VAM1202 mechs

Any news from naim on availability of these to service cds3 and other naim cd players that use them? There was a post recently about this but it has expired. Read elsewhere that someone asked about the cdx2 replacement mechs and that they are now available again. Any confirmation of this? thanks, Mario.

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I would guess that your dealer is best placed to make this enquiry direct with Naim on your behalf. Will be from the horses mouth that way.

Perhaps @NeilS can give an update?

I had a laser replaced/repaired for my CDS2 a couple of years ago and was told by Naim that if the mech itself dies then it’s game over.

Could Naim provide some clarity over what exactly is available and for which machines please. It would give peace of mind for owners and potential buyers alike.

It would help our understanding if we knew who was making them….
philips bailed out. Are they made under license by someone?

This. :+1:
It would make it clear for all Naim CD player owners exactly what the situation is with mechs.

Philips haven’t made them for many years…

I’ll ask @Naim.Marketing for an official update after the holidays.

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I emailed Naim about a month ago regarding this issue as my CDX2 is unable to play/read most CD’s now and was informed that Naim will still be able to source the VAM 1202 mech at some point in the future but they are not currently sure when that will be.

Advice given to me was to get back in touch in a couple of months time for a further update.

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I read maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago, from Naim staff member here, that Naim can’t provide, for now, mechs for CDS3.
It’s not the same mech as in CDX2 ?

The 1202 is indeed used in both. The CDS3 originally had the VAM 1250 (with the rubber puck), but that one is long gone and replacements have used the 1202 since 2009 or so.

It has been longer than a few weeks that we were informed by NeilS that the 1202 was unavailable at the time and that Naim was investigating options, but not very long ago. Maybe they have been successful since.

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I found the post. It was a copy and paste of a message that @Mario received from Naim. The message was saying that CDS3 mechs are no longer available. The message was from beginning March.
( thread : « Cds3 mechs » ).
But as you said, we are several months later. Maybe it is or will be not the case .

There was more than one thread I think, I remember this one

In one that I am cannot find, NeilS was investigating and came back with the info that there were current supply issues, partly due to Covid, and Naim was looking for replacements. So maybe that worked

I have a CD5XS which is about 8 years old now which I use as a transport into an Ndac which is a lovely combination, it would be nice to have a definitive response from Naim on what the longer term serviceability is for all their cd models so Naim silver disk users have some idea how long they might be able to keep their players operational

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The place I found reference to cdx2 mechs was in the system pics thread yesterday by a user called “mij29” this person said that he recently spoke to naim and they said that mechs were available for a very long time. Now is “recently” before the last word from naim about the VAM1202 or after? that is the question.

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I spoke to technical support at Naim after Peter Swain warned of the risks of relying on CD as a source in the future. This was in December last year, and I was told that only the original CDS was unserviceable and that there would be no problem for newer players such as the CDS3 and CDX2 well into the future.

It sounds as this advice might now have changed and Peter was right after all… :anguished:. We certainly need Claire Newsome to possibly comment and put us all in the picture…

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ok the latest word from naim was only a couple of months ago so looks like the status quo has not changed , no mechs.

Although it’s a couple of years or so ago now, during a forum visit to the factory, the then Managing Director Trevor Wilson told me that the reason they had just stopped manufacturing the CDX2 was so that they would have enough mechanisms in stock to be able to service existing CDX2s for a period of at least 10 years.

Best

David

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The problem is that you have no idea about any increase in demand for your spares or the yield you’ll get from what you have packed away in stores. The latter is perhaps the biggest problem as yields of mechs that meet standards can dramatically decrease after years in storage. In the worst case you get entire batches that are unusable.

Yes I remember Trevor saying that Naim had taken this sudden action because the yield of acceptable mechs from the batches they had in stock was lower than expected.