That is a different issue, and one upon which I am not qualified to comment.
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So, what? there is still no need to jump to conclusions about any other kit as servicing candidates or intervals.
I didn’t.
I said it worried some. And in the next part said I did not think Naim had departed from their general ethos. And that it was perhaps an opportunity to even strengthen this, by finding options to simply withdraw service.
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I did not say YOU did but the posts above I responded to did and that was the point I was making that you responded to. Silly pot stirring by some does not help the situation.
I am not sure what the options are one cannot partly service something any more than one can partly repair something.
Replacing the boards instead of servicing an existing board possibly is an option but given that apart from the case and a few bits the board is pretty all there is as far as the Superline is concerned. I doubt this is the easy or cheap option that some seem to think it is.
I get the disappointment but there is little point in going crazy with wild speculation folks.
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Sure, but you replied to my post. Hard to know anything else.
Also, I found it worth pointing out that the no service news wasn’t only about the Superline. Which might explain some of the ”sillyness” going on.
The power rail decoupling caps in a nac work at 24v and are rated at 35/40v.
The feedback caps in a nac work at approx 2v and are rated at 35/40v.
The life of a cap is dependent on the working voltage and the rated voltage, so the feedback caps will last way longer than the decoupling caps. I remember many years ago a forum member who serviced naim amps, stating if a nac came in for a service that contained the obsolete maroon Roderstein caps, they replaced the decoupling caps with the new blue Samwa caps, but didn’t do the same with the feedback caps. The old Rodersteins feedback caps still sounded better than the new Samwa.
So. If operating well below their voltage ratings means they are working at less than 24v, as you say, SL service after 12 to 15 years may be too conservative.
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Yes, I understand that in principle. In practice, if the PCB can’t be reliably soldered without damage, it doesn’t make much difference.
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With all due respect, this type of talk is ridiculous. Although, I figured it was coming. If the caps were initially a part of a service then they still need to be replaced. Now that you guys refuse to service it, this type of talk arises to make it seem like the caps all of the sudden don’t need replaced.
What’s next? Is Naim now going to say that any source or preamp that uses an external power supply no longer requires service after they’ve taken customers money for the past 30 years to service such products?
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Caps also have a shelf life whether they are used or not. The servicing of Naim equipment has never been because it was assumed the product would fail after 15 years. It’s to keep the products at peak performance.
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I think you will find that service in general varies depending who is doing it. You mention the preamp. Last time my kit was serviced in 2021 (bought new in 2004), all the German distributor did was a checkout of the 252 (frequency response etc) and said that it was unnecessary to service the preamp apart from a few minor issues. So all that was done changes to defective switches on power supplies and a full recapping of them plus the 300.
I never received an answer really as to what was done for the preamp service and what the interval was to perform such a service. I would have thought after 17 years the preamp did need to be serviced.
In the end it looks like the best service is provided when kit is sent back to Naim UK, but that should hardly be surprising
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If I understand correctly, the NDS can’t be serviced due to the many yellow caps location on the circuit boards:
But the ND555 also has loads of yellow caps on the circuit boards……
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So they have designed and made something that can’t be maintained ?
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They don’t need to be replaced with regard to failure.
In this situation, servicing the power supply is a very good idea.
Regards
Neil.
The statement from Naim says that due to the design, the SL, CD555 and NDS can’t be serviced (number of caps on the circuit board and risk of damage). Nothing has been said about the ND555, but the design has the same issue with numerous caps on the circuit boards.
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I suspect most on this forum are in favour of the concept of servicing, happy to pay a fair price to keep their kit factory fresh. The service team can enjoy many more years in work.
The issue is the design of some pcbs and does it allow your team to service?
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Is it possible access the ground plane at a point or various points and apply controlled heat, to pre-heat the ground plane. @NeilS
This would reduce the amount of heat that is transferred through the track during desoldering, therefore not causing any damage to the track.
So my NDS was 2013. I had screen replaced by Naim. I now have an ND555 2018. Tbh, as per separate topic, there wasn’t a great deal of difference in SQ.
The NDS had not degraded for a service, being 12 years old.
I believe source products such as CDS2 and CDS3 normally have never been serviced. Maybe had new mech. And these have been around 20 to 25 years.
And now can’t be fixed at all depending what’s wrong with them.
The Superline by the sounds of it takes a long time for caps to degrade and may be similar to Naim sources in terms of service requirements.
At least they can still repair these products.
And yes, In an ideal world we want these things to last 30 or 40 years. But what manufacturers offer that on legacy products?
So the question is what should be the service intervals be for a Superline, in terms of caps degrading? 20 years? 25 years? How long will the phonostage last?
Also can alternative caps be fitted? Can a new comparable board be made up and maybe this should cost more than what a standard service would have cost now.
The Superlines go for about £1500 to £1700 used. Do you just keep it for ten years and then buy Naim’s latest incarnation and suffer a slight hit?
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If one has a good SL, that gets you great SQ for not much £-per-year, compared (say) to 1200 hours on a £5k+ cartridge.
I like the SL enough that hope for a remedy that doesn’t involve a Ulrika or any other phono stage, but we’ll see.update will follow when I have it.
Despite all comments, I have still to hear any material improvement from the Powerline, but that may be my ears. More tests to follow on that too.
“How about a Gen II Superline in a full sized case with NPX300 power supply. MC only.”
Or any size case 
I actually subscribe to this philosophy. I believe power amps and power supplies are going to need some kind of servicing to maintain their performance long before preamps and other low voltage/power devices. Having said that, I had my 252 serviced when I sent in my 250 and SC to be serviced and DR’d, just for completeness’ sake. That’s not to say these low voltage/power devices will never need servicing, just not as frequently as their higher powered brethren.
Still wondering why the distinction between servicing and repair for the Superline because of a fragile PCB.
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