Need to replace the front display of my Naim Unity MYSELF

Pierre B posted:

The front display of my Naim Uniti offered to me in 2010 has dimmed and dimmed to eventually become unreadable. This is a quite easy part to replace (just like the remote control receiver I replaced some years ago) but I am told that Naim refuse to sell spare parts to consumers. I contacted my local dealer who told me I was lucky that Naim would charge “only” some 370 Euros to repair it. And now, it happens that this local dealer will close business by end of December this year and is therefore not really motivated to help further. The closer dealer is now about 50 kilometers away…

My questions are:

• Is it correct that Naim cannot / does not want to sell and ship spare parts ? If so, why ?
• I am told that replacing the front display may need some programing (!). Is this correct and what is the risk if no programming is performed?
• I read in the forum that one of the numerous display problems was “not too much of an issue today as will use iPad”. Do I understand it right that I can connect an iPad on my Naim and get the same display functions ?

I would really appreciate any help to replace my front display at a reasonable cost.

Thanks.

Pierre.

Hello Pierre. Let me add one more question to your list.

• Is it true that the Naim Forums prohibit discussion of user modifications to Naim equipment?

Why yes, it's true! 

"This is the Naim Audio forum - we cannot sanction discussion of modifications to internal components of Naim equipment."  https://forums.naimaudio.com/t...ease-read-and-follow

As for use of an iPad, that's really just a reference to being able to perform the relevant functions using the Naim App, and thus "no need" to use the front panel display for playback functions.  So far as I know, there is no provision to connect an iPad as an external display to mirror your malfunctioning front panel display.

Hi Pierre.

Please be aware that replacing displays in the "old" Uniti's are no longer a stright forward job, as the display's You can get as spareparts from Naim do require some re-programming of the Uniti, - otherwise the display will amon other things be showed as a mirrored image - the manual for the replacement is a PDF file of more than 10 pages. I strongly suggest You send the unit to Naim for replacement of the display - OR live with the "dead" display and use an iPAD to control your Uniti.

If you want to get your Uniti fixed you will need to go through a local Naim dealer. I know it’s annoying that that the display has failed and that you need to spend quite a lot of money to fix it, but unfortunately that is just the way it is. 

There are various setup functions that can only be performed using the remote control and the front panel. 

Pierre, when I worked at the factory Naim only sent parts to factory authorised repairers/servicing agents, dealers and distributors, that way the parts could be fitted or replaced to Naim's standard. I cannot see any reason why this would not still be the case. If arrangements with your dealer are not to your satisfaction then you should get in touch with your distributor for assistance.

Pierre, if it was some other brands with 8 year old equipment, they might not even offer a repair service. So as HH says, just have to grin and bear it.

Thanks to all for your prompt answers even though they all confirm my fears.

Naim products are superb and seem to - still - benefit from a good reputation. But they are certainly EXPENSIVE to buy and, obviously, to SERVICE too. The high purchase price does not, unfortunately, come with high quality standards. The result is an unacceptable cost for a simple display. Simply unbelievable.

Net : I will NEVER recommend Naim, just the opposite.

The charge quoted to you is I believe the price for a full service, so Naim will do whatever needs to be done to make your Uniti like new again, including replacing any parts that need fixing. I don't think that is such a bad deal.

best

David

Pierre B posted:

Naim products are superb and seem to - still - benefit from a good reputation. But they are certainly EXPENSIVE to buy and, obviously, to SERVICE too. The high purchase price does not, unfortunately, come with high quality standards. The result is an unacceptable cost for a simple display. Simply unbelievable.

Net : I will NEVER recommend Naim, just the opposite.

If it wasn't made by Naim then you'd most likely not have a repair option. 

The Uniti is eight years old, so it’s not like it went wrong straight away. If you have a fault with your eight year old car, you take it to the garage and they fix it, and you pay, with labour charges of £80 an hour. You don’t call Renault or whoever and ask for a new door mirror so you can fit it yourself. And you probably wouldn’t use that experience as a reason for telling everyone never to buy a Renault. You do seem to have rather unreasonable expectations. 

Your Renault analogy is flawed, the op was complaining of not being able to buy/source the parts, this wouldn't happen in the case of a Renault wing mirror, just contact your local Renault parts department or numerous other providers approved by Renault.

I have a Unitiserve down at Naim, light wouldn't stop flashing, it has stopped working just after 2 years. I face a similar charge under "warranty", add to this the issues with the Nova roll out and seeming inability  get a download source of a reasonable hifi quality, I myself am wondering if Naim was such a good bet, now I have 2 Naim systems and I am seriously considering taking the hit and trading in for something else.

Bart posted:

Pierre B posted:

The front display of my Naim Uniti offered to me in 2010 has dimmed and dimmed to eventually become unreadable. This is a quite easy part to replace (just like the remote control receiver I replaced some years ago) but I am told that Naim refuse to sell spare parts to consumers. I contacted my local dealer who told me I was lucky that Naim would charge “only” some 370 Euros to repair it. And now, it happens that this local dealer will close business by end of December this year and is therefore not really motivated to help further. The closer dealer is now about 50 kilometers away…

My questions are:

• Is it correct that Naim cannot / does not want to sell and ship spare parts ? If so, why ?
• I am told that replacing the front display may need some programing (!). Is this correct and what is the risk if no programming is performed?
• I read in the forum that one of the numerous display problems was “not too much of an issue today as will use iPad”. Do I understand it right that I can connect an iPad on my Naim and get the same display functions ?

I would really appreciate any help to replace my front display at a reasonable cost.

Thanks.

Pierre.

Hello Pierre. Let me add one more question to your list.

• Is it true that the Naim Forums prohibit discussion of user modifications to Naim equipment?

Why yes, it's true! 

"This is the Naim Audio forum - we cannot sanction discussion of modifications to internal components of Naim equipment."  https://forums.naimaudio.com/t...ease-read-and-follow

As for use of an iPad, that's really just a reference to being able to perform the relevant functions using the Naim App, and thus "no need" to use the front panel display for playback functions.  So far as I know, there is no provision to connect an iPad as an external display to mirror your malfunctioning front panel display.

 

Where do you see anyone trying to modify anything? All i see is someone trying to repair something. 

glasnaim posted:

Your Renault analogy is flawed, the op was complaining of not being able to buy/source the parts, this wouldn't happen in the case of a Renault wing mirror, just contact your local Renault parts department or numerous other providers approved by Renault.

I have a Unitiserve down at Naim, light wouldn't stop flashing, it has stopped working just after 2 years. I face a similar charge under "warranty", add to this the issues with the Nova roll out and seeming inability  get a download source of a reasonable hifi quality, I myself am wondering if Naim was such a good bet, now I have 2 Naim systems and I am seriously considering taking the hit and trading in for something else.

Absolutely right, Glasnaim.

If my powerful PC fails, I can purchase any piece of it and repair it, hardware and software and if a replaced part needs specific programing, then adequate instructions come with it, paper or online. The straight opposite of Naim's policy is a shop 100 yards away from my home where they repair about anything including smartphones and tablets. At the very least, when you pretend to distribute and sell all over the world, you should implement service providers locally : step in, have it repaired and go back home with your device the very same day.

I'm afraid this is a losing battle anyway. Sigh...

And to add to all this, I just cannot get the Naim app to run on my Android smartphone :-( if ever that can be a bypass.

I had to pay £330 to have one resistor replaced in a Nait XS which I still find absolutely CRIMINAL....

Pierre B posted:

glasnaim posted:

Your Renault analogy is flawed, the op was complaining of not being able to buy/source the parts, this wouldn't happen in the case of a Renault wing mirror, just contact your local Renault parts department or numerous other providers approved by Renault.

I have a Unitiserve down at Naim, light wouldn't stop flashing, it has stopped working just after 2 years. I face a similar charge under "warranty", add to this the issues with the Nova roll out and seeming inability  get a download source of a reasonable hifi quality, I myself am wondering if Naim was such a good bet, now I have 2 Naim systems and I am seriously considering taking the hit and trading in for something else.

Absolutely right, Glasnaim.

If my powerful PC fails, I can purchase any piece of it and repair it, hardware and software and if a replaced part needs specific programing, then adequate instructions come with it, paper or online. The straight opposite of Naim's policy is a shop 100 yards away from my home where they repair about anything including smartphones and tablets. At the very least, when you pretend to distribute and sell all over the world, you should implement service providers locally : step in, have it repaired and go back home with your device the very same day.

I'm afraid this is a losing battle anyway. Sigh...

And to add to all this, I just cannot get the Naim app to run on my Android smartphone :-( if ever that can be a bypass.

You seem to be confusing specialty hi fi with mass-market consumer goods.  EVEN Apple cannot do many repairs the "same day" and they sell about a billion times more units than Naim.  You should stick with mass market items.

Your "Android" smartphone is a great example.  There are so many implementations of Android by so many manufacturers, that anyone's "Android smartphone" likely is somewhat different than someone else's.  It's a great business model for the OS seller, not so great for those who support small numbers of users on the platform.

No confusion here Bart, the mass market consumer goods comparison was raised by someone else. I don't expect Naim to do same day repairs, although the 6/7 weeks to repair and return my Unitiserve is woefully inept.

Pierre, even if your dealer cannot undertake more complex jobs such as display replacement (there's a clue here as to why any DIY is just not feasible), then at least the distributor for your market should have full service and repair facilities in place. 

Glasnaim, traditionally Naim has tried to limit any service turn around to about 2-3 weeks.  Sometimes, outside of holiday season and when demand is lower, they have managed to turn service work around in much less time*, but at other times, when demand has been very high and staff have been ill or it has been during holidays or shutdown, then service turnaround has been longer than desired.  Add in any possible parts delays for shortages and other factors, and things can sometimes slow down considerably - frustrating but sometimes unavoidable.

* note that any service work - even if done instantaneously - will just about always be at least 48 hours due to listen and soak testing. Add to that courier from your dealer to Naim and then back to the dealer. Or sometimes, back to an overseas distributor, in which case many distributors prefer to wait for a palleted shipment to save on shipping costs. This also ignores situations where a fault cannot be easily found, where the only solution is to run the unit day after day in the service department listening room and wait for the fault to occur.  So, while 6/7 weeks is regrettable, it's rarely due to anything inept, at least not at Naim's end.

sjw posted:

I had to pay £330 to have one resistor replaced in a Nait XS which I still find absolutely CRIMINAL....

That sounds like the price for a service. Surely it involved rather more than just changing a resistor?

It will also have involved knowing how to work out which resistor to change, a non-trivial expense to maintain that service capability.

best

David

Richard thanks for your reply, I agree regrettable sounds more positive than inept, hopefully things will work out well in the end. I questioned how my dealer knew the cost of the repair under warranty before my Unitiserve had been received by Salisbury, I was advised it was a standard charge irregardless of the fault, this may go some way to explaining the other issues being raised in this thread.

Anyway I'm a big fan of the site, great information/contributors, keep up the good work, sorry in this case to be negative.

Richard Dane posted:

sjw posted:

I had to pay £330 to have one resistor replaced in a Nait XS which I still find absolutely CRIMINAL....

That sounds like the price for a service. Surely it involved rather more than just changing a resistor?

no..

Just one resistor was faulty . Nothing else wrong...still feel really ripped off

Sorry the logo was replaced -( it shouldn't have gone anyway) The labour time quoted on sheet was 1.5 hours.

A resistor is 10 pence or so. That means £320.90 for an hour and a half labour. Rip off

sjw, I agree that does sound a lot - I'm not at the Naim factory these days, so bit out of touch on the day to day, but maybe there's a minimum service charge in place? Out of interest, what price were you quoted before agreeing to go ahead?

This was slightly complex as it went to Darran who couldn't fix it... so in fact that meant 4x £15 on couriers in total

I wasn't told what the fault was until it was fixed.... When I gently queried the price for the 10p resistor and logo that is a common fault and shouldn't happen on a product of this price the response was

'We do fixed price repairs on all of our products so for your unit the cost would have been the same no matter what the fault – so if you had needed a replacement main board (which is getting on for £1,000 as a spare part) then that would have been covered under the £330. Fixed price repairs also mean that we can give you a fixed cost before even sending the unit back to us so that you know exactly what you will be charged.'

I've been busy with other stuff and only just found the work sheet when I was putting the box back up in the loft.

I think it's an absolute disgrace ... even more so now I've found the job sheet itemising the time allotted of 1.5 hours 

"

Naim not selling spares to joe blogs is another reason they hold there second hand value, as it’s unlikely that they have been mucked about with. 

HH’s Renault philosophy is almost right but the difference hear is Naim is more comparable to Rolls Royce than Renault and how many owners of Rolls Royce’s would repair it themselves or go to an independent dealer to sort or Evan want to for that matter!

Your analogy is just as bad as the Renault one, an 8 yr old Uniti would be valued somewhere near £1000, so the standard repair fee of 370 euro would roughly equate to 27% of the value, the minimum list price for a Rolls is £237,000, do you really think Rolls Royce owners wouldn't question a standard repair fee of £64.000, irregardless of the fault ?

Wouldn't stay rich for long.