Ex demo purchase

secondhand to me

4 years old no warrenty.

If it's only been used in the shop for demos, then it's ex-demo. It always pays to do your research and negotiate accordingly. If you are not happy, you can ask for a refund, though I don't think you are entitled to one. 

Apart from the obvious question of why you didn't ask the age (someone had to say it) it does seem rather old for ex demo unit.  Does the price you paid reflect its age and did they provide a good warranty ?

Two good questions above. If you got what you paid for, then it was fair. Four years is a long time to have something on demonstration but it's not unheard of and not automatically dodgy. Naim stuff tends to be long lived. My dealer had a demo 500 which dated back some years. I expect they have a nice shiny DR one now.

Does it have the original hard drive? I can't remember when the current 2TB version came out, but I would want to know the ags of the drive.

...and don't forget to sort out a backup for it.

I see you've registered the product with Naim as it is an ex demo I would check with them to see if it qualifies for the extended  5 year parts warranty if so does it start from the date of purchase or manufacture ?

tonycurran1 posted:

secondhand to me

4 years old no warrenty.

That sounds a bit mean. Some dealers will offer a warranty, even on second hand gear. 

That's just Tony's assumption. The facts may be entirely different. 

I didn't ask the age because I made an assumption,incorrectly, that ex demo meant almost new. I only have myself to blame for this . whereas most adverts I see give a serial number or year this had neither,  with good reason it seems. It was relatively inexpensive, getting on for half price , so you get what you pay for. The warranty card is for 5 years so can't be too bad. Does anyone actually fill in all that stuff on the card.? 

I am not looking for a refund, just  curious. I did email the dealer querying the age of the unit but their impeccable customer service pre sale has gone very quiet. ��

Some dealers do hold onto some demo kit for a few years, particularly a UnitiServe which has all their demo music on and is a bit of a pain to swap out.

The UnitiServe is the only Naim component that has shown it is more prone than other components to break down. Do a search on here, mine has been to hospital three times now. That is not a reason to avoid one though as they are extremely convenient and the Naim back up service is superb. However it is a good reason to seek a decent warranty period considering the initial 5 yr warranty only has a year to run.

I would also have asked for details of the breakdown and repair history, if indeed there is any as Naim appear to have nailed some of the hardware issues and fixes tend to be more permanent these days (according to my dealer).

BTW, just over half price for a 4 yr old ex demo Naim component from a dealer ain't a bad deal. Do remember though that the UnitiServe is about to replaced by the new Uniti Core. Still - not a bad price IMHO.

So long as it comes with the warranty you'll be fine, as UnitiServes are not the most reliable things. Do get it registered though, asap. Is it the 2TB version? The earlier 1TB does not have a downloads folder, so you cannot store your own rips and downloads on it. The 2TB was introduced about four years ago, if memory serves. 

As I understand it, the five years runs from the date of sale to the customer, so you should be nice and secure. I think that's right, anyway. 

Ah, if the OP gets the full 5 yr warranty on a 4 yr old UnitiServe then that should be fine. Need to register it though.

The hard drive would only be covered for two years, but the rest of it for five, so long as it's registered within 30 days of purchase. 

Easily done, TIMPD, but you'll know better next time.  Nonetheless the sort of price you've paid for a relatively young product (only 4yrs) would be the kind of deal I wish I could get hold of - I'd bite my dealer's arm off for a circa 50% discount on 4 year old kit... you could sell it tomorrow and make a profit !

On the assumption that you aren't about to sell it, and bearing in mind, as others have said, the US is not top of the Naim reliability league table, you'd do well to make sure you have a backup strategy in place... that probably means getting hold of a NAS drive and using that to copy the US contents over, say weekly (that's what I do).  This strategy of course makes jolly good sense no matter how young your server is.

Worry not... think positive thoughts "Have UnitiServe, will use it"... enjoy.

Roger

I'm sure that when the issue of ex-dem warranty has arisen before, it's only the remainder of  the Naim 5 years that transfers to the customer. I would check with Naim customer service and if you have only one year ask the dealer whether they would add to that.

Clive

Every time I've bought ex dem I've got the whole warranty. If you read the warranty details they talk only of the sale date. 

The unit came with a 5 year warranty card to fill in so I have done that and sent it off. Having looked up unitiserve faults they do seem a bit flaky. I have a couple of CDs it won't  recognise/ download, some artwork and titles are incorrect and it won't let me edit some titles but that seems to be the norm. Should I be concerned? 

Tim 

I'll have to check this out as I recently bought a 250DR ex dem (one year old) and I'm not sure what warranty I got. As an aside I find the registration process quite tiresome if you have already done it before - the Naim system should really allow identification of the individual at registration of the first product with subsequent products simply registered to the individual, who can update personal details.

Clive

timpd posted:

The unit came with a 5 year warranty card to fill in so I have done that and sent it off. Having looked up unitiserve faults they do seem a bit flaky. I have a couple of CDs it won't  recognise/ download, some artwork and titles are incorrect and it won't let me edit some titles but that seems to be the norm. Should I be concerned? 

Tim 

It has its own idiosyncratic ways but you may grow to love it. The best thing I did was sell mine, but perhaps that's not an entirely helpful comment. Using dbpoweramp to rip to a nas is more flexible and sounds better too, and if it were me I'd moan like hell and get a refund. 

If it won't recognise albums they are easily edited with the nServe app. 

Cdb posted:

 As an aside I find the registration process quite tiresome if you have already done it before - the Naim system should really allow identification of the individual at registration of the first product with subsequent products simply registered to the individual, who can update personal details.

Clive

You can just ignore all the questions about yourself except name and address (I know because that's what I did after the first time).

best

David

David Hendon posted:

Cdb posted:

 As an aside I find the registration process quite tiresome if you have already done it before - the Naim system should really allow identification of the individual at registration of the first product with subsequent products simply registered to the individual, who can update personal details.

Clive

You can just ignore all the questions about yourself except name and address (I know because that's what I did after the first time).

best

David

Thanks, yes - I started doing it last time, got frustrated and jumped through to the end and it submitted. But they could make that obvious - there's pages of the stuff!

Clive 

timpd posted:

The unit came with a 5 year warranty card to fill in so I have done that and sent it off. Having looked up unitiserve faults they do seem a bit flaky. I have a couple of CDs it won't  recognise/ download, some artwork and titles are incorrect and it won't let me edit some titles but that seems to be the norm. Should I be concerned? 

Tim 

You should check the firmware because about two years ago Naim put out a firmware update for the Unitiserve which greatly improves the metadata lookup. The easiest way to tell is to use the n-serve app for IOS and check that the firmware is at 1.7b

if it's not, you can update it yourself. It's a bit of a faff as you have to burn a CD from a download and then feed it into the US. Then you have to wait and restart it some time later. If you mention here that you are doing it, we can help (personally I found HH's instructions which are on the forum elsewhere more helpful than Naim's!)

best

David

David Hendon posted:

timpd posted:

The unit came with a 5 year warranty card to fill in so I have done that and sent it off. Having looked up unitiserve faults they do seem a bit flaky. I have a couple of CDs it won't  recognise/ download, some artwork and titles are incorrect and it won't let me edit some titles but that seems to be the norm. Should I be concerned? 

Tim 

You should check the firmware because about two years ago Naim put out a firmware update for the Unitiserve which greatly improves the metadata lookup. The easiest way to tell is to use the n-serve app for IOS and check that the firmware is at 1.7b

if it's not, you can update it yourself. It's a bit of a faff as you have to burn a CD from a download and then feed it into the US. Then you have to wait and restart it some time later. If you mention here that you are doing it, we can help (personally I found HH's instructions which are on the forum elsewhere more helpful than Naim's!)

best

David

If the firmware is not up to date on an exdem unit, I think you should insist the dealer who sold it to you does that for you. It is a pain as you have to update to each version until you reach the latest. Can't believe a dealer unit wouldn't be up to date though.

The CDs not recognised/downloaded are probably the fault of the CDs. Assuming this is a very small proportion of CDs that fail, it won't be a UnitiServe fault. I thoroughly clean CDs with good quality disc cleaner before ripping and I have never had this problem but have heard others have. I too have had the odd incorrect artwork, but again that is an issue with the look up program (yes and it could be the fault of an older firmware version).

I am currently awaiting return of my US from Salisbury Hospital because it ate the last CD I fed it. Still love it though. I must be a glutton for punishment but rips from it sound flipping great.

+1 for the UnitiServe, love mine to bits, rips sound great and easy to use with the NServ app..

Allan

It has 1.7b so should be fine. I have tried editing some album titles but after a few seconds it says it's not allowed. It's not many and only a couple that won't download at all. It does sound good and is simple to use which is all that matters.