I would like to find out why they stopped servicing.
Mine was the early serial out of the first batch came to the US and I only recapped last year due to the motor boating issue.
AV Option did not think it needed it but after numerous attempt to fix the unstability issue he decided to recap. I recall he was telling me that mine would be the last one he’s doing to manually recap because apparently it is a royal PITA to do it. He often just order the entire board for most instead.
So possible that NAUK no longer has labour to execute skilled servicing or not cost effective to supply the whole board. Either that or the caps used no longer available.
If NAUK does not service would they let anyone else service the unit? Or at least give authorised repair center a technical assistance? Or are they just washing their hands entirely? If it’s a parts availability issue, I am certain that there are plenty of NOS same caps out there could be secured.
I have a love hate relationship with my Superline. The motor boating I thought we fixed just came back a few weeks ago. Now I am at a loss to fix it fearing this is a fundamental design issue of the unit.
P.S. In case of a CD555, mine is still going strong but the availability of BB1704, laser etc is worrysome as the existing supply is dwindling every year.
I got rid of my CDS2 this year for various reasons. Lack of maintainability and reliability being two of them.
Sadly it seems Naim can no longer service or repair some of their products.
The Superline is a surprise as I would have thought Naim would have supplies for repairs and servicing for each Superline, being a OC box and not that old by Naim standards.
Is it now best to buy new? It does bring in to question Naim products overall. The problem is sinking in more now.
I only experience the motorboating when I used it with a Korf arm last year, never with the Aro or Schröder. But on contacting Naim they said there was a mod for it so I sent the superline in this May, meanwhile using a stageline N and SUT. The Schröder’s also been away for a lost channel that I couldn’t fix.
The superline came back and I used it with the Aro again so naturally no problem but when I got the Schröder back I managed to trigger motorboating on that, turns out that though I appeared to have both channels again they were actually joined together and also to the ground wire. During my investigation, initially to track down a hum, I found that the superline ground post now has a coupke of Ω between it and chassis ground, which the 552 does not so maybe Naim’s motorboating mod it to lift the ground slightly.
The Schröder is on its way back to Berlin at the moment and the Aro is awaiting a reply from Naim support before I attempt to resolder the cartridge clip I broke of, I now think when I was removing it from a Denon 103.
I’m reluctant to plug the Korf into the superline again just yo test it, that deck is working nicely at the moment and is the only one left.
The decision has been made purely because of the likelyhood of PCB damage. In the case of the Superline, it looks like it would be an relatively easy task. Several people have tried across the PCB & service department, myself included. I thought “hold my beer” whilst accepting the challenge - it didn’t go well. Some of the caps come out quite easily, others not so.
The last thing we want to do is damage boards & complete PCB replacement is not sustainable from a service perspective.
Thanks for the update Neil. Well, that’s that. I can imagine that people scattered when the work was handed out in the service dept if a Superline came in.
Anyway, for old times’ sake, do you fancy one final go?
I’ve heard back from Naim, and it’s just as Neil says. The problem is that it’s been found to be all too easy to damage some of the PCB tracks and with the SMT mix on the NDS and CD555 in particular it can write off an entire board. In spite of this, Naim have decided though to continue undertaking repairs on these products.
So the question is why is this just now becoming an issue? It’s not like the Superline is a new product, so how is it that it use to be serviced without risk of damage but no longer the case? This isn’t making much sense to me, or am I missing something?
Good stuff there Dan. The Superline does sound good, inital thoughts are it is different to the last one. I’ll have a good listen when at home friday. No plans to move it on at all, it was bought at a fair price, so no complaints. A lot of people rave about it, so it can not be all that bad, serviced or not. Clearly naim have had some issues servicing these units.
I think they’re trying to force consumers into their new styling and lifestyle products.
They do appear to have rode rough-shot over their traditional consumers with existing products.
New record deck, with no thought for replacement cartridges. New range of products without cables to connect with traditional products. Lack of servicing on traditional products. Website, not knowing where it is.
The caps are actually Elna RJH series which are also discontinued or at least almost impossible to obtain.
However, they have quite a long life rating of 5,000 hours at 105 C .
Theory states the 5,000 hours life doubles for every 10 degree reduction in temperature so even if they run as warm as 45 C that would double their life six fold so 10,000 hours then 20,00 hours then 40,000 then 80,000 then 160,000 hours then 320,000 hours or 36.5 years.
I would consider 30 years to be a realistic maximum.
It has been a known issue since servicing of Superlines has been requested, during the limbo period before the current decision, the whole PCB was likely replaced. As said though, this is not a sustainable solution.
Yes. It was basically adding a Zobel network and whilst it stopped the motor boating the sound was dire. So this bandaid was no cure.
The simplest another band aid is to add more capacitance which makes the unit stable again it kills the music. I prefer not to use a capacitative plug.
What loading are you using with yours?
Are you using with a Supercap or Supercap DR?
I recall Richard mentioning that SC connection sometimes make the Superline unstable. I do not recall he meant DR or non DR SC.
You can ruin the whole PCB whilst you are recapping? You do not have enough trained staff?
I am not understanding because it looks pretty easy things to do from looking inside.
Too many mistakes and you do not want to waste the PCB boards. That’s it?
Well, my Superline came back just fine from AV Options. Chris West recapped it. So if he could do it why not Naim UK staff? What am I missing here?
P.S. Also what is a standard Superline service intervals? I read somewhere that it does not require it as frequent as a power amp or preamp. Any truth to this?
I assume it’s not profitable to keep replacing the entire PCB board but then this type of operational cost should be included into the unit cost. I do not mind paying extra to ensure the longer term service.
I’m sure you’d prefer it working!