Without sounding too arrogant - the Naim CD5 was an entry level cd player. If mechs were abundant i have no doubt that Naim would service it. But in the current state of things the only viable option is to wait for Naim to source the replacement mech (involving no engineering)
Any engineering work is just not worth it, unless you are willing to pay more than getting a brandnew CD5si. Why should Naim do the service at a loss?
Maybe starting from CDX2 - if people are willing to spend 2K or so on service - it would start to make more sense. But even then, i really doubt that it can be done without significant investement in ressources - which, as sad as it may sound, would probably be better spent in developing a new CD player altogether.
It just strikes me that at a time when there is a focus in society en general in being able to sustain things it’s ironic that superbly engineered CD players (and let’s be fair it’s not only Naim in this position) cannot be sustained for the sake of sourcing a laser mechanism. Or let’s say hypothetically, at least at this point in time, I bite the bullet and buy a Core and ND555, how long before that is redundant?
I would gladly pay a premium to have my CDS3 repaired. It is a quality machine and has been completely serviced, I have 1500 cds and have no interest in streaming. I have own 13 pieces of Naim kit currently but will not consider Naim in the future,
Perhaps should people wait a bit when the post COVID economy will reach again its normal working. Then maybe Naim will be able to find another stock of mechs.
That’s definitely likely to bring about an improvement for some of the players, I actually forget which mechs are directly replaceable, which can take a VAM1202 despite not being originally fitted with one, and which are just not fixable. I feel a table coming on… (though not soon as work is flipping nuts right now! Must not browse forum during lunch )
If it’s of any use to keep track in a nice way I’ll try and add to/maintain this one
This is the new way its done - especially by politicians. They don’t say “XXX happened.” They say, “Did XXX happen? Do we know?” They think it insulates them from the criticisms.
Naim obviously are victims of their own success. They do so much more than so many manufacturers to repair and even offer upgrades to legacy hardware. BUT WHAT ABOUT MUH CD PLAYER (where no one makes the hardware that’d be required)?
Next time I’m in Boston, about 1x yearly before COVID, food’s on me at Helmand, I’m really not a glass 15/16 empty person
Appears my posts on this thread do come across the wrong way though, they really are not intended to be any kind of knock against Naim! Speaking personally I’m just trying to understand what the options are to keep my CD player running. If there aren’t any then I’m very happy to leave it at that. I like Naim at least partially due to the serviceability and longevity of their gear, I like to think of them like Land Rovers, large proportions of them are still running etc.
Anyway, if the table helps keep track of what the options are for Naim CDP owners, I hope that helps a bit.
I’ve not been to Helmand in about 3-4 years but the food sure is good there! That neighborhood has changed a LOT! Biotech has been booming there for 2+ decades now.
(As to Land Rovers that keep running, I reference the “Car Talk” radio show (Click and Clack) and their discussion of why so many Volvos were reaching 200,000+ miles. This was back in the late 1980’s. Their answer?? "Because who wants the embarrassment and ridicule of their neighbors for having NOT gotten 200,000 miles from their Volvo. Owners make unreasonable repairs just to avoid such embarrassment!)
Since it’s the mechs which are our source of angst, what really needs to happen is for Phillips to be persuaded to make new batches of them. That’s unlikely and probably unrealistic, but there’s nowt wrong with hoping.
If they became available again, I’m sure Naim would grab all they could and then continue to keep our wonderful CDP’s going for many years to come.
I’ve had a CD3.5 from new, and upgraded to a CDS2 a couple of years ago. It’s had a laser refit since then. I’ve kept the CD3.5 purely to rob it for the mech if the CDS2 mech fails. I spoke to someone at Naim about doing this if it ever came to it. He seems to think it could be done theoretically, but in practice it might not be possible. I would have to risk losing a second CDP in order to find out. This is apparently not something they have tried yet.
To address some of the questions higher up in this thread about why Naim ‘don’t just source some more’: we’ve gone from the stage of these mechs being rare/incredibly hard to find to non-existent. They are the Dodo of the tech world.
We will continue to try and hunt down any hidden mechs - maybe there’s a ‘Lost World’ somewhere where these extinct creatures live - but in the current global supply chain/component shortage nightmare, we don’t simply don’t have the expedition resources to track them down.
It’s taking immense efforts to source components and materials for current Naim products right now, which has to be the immediate priority.
But our built-to-last ethos remains one of our core values, so we won’t give up on CD mechs.
It would be interesting to know how complicated the integration of a CD-Pro8 mech would be.
It is a new mech made by ex-Philips engineers and is widely used among good cd transports available today.
But probably something for the upcoming naim cd transport everybody is waiting for
It really would need something like this long term as the vam mechanisms have not been made for years and did not store well anyway. I personally cannot see Naim making a new ground up player. They could have continued and even developed their own like Rega, Accuphase, Marantz etc but have decided not to.
It’s worth bearing in mind that when Naim re-engineered the CDX2 to accommodate the VAM1202 in place of the VAM1250, it was far from just a drop in replacement, requiring a whole new control and servo board as well as new firmware. As with all things Naim it was a major R&D project, especially important to optimise the performance.
I am just exposing my sentimentality to the forum X)
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