Feel my pain!
Posted by: Bruce Woodhouse on 22 June 2008
Crisis! Our house and a couple of neighbours have been on a temporary generator supply for 10 days or so but for the last 36hrs we have had multiple flutuations and outtages despite repeated calls to the company involved. The power literally cuts out every few seconds at the moment.
Sadly my HiFi was switched on when all this started because we were out. When we got back the XPS power supply was dead and it has clearly been damaged. The rest appears to power up fine at least-but it cannot be checked properly until the power settles down. My neighbour has had several electrical devices in his dairy farm damaged too.
So I'm about to discover the qualities of the Naim Audio service department, and also battle my electricity supply company for compensation. In a brief discussion with them yesterday they said that modern HiFi should not be damaged by power failures, and they would only be liable for damage caused by a surge or similar that literally blew up every item in the house. This was a 'Sunday switchboard' to be fair so you can rest assured I'll be taking it further. I do not expect my home insurer will be satisfied with that either!
I'm going to ask Naim if they should check any of the other boxes too and cross my fingers that none of these will have been harmed.
Bruce
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Don Atkinson
Bruce
About five years ago we suffered a major power failure during a storm when the overhead line to our house (and our neighbour) broke, but "flashed" and damaged quite a few houshold appliances, including the kids' hi-fi systems (Denon, Technics etc).
I thought my Naim kit might have been damaged so sent it off to Salisbury for investigation and repair if necessary. It came back with a clean bill of health. The investigation bill for c£250 was reiimbursed to me by the electricity company's insurers with much relief (by them).....my wife had told them the replacement cost, including speakers would be over £50k!!!
They replaced the other appliances/hi-fi sets that had been damaged FoC.
Hopefully you will have a similar trouble-free experience - appart from the fact that it happened in the first place.
Good luck
Don
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Lark
Bruce, exactly the same happened to me a couple of years ago. All homes near me were on a huge generator and it surged a couple of times and the kit went dark! I took it to my nearest Naim service centre had the lot checked out, and all it was were the case fuses. Cost me, then the electric company, £25 per item, 8 in total.
I would bet the case fuses have gone.
Cheers Karl
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Lark
In addition, Bruce have them all checked. You will never rest and it will 'never sound the same' until you have. It will nag at you and ruin your listening.
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Bruce Woodhouse
I really hope it is the case fuses. Perhaps my dealer can check and change these.
The electric company are investigating but say if now power surge can be proven (rather than the constant cut-outs) they won't be responsible.
Bruce
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Lark
Bruce I would contact your dealer and see if it is the case fuses. If not Moorgate in Sheffield have a Naim service engineer (Darren) who would I am sure be happy to take a look for you. Might be an idea to give him a bell and maybe get it over in the car. This would really cut down on your musical 'down time'. Darren is a great guy and a full Naim service engineer.
Fingers crossed for you.
Cheers Karl
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by count.d
That's really annoying Bruce. You really need to get the lot back to Naim to check, even if it's only the fuses. There's no point guessing.
Hope they're ok.
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Bruce Woodhouse
Can I/should I check the case fuses myself?
Bruce
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by JonR
I came home from work one day last week to discover that there must have been a power outage during the day, because my computer was off and the clocks on the boiler and the cooker had been reset. My Naim system had been left on during the day as well so would have cut out too before coming back on, and it remains in perfect working order.
As others have suggested it could be no more than a case fuse that has blown on your XPS.
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by BigH47
quote:
Can I/should I check the case fuses myself?
If they are glass type you should be able to see if the "filament" is intact. Or use a multimeter on low ohms setting to check for continuity.
This applies to the external fuses (customer accessible), not sure what the forum police will say about you checking the internal fuses though.
Overall the best course is a local dealer though, he can check/replace fuses and power up and check your items hopefully on a stable power source.
It looks like if a worst case scenario you are going to have a problem with your electricity supplier. If they are supplying it and it screws your kit how can it not be their responsibility?
Good luck,
Howard
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by naim_nymph
Yesterday evening (Sunday) and during the early hours of this Monday morning, we had (and i counted) 9 power-cuts ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes long!
The first two caught out my naim system and computer (but no damage done) these were both properly powered down after and remained off for the rest of the evening.
It would be good if someone could offer an advance text service to warn of possible oncoming power failures, and also text us an allclear so we may turn our music back on with fear of another powercut.
nymph
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Don Atkinson
Bruce,
When I suffered my power failure above, the effect was big enough to wipe out (kill) quite a few of our other appliances. It was BIG.
I replaced a couple of fuses in the Linn and Naim kit and all the components seemed to work fine, including the speakers.
I then contacted Naim and Linn who both said the kit would be fine. However, I wanted peace of mind. I only live 40 miles from Salisbury so took my stuff down to Naim and left it with them to check it out. There was nothing worng.
I decided that the Linn stuff should also be fine and didn't bother sending it back to Glasgow. Likewise the Speakers.
The whole lot has continued to perform and sound perfect since, although i did have the power amps serviced a couple of years ago when one of them developed an instability. i don't think the instability was the result of the power failure - the events were a few years appart.
I would think that the peace of mind would be worth a trip to Sheffield
cheers
Don
Posted on: 23 June 2008 by Bruce Woodhouse
Well it was the fuse. I did not even realise that the boxes had accessible fuses. Clearly melted, and a replacement (same spec in the back of my old Audiolab) at least allowed me to power up OK. Unable to test anything properly until we get stable power but perhaps it will all be fine.
Bruce
Posted on: 24 June 2008 by Sloop John B
I'm glad it seems to merely be a fuse problem and from what Don has said above, the fuse has done its job and protected the xps.
the response from your electricity company is far from helpful but I'd imagine your insurance would cover it and then deal with the electricity company if it felt it had a claim.
hope it all works out.
SJB
Posted on: 30 June 2008 by 555
