This is where your argument loses all credibility I’m afraid. What exactly did Naim do to you???
If Naim really were making “loads of cash” from servicing then don’t you think they’d be doing more of it, not less?
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I wonder why there’s shortage of parts, be it caps, dr modules, medications….
Covid is well behind
I would imagine it’s all about the cost of labour. Servicing such intricate/sensitive equipment must require a fairly high skill level, with relatively little return. The cost increases when you consider the space constraints in Salisbury.
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I take your point. OTOH, some of us have bought Naim for years (s/h and new) on part because we knew of the remarkable (and probably unrivalled) approach to servicing everything that they can service.
No one needs to believe or allege that there is a suit-driven or PE-driven outrage taking place to be surprised and saddened to find that Superlines have just joined the short list of ‘Can’t’z
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It’s the “loads of cash” comment. I speak from experience when I say the servicing department is probably the least profitable part of the operation, and quite likely a PITA to keep going.
That said, if this move away from servicing continues then I’m most likely out.
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shortage, the new way to explain higher prices and bigger profits. Some luxury brands are built on the business model of limited number products.
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High inflation, geopolitical instability in the Middle East, Ukraine, China/Taiwan still presents challenges to the global supply chain.
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I speak from experience working on electronics, which includes Naim, for the past 20 years. They are absolutely making money on servicing product; as they should. Anyone who believes otherwise is naive.
Have you ever heard of AV Options? That guy created a whole career around servicing Naim products. I suppose you think he isn’t making money either.
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How many people does he employ? What are his overhead and R&D costs? Sounds like a one man band picking up the pieces.
I think it is you who is naive.
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One look at Naim’s financials, their scale nowadays (FYE23 T/O £39M), their history (which at points in time has involved external consultants) and the background of PE ownership, should inform that they won’t be undertaking non-profitable activity i.e. after full and comprehensive cost-centreing and income allocation. Plus, we all know components are often very cheap (more pence than pounds), and the primary cost is the labour input.
Of course, the accounts won’t break this out, as it will be commercially sensitive. And service work is usually intrinsically cash generative (often highly so), as there is little/no payments & stocking funding lag in the cycle.
Plus, and very importantly, in accounting practice, if you know you have a commitment to delivery of ‘loss-making’ ‘servicing’ upon sale of an item, then your accounts should reflect a provision for this in the P&L and balance sheet data (i.e. as entreating a loss-making commitment).
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AV Options charges 2-3 times what Naim charges.
Opportunity cost alone makes a significant dent in what they take in for service. If servicing was such a great deal, all audio manufacturers would do it. I view Naim’s service set up as more of almost a lifetime warranty/servicing similar to what optics manufacturers used to do but now are often requiring pretty minimal payment for. Legacy servicing is what probably gets talked about at the owner’s meeting as “brand promise”. Similar in fact to this website you are using 
.
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I don’t wish to get involved with the wider politics within this thread, but I feel it’s neccessary to defend the Naim Service Department in light of some of the previous posts:
It may be possible to replace the caps in the Superline - if you’re lucky. As has already been quoted, Chris at AV Options said “it’s a PITA, this will be the last one I do & often the board is replaced”.
The fact remains, that the risk of board damage is too great.
The use of soldering aids such as low melt solder & fancy fluxes may well help, however, we work under strict practices. The use of such products are prohibited at Naim due to sound quality & (or) H&S issues. For example, certain flux
cleaners destroy polystyrene capacitors & therefore a blanket ban on their use exists.
I think it’s both unfair & frankly, offensive to question the abilities of the technicians involved - we work daily on far more complex repairs. Yes it may look simple on the face of it, but unless you have direct experience, please be respectful & think about what you type.
Regards
Neil.
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I gotta chip in here - PCBs are cheap! The cost of the parts in a Superline is a small fraction of the purchase price and the PCB is a small proportion of those parts. A run of (cheap) single layer PCBs could be made from a Chinese/Taiwanese/Malaysian, etc, etc company for pennies.
I’m not buying “it’s cost prohibitive”. I will buy “because we don’t want to be bothered”!
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Apologies if I am missing something (not a SL owner), but it appears these were still being sold new this year as its in the price list below.
Presumably this is an old design, so it’s understandable from a support point of view, the design does not lend itself to being serviced as Neil has said. I don’t see Naim going to China to put together a potential inferior product (remember all the long discussions about the NC200 series being made outside the UK). However if they were making them earlier this year in house, knowing now that they are not serviceable, wouldn’t it make sense for the manufacturing team to put together some more fully made up boards in preparation for future support/service needs, then the user would be given the option of a repair/PCB-swapout whereby a swap out would be a fully Naim build board, but could cost say £1k - wouldn’t that be profitable and give people who have paid £3k somewhere to go. This would assume that manufacturing team have the capacity, which of course they may not given the new NC’s over the last year plus who knows what’s coming down the line
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I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen anyone state the service department lacks skill. Your defensiveness seems misguided. Most are upset that you haven’t come up with a solution such as allowing a board replacement in place of service instead of just letting the product degrade.
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Oh it’s there - look again. I won’t name names.
Regards
Neil.
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Vertere solved this conundrum for me.
Richard, Elna caps in the SL are no longer made.
I am sure that was also a consideration.
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I realized I gave an unintended and inappropriate dig to AV Options and that was really unnecessary…I deleted that above.
I’d point out that AV Options charges $2500 to service a Superline…60% of the cost of new…enough said.
Perhaps a solution would be for Naim to simply charge the cost of new, Naim UK built (Chinese made? Sheesh) boards, or even a discount on a new Superline, if an extensive service isn’t possible.
There’s no stated commitment by Naim to service their products…it is entirely at their discretion. I for one am grateful they do so on the substantial majority of their great gear. I’d say we should thank our lucky stars since the sale that they continue to do so.
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So at least you have a work around for the arm.
Does it still motor boat even with the updated SC DR when the earthing wire is attached?
Do you know what modification they did to your SC DR?