Can anyone speak to the effectiveness of fascia replacements for chrome bumper gear? Are there any “tricks of the trade” to be aware of?
I run a 32.5/hc/250 in the living room. My thoughts occasionally turn to a future when we have enough space for me to get Naim floor standers like SL2s and potentially going active. From time to time I see CB hicaps and 250s for sale that look great but for yellowed logos. The logos on my gear are proper silver. I would want everything to match if I expanded the system.
Yellowed logos have nothing to do with age. At a certain point in fascia supply, the silver/white was yellow, or went yellow quickly. I have come across older units that are pure silver/white, and later units that are all exactly the same yellow. There is no way to change the yellow logos other than buy a replacement 3rd party one, or buy a unit with silver/white logo.
From what I can make out, the fascias that were prone to going from silver/white to gold with age were the first ones that came with material change around 1985-6.
Class A had some new full-width chrome bumper fascias made up with Naim’s consent. Naim even took some to repair chipped fascias, such as my own CB NAP250 which had not just a golden logo but also some minor edge chipping. With a new replacement fascia fitted it now looks good as new.
Beware any other 3rd party fascias. Most have not even sought, let alone received, Naim’s approval.
Thanks guys. Yeah, part of the reason I find myself looking at gear that has yellowed logos is I am focused on the later years of chrome bumper, I.e. 1985-89 so it’s somewhat hard to avoid the 1985-86 runs given the tight window.
It’s great to know the fascias can be replaced without compromising the cosmetics. It seemed like maybe it would be a risk since the they appear to peel off/stick on (I could be wrong) rather than something that slots in place mechanically.