Display problem

Displays can fade as they age, especially if they are left on all the time. Talk to Naim, you might be able to get it repaired under warranty.

I would also suggest setting your display to switch off after, say 30 seconds.

Also disable clock (when in mute) and other features.

For a premium product the displays seem to fault after a year or two if you don't set the display to off, my UQ display failed thankfully the part was covered under warranty but had to pay for the labour. Strange that my cheap LED alarm clock that's been running for 15 years still works, oh well....

Thank for all the replies. Indeed my display was always on in standby (clock), I did not know we can switch it completely off, the shop did not warn me. Nevertheless I think it is absolutely not acceptable to get such display problems. I never had such problem even on cheap product and even after 15 years. After clarification with the shop, Naim do not take any warranty, as the device is more than 2 years old (3 years), so this is normal on Naim devices. The exchange of the display is really expensive (20% of the new total price of the Unitilite !). This proves that Naim uses cheap components. Be careful by buying such a product ! Be careful !

I recently had my NAC-N 272 replaced with a new one as my display had "missing pixels".

They replaced it as they wanted to find out why the "missing pixels" fault occurred. I can't fault Naim for the quality of service as I was only without music from my "big system" for 3 days.

This is despite me ensuring the display was off (no clock) when the amp was muted. Also, I had the display switch off after 2 minutes.

The display on my NDS went very dim. It was a contact on a control board and a factory repair was needed. They were going to try to get the parts to the dealer because it was an easy fix but they decided to take it back to Salisbury. All fixed under warranty.

So obviously Naim has some systematic issues with the display. It is not understandable why they do not repair it at their costs, even if the warranty time of 2 years is over. As I see there are also some differences in the services offered by Naim depending on the country. 

Fair comment I think. If not in the UK you will be at the mercy of your local distributer but it's got to be worth a conversation with them. If you still feel that the service falls short of what you would expect, take it up with Naim in Salisbury.  Hopefully it will be a quick and easy fix which won't cost you.

This all assumes you bought it new. 

Not sure about the warranty for the unitilite but the UQ has a 5 year parts and 2 year labour warranty, if your unitilite is only 3 years old the part maybe covered.

Are all these cases isolated? In this thread, Pat2003 has the display issue with the Unitilite, Hifiman with his Uniqute, Lanesra with his NAC N272 and Harry with his NDS. Although the display may fade or show issues, 3 to 4 years seem to a bit short?

Personally I don't think the switching off of the display will help preserve the lifespan of it. Perhaps it is a quality case (bad batches)? 

I would expect any item of hifi equipment to have a MINIMUM of 10 years life before any problems, aside from very rare instances (indeed spending this sort of money I really would want a lifetime if I were to not plan to upgrade). From the sample presented on this forum it does appear that there might be a fundamental issue with the displays Naim are using, whether specific or generic, and I would hope and expect that Naim take this very seriously and are hellbent on resolving ASAP to have a display that is fit for the long term, and then replace any that fail FOC without quibble even outside warranty, and indeed to give a reassurance to that effect before their customers, existing or potential, get disillusioned about quality.

Typo, to *be a bit short.

Yes, I would expect that too. My Krell CD player is close to 16 years now and the display is still going strong (touch wood). It is out of warranty and parts may no longer be available though.

My display per se did not fail. It was a control board which fed it that packed up, resulting in a display which was so dim as to be unusable. I don't know if this is a common reason for display failure. I've seen IIRC two similar reports in here, one in an ND streamer.

Naim are at the mercy of their suppliers although they are scrupulous in QC. If the reject rate and  fail rate are significant I'm sure Naim have addressed it already.

My NDS arrived with a misaligned screen.  I didn't notice it at first. My dealer put Naim on notice that the unit would be back at some point for a free fix but I was loving the music that came out of it so much and using the screen so little that I practically forgot about it. Then the screen went very dim.

So I think it's fair to say that screens are an area where Naim may have needed to raise the game to hit the usual levels.

I bought my Unitlite new in 2013. As Harry suggested I will contact Naim in Salisbury. After reparation of the display (as reminder, the costs are over 20% of the new price), the distributer give me only 6 month warranty on the display. After reading all your answers I understand why.  I will let you know what Naim in Salisbury will answer me.

I will be interested to hear how they handle it. I don't think they will let you down.

So I got my Unitilite back and repaired. As it is 3 years old the warrranty is over, nothing to do. Naim answered the following: "The Display doesn’t have an inherent issue. There was no construction Failure. Yes your 2 year warranty did end unfortunately but with all warranty it will have an end date".

The facts prove the opposit as there are some people with the same issue. My advice, be careful if the display is faded or even getting slightly weaker, do not wait too long. The problem is gettig worse and worse and after the warranty time you will have to pay for the repair costs.

We are back to the conclusion that Naim uses very poor component quality making the device unsuable after 3 years.