Re Capping

Blobdang posted:

Is it worth it?

???? Blobdang,....Short answer..A BIG YES ????????.

/Peder???? 

Blobdang posted:

Hi, have been advised to re-cap my olive gear (nap 180, nac 102 & hicap). £300 a piece apparently ????. What difference should I notice after? Is it worth it?

Class A Sheffield are Naim authorised and cheaper than the factory.

I had to recap one of my 250 power amps as, from cold (like after being on holiday) it was hissing badly (like frying bacon) through the speakers until warmed up.
After the re-cap, I was surprised at just how much better the system sounded. Consequently, I had the other 2 re-capped.
I was not disappointed by the improvement in sound quality.

A year or so later, I was chatting to Ricky Dassler, the Naim dealer in Nelson, New Zealand, and he suggested my next upgrade should be to re-cap the power supplies (a Lingo 1, 2 Supercaps and an XPS2) although I had some reservations as to whether it would be worth doing.

Believe me; it really was worth doing, as I guess I hadn't realised how the sound had deteriorated over the years of listening!

A massive YES. Do it unless you're thinking of upgrading. I bought a NAC 202 that needed servicing, thought it was a really bad preamp so sold it, then I got a serviced one and it really makes great music. Like giving the musicians a strong coffee after they've been feeling sleepy for a while, more foot-tapping/singalong. You don't notice the sound slipping away over the years, but service them and you're in for a treat. 

Yes, yes, yes! 

Take it that’s a yes then! ????

Just had my 555ps returned from a service /DR - sounds great out of the box.

Most of my kit has been purchased second hand and overtime I have had it serviced (olive and. Classic)

Definitely worthwhile and one of the reasons I stay with Naim.

Gary

silly question perhaps but do other amps linn rega etc have to be capped?

Yes, do it. But 300 quid a piece is silly. Contact Darran at Class A in Sheffield. Authorised service centre, much cheaper.

Recapping is a massive improvement to old kit, the degredation to sound is so slow that you just dont notice it over time. When the caps are new again, you wont believe the improvement. It all just sounds ds brand new.

sjw posted:

silly question perhaps but do other amps linn rega etc have to be capped?

All gear from all manufacturers needs recapping. The difference being that most manufacturers won't service their gear with original parts by the time a product reaches the recapping age. So they just avoid the topic entirely. They'd prefer you to just buy new gear. This gives the false impression that Naim needs recapping while other stuff doesn't.

A few other brands do make a big deal about recapping. Oddly enough Japanese brands are fairly upfront about this. Even lower end gear like Denon has a recapping price list. 

And tba most other brands are ready to throw away by recap time .... unlike Naim

Bear in mind that a service is not just about "recapping". There's usually a bit more to it than just changing the caps.

Richard Dane posted:

Bear in mind that a service is not just about "recapping". There's usually a bit more to it than just changing the caps.

What else does the service involve?

They'll be voltages across various components, condition of connectors, bias settings if it's amp, fuse condition, feet are replaced.

And that's just what I can think of. ☺

Joolzdee posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Bear in mind that a service is not just about "recapping". There's usually a bit more to it than just changing the caps.

What else does the service involve?

 

It depends on the item. Anything that's not bang on spec is changed - so some resistors, for example.  And when re-capping, it's not just big electrolytics either, but also Tants that get changed. The XLR socket on the bigger amps is often changed as part of a service. Pots and switches are changed if need be - provided they are still available. Anything that looks wrong is rectified; for example sometimes kit arrives that has been worked on elsewhere, and not always to Naim's required standard, sometimes using parts that are also not to Naim's standard.  In such cases the parts are removed and any suspect wiring or soldering is also undone and removed, and then it is rebuilt as it should be.

I remember one extreme instance when a set of NAP250s arrived from a customer for servicing - they had bought them online and wanted to get them all tip top and matched for active use. Unfortunately it quickly became apparent that one of them was not what it seemed.  It was a very carefully built clone using genuine Naim amp and regulator modules, a genuine Naim transformer, but otherwise everything else had been scratch built, including the chassis.  To the untrained eye, it looked fine, but the Naim service techs knew straight away because the soldering wasn't right and the cable ties were wrong.  Further investigation showed that the chassis was about half a mil too thin, so it was totally unsuitable.  When Naim rang to let the customer know, they were pretty shocked, but understood and agreed that it should be stripped of all that wasn't Naim and then rebuilt properly.  Luckily the sleeve was genuine and someone found an old chassis and it was rebuilt as a true and proper Naim NAP250.