred hours of use, it probably isnā€™t going to fail.

In any case Naim is renowned for its servicing and its willingness and ability to repair things for far beyond the normal commercial life of the product.
Best
David

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Thank you, David; that calms down a little bitā€¦

Yes, in my short experience and relationship with the brand, I would say that this is true, and also reassures another littleā€¦

Iā€™ve been enjoying my brand new NDX 2 for a couple of days.

This morning all was working fine. I let it go into standby by itself.

This afternoon, one channel on RCA was dead after coming out of standby. Swapping cables maintained the fault at the output of the NDX 2. Havenā€™t had a chance yet to check DIN out. Tried a power down: no luck. Tried software swap from RCA to DIN outputs and back: no luck. Internet search brought up this thread.

Iā€™ve contacted the dealer, so weā€™ll see what happens now. Iā€™ll keep you posted.

I understand faults happen early on a lot of electronics kit. Iā€™m an electronic engineer. My Meridian 808 also failed after a few days but has been fine for over 10 years since being initially repaired. This NDX 2 was a refurbished unit (less than a couple of months old) so itā€™s already been back to the factory once. I would have hoped that theyā€™d have swapped out any components from a ā€œbad batchā€ already. Of course Iā€™m jumping the gun on the diagnosis, but the symptoms match.

Iā€™m worried about 2 main things:

  1. If this is a bad design of relay, what happens after 2 years, because extended warranty isnā€™t available outside the UK
  2. how will I get kit exported to the UK and back through customs after Brexit without a lot of hassle.

Naim have got a great reputation for repairing virtually anything theyā€™ve ever made of virtually any age. But if these output relays keep on packing up, and an alternative component requires a board change, its could be a rough ride.

Letā€™s hope itā€™s something simple like dry solder joint ā€¦

It may be a stuck relay. Itā€™s unfortunate, but it can happen, and if it does, it most usually happens within the first yearā€¦ unfortunately. But, it could be something else too. Of course, with things like this itā€™s why the product is warranted by Naim and your dealer, so hopefully it will be sorted out for you quickly.

Yeah, I accept that this sort of thing happens in electronics manufacture all the time. I wonā€™t speculate further until I know more. If itā€™s going to fail, Iā€™d like it to fail whilst under warranty :wink:

Naim are suffering relay failures from their supplierā€¦they should do a million switches or more before failure. They are well aware of the problem and other relays do not sound as good. So its a long term fix needed.

Same happened on my Supernait 3 coming from Mute. One side totally dead. Seems like a weak component.

I had a slightly similar problem with mine a couple of months ago, but it was the digital output I lost. A factory reset cured it.

I got a replacement unit back from the dealer which has indeed cured the problem. The failure of the original refurbished unit was indeed due to a failed relay. So Iā€™m happy with the quick fix, but Naim really need to get this issue under control because it brings up all sorts of questions about resale value, repair costs, and what happens once the warranty runs out. In Europe thatā€™s just 2 years rather than the 5 years extended warranty in the UK.

If you register your product youā€™ll get a 5 year warranty in continental Europe too. At least in Germany. But anyway, youā€™re right, this issue needs to be solved.

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