Thought it was just worth giving a shout out to the service team at Naim for their prompt responses on several serial number/history checks i’ve sent them over the last few weeks - every enquiry responded to within 24 hours. Truly excellent customer support
Now the non Naim experience…
I have a broken internal tonearm wire on my Rega RB900, called a few places…
Cheshire Audio - really helpful, suggested keep away from the ‘‘rewire companies’’ and just go to Rega service via my local agent
“Re-wire company” - probably the best known for Rega rewiring/upgrade who also sell their own TT and arms. First two phone calls eventually rang out to a recorded message to say they were busy and try again later. Third attempt got through, but the response was pretty woeful with comments of …
‘we can probably do it’,
‘send it in with a note’ ,
‘perhaps don’t send it yet as we are busy’
‘4 week turnaround’ (website states 2-4 days)
Not what i’d expect from a company thats offered Rega upgrades for probably 20 years
Local Rega (also Naim) dealer - very helpful, Rega can undertake internal and or external re-wire as required, less than 2 week turnaround and had the service prices to hand.
No surprise it will return to Rega for repair via my local dealer.
We’re often too quick to forget good service when its the norm - well done Naim
I am in the UK and had some Ayre amps that went bad and the distributor here was useless in terms of sorting any repairs. In the end my dealer took the hit and took them back. This failure was the main reason I went back to Naim where support, at least in the UK, is good. These days buying equipment from outside your home country seems expensive and is also likely to mean a deficit of support when things go wrong. Bearing in mind the size of many hifi companies that’s possibly not too much of a surprise, but a bit of a shame.
I’m in the U.S. and have no plans to buy/upgrade any more Naim gear. There have been numerous people that said I should be on a 500-series (552 at least) given my analog source. OK, I don’t want to go to 500 series, but maybe 500 series level…that for me would be the Boulder 1110/1163 (I already have 1108 phono-stage). If I get a windfall, I might just sell my 252/300/Fraim and go for Boulder 1110/1163 + HRS instead, and that would be less costly than 552/500, which I can’t audition anyway (I can audition the Boulder).
It’s truly embarrassing how they’ve basically just given up on the distributor front in North America. Some good dealers left, but I’d be extraordinarily reluctant to upgrade to more expensive Naim gear at this point knowing that North America-based service is inattentive at best.
Yes, all of those percentages, maybe all in the same week, each one being changed in the morning before being changed back each afternoon depending on what someone’s had for breakfast or just heard on a certain news channel.
