Does a service make the item as good as new?

Posted by: Consciousmess on 12 November 2017

I bought my HDX second hand and promptly upgraded fully with a service. Now I don’t know if this occurs with the recent fad of streamers, but I quite regularly need to unpower and reboot. Sometimes the ‘turning off’ gets locked in the fan cooling (unless I’m too impatient). The sound is fine and there are no issues, but does this lack of smooth running occur:

1) Because servicing doesn’t restore the product?

2) Streaming devices have this implicit flaw?

Posted on: 12 November 2017 by Claus-Thoegersen

What do you mean by on power. If you do not shut down the correct way, from the rmote, or the touch screen menu or the button I suppose also is on the hdx,  you run a risk for damaging the hdx. The servers should not need to be rebooted to run optimally. I only power down when I want to because of changes in the system or to protect the system or because I go away for a long period of time.

Claus  

Posted on: 12 November 2017 by Consciousmess

Well, today it said ‘System Failure’ even though it was successfully playing music. But I couldn’t change anything so pressed the off button on the HDX, it then took a while but powered down. I then rebooted but wondered whether the error was a sign the device is ageing and malfunctioning!

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by David Hendon

I don't think it's ageing as such, but it does sound like you may have a fault.You could give Naim technical support a call (they may ask you to connect a VGA display to the socket on the back of the unit so you can read any error messages as it starts up or when it hangs.)

best

David

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by blythe

My HDX usually runs for months on end with no issues.
Very occasionally, if a CD fails to be recognised, a reboot will make the CD readable.
System failure suggests something amiss, possibly a loose internal connection or the motherboard button battery "might" be low.

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by Consciousmess

Hadn’t thought of that, Blythe (motherboard battery). I hope Naim does another upgrade to the HDX as it is a brilliant machine - storing ones own music locally and not dependent on the Internet.  Maybe further RAM upgrade, bigger hard drive, perhaps volume levelling for playlists, meta data improvements??

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by David Hendon

There was a posting a couple of days ago from RJStaines who fixed a CMOS battery issue in his NS01, which he said is similar internally to the HDX.

As to future updates for the HDX, my bet would that there won't be any. Naim have set out that the UnitiCore is a "Reference level" ripper/server (although it needs work to legitimately claim to be that). The HDX uses embedded Windows XP, which doesn't give Naim a way forward that would make investing more development effort in the HDX worthwhile, even if the hardware justified it, which I doubt. Maybe a super-Core could be a possibility though one day.

In the meantime, the HDX and the other old servers are just as good as they ever were, so just enjoy!

best

David

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by Clive B
David Hendon posted:

In the meantime, the HDX and the other old servers are just as good as they ever were, so just enjoy!

best

David

Absolutely agree. I am very lucky to have a NaimNet NS01. This has a 2TB internal drive with a second HDD of the same capacity onto which the first drive is backed up. Apart from the Windows XP 'issue' I think it is a marvellous unit. The mechanism seems sound to me too, it having a drawer loading mechanism, which I much prefer over the slot type. I cannot understand why there concepts weren't retained for the new range. 

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by David Hendon

I think it's all about keeping the cost down. A slot loading CD drive will cost a small fraction of the custom-made drawer unit and save hundreds of pounds on the retail price, quite apart from also enabling the Core and Star to be the size they are.

best

David

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by Clive B
Clive B posted:
David Hendon posted:

In the meantime, the HDX and the other old servers are just as good as they ever were, so just enjoy!

best

David

Absolutely agree. I am very lucky to have a NaimNet NS01. This has a 2TB internal drive with a second HDD of the same capacity onto which the first drive is backed up. Apart from the Windows XP 'issue' I think it is a marvellous unit. The mechanism seems sound to me too, it having a drawer loading mechanism, which I much prefer over the slot type. I cannot understand why there concepts weren't retained for the new range. 

Sorry, that was meant to read 'I cannot understand why THESE concepts weren't retained for the new range'.

I realise it wouldn't have satisfied the size constraint, but a compromise too far IMHO.

Posted on: 14 November 2017 by Gazza

I guess the fact that it does not play a cd more than once is a large factor in the decision. My Core has been used 900 times, probably will get used a few hundred times more, but not tens of thousands?