Need to replace the front display of my Naim Unity MYSELF

Timmo1341 posted:

 

This thread puts me in mind of my Dad and his first ever Mercedes. He’d lusted after one for decades, and finally bought a very nice, reasonably priced second hand 300SLK. What he hadn’t factored in were the approved dealers servicing costs, and the price of original parts!

The moral of this story? If you can’t afford the cost of ownership, best look elsewhere. If you’re covered by consumer law, by all means press your case. If not, as the youngsters of today say, ‘suck it up’!

I can assure you I have never lusted after any piece of hifi, certainly not Naim, I can also easily afford the cost of service and repair.

The moral of this thread is nothing to with affordability, it's to do with trust in the Naim brand and perceived fairness in terms of your customer experience. If customers don't feel the experience was good and provided value for money perhaps Naim are the ones that will have to " suck it up " in terms of reduction in sales.

David Hendon posted:

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

I agree with David here that the charge is not bad when you consider that the unit has a full service rather than just the display fixed. I do, however, see your point. In a way you are being forced to have a full service when you dont want one. Naim could offer the option of of having just the display repaired and the customer can choose what they wish.

If people complain that a display fading within 8 years is not exactly something that one would expect from a Premium product I certainly do understand that.

I dont understand why Naim is getting such flac for not allowing their products to be repaired elsewhere though. Apple does that all the time and no one moans about it.

Popeye posted:

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!

Porsche, Aston Martin or maybe a Bentley. I think Rolls Royce is a bit excessive (unless you are talking about the Statement).

feeling_zen posted:

Is it really though? Regardless of how simple the task is, the same highly skilled Naim engineer does the work. The cost of their time is flat. Naim have to pay that person the same regardless of whether they are replacing your OLED screen or servicing a 552. In addition, that's not the only time spent on the unit. There will be a much lesser but still valid cost in the time spent unboxing and reboxing. Plus the cost of the item itself. And everything has to contribute to a tiny share of the RMA admin overhead.

£200 an hour for being an engineer at Naim??? I doubt that very much but if that is indeed the case let me know because i will dust my set of screwdrivers off and go back to uni to become one of those engineers. And then I'd be happy to swap faulty transistors for half the price at the Naim factory. The boxing and unboxing can be done within 1 minute. I'm sorry but that is a very feeble attempt at justifying a very high price.

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.

50 km to a dealer is nothing. Change to this dealer and get the job done properly. That’s my opinion.

Timmo1341 posted:

 

This thread puts me in mind of my Dad and his first ever Mercedes. He’d lusted after one for decades, and finally bought a very nice, reasonably priced second hand 300SLK. What he hadn’t factored in were the approved dealers servicing costs, and the price of original parts!

The moral of this story? If you can’t afford the cost of ownership, best look elsewhere. If you’re covered by consumer law, by all means press your case. If not, as the youngsters of today say, ‘suck it up’!

Again the wrong analogy. There are plenty of independent places that specialise in repairing Mercedes and at much cheaper prices than official ones. And you pay the approrpiate price for the parts. Naim does not give you the option at all.

Quite frankly i am surprised that, considering the amount of issues reported with the various screens, Naim does not get rid of displays alltogether and goes for the option of allowing all functions to be carried out through an external display (iPad, etc). That way there would be no such headaches, the cost of production would be lower, price would be better and customers would be happier. Or at the very least allow from the start (thinking of the new Uniti range) for customers to choose whether they use the display or switch it off (although i believe this doesnt stop the disply deteriortion either?).

Of course it does...there are Naim authorised repair centres, and yes they are cheaper. Widely advertised on the forum, but maybe, not up to this task?

MB independent repair shops can repair anything.

Then what is the issue in this thread....go elsewhere and pay less, all good and ????Job done

Gazza: it's a Naim factory only fix, there's nowhere to go. Authorised service agents cannot breach the rules, Darran is more than capable but most likely the factory won't allow it.

It's pay for a full service at the fixed price or it can't be fixed.

I know I was responding to Ilria, anything can be fixed by independent repair shops...?with no suggestions or help for the OP.

I'm sure it can be fixed by an unauthorised repair shop or yourself (you seem convinced).

The resale value will then drop to about $5 though. It would cost you more than you think you are saving. No one want's Naim gear that has had unauthorised work done. 

We don't specifically mention such places by name but they exist and as long as you don't write about it on the forum you are free to do as you please.

Absolutely no one here will recommend this though and for good reason. 

There are just too any other things in life more important.   Do yourself a favor and get it fixed by a pro.  

iliria posted:

Timmo1341 posted:

 

This thread puts me in mind of my Dad and his first ever Mercedes. He’d lusted after one for decades, and finally bought a very nice, reasonably priced second hand 300SLK. What he hadn’t factored in were the approved dealers servicing costs, and the price of original parts!

The moral of this story? If you can’t afford the cost of ownership, best look elsewhere. If you’re covered by consumer law, by all means press your case. If not, as the youngsters of today say, ‘suck it up’!

Again the wrong analogy. There are plenty of independent places that specialise in repairing Mercedes and at much cheaper prices than official ones. And you pay the approrpiate price for the parts. Naim does not give you the option at all.

Agreed, but that won’t get round the issue of service history. At least with Mercedes dealers you are guaranteed properly trained mechanics, original, quality parts etc., and that all important stamp in the book when it comes to sale or trade in. I personally don’t blame Naim - it’s their reputation at stake after all. I’m just about to return my UnitiServe for a new CD transport, having discovered its nigh on impossible to replace it myself (Naim alter firmware of  Teac transport). At least it will maintain its second hand value should I decide to sell. As for the cost, in the world of high end hi-fi £350 doesn’t buy a lot - sad but true. For those to whom it’s unacceptable there’s always Denon, Panasonic etc..!

Ok. The analogy with MB is good.

I can take my MB to an authorised dealer in Newbury. They do a good job, but at an eye watering price.

I can take my MB to an independent garage who specialises in MB. His team are all ex MB trained technicians. They do a good job, and the price is quite reasonable. They use genuine MB parts and my warranty isn’t affected.

I can also buy genuine MB parts myself and fit them myself. This could affect the warranty, but for an older vehicle, out with any warranty, is a useful option.

The second hand value will be affected, but as the car gets older, this effect is minimal. Also, I have never detected any reduction in performance regardless of options above.

Naim operate differently.

"Do, or do not, there is no try."

Timmo1341 posted:

iliria posted:

Timmo1341 posted:

 

This thread puts me in mind of my Dad and his first ever Mercedes. He’d lusted after one for decades, and finally bought a very nice, reasonably priced second hand 300SLK. What he hadn’t factored in were the approved dealers servicing costs, and the price of original parts!

The moral of this story? If you can’t afford the cost of ownership, best look elsewhere. If you’re covered by consumer law, by all means press your case. If not, as the youngsters of today say, ‘suck it up’!

Again the wrong analogy. There are plenty of independent places that specialise in repairing Mercedes and at much cheaper prices than official ones. And you pay the approrpiate price for the parts. Naim does not give you the option at all.

Agreed, but that won’t get round the issue of service history. At least with Mercedes dealers you are guaranteed properly trained mechanics, original, quality parts etc., and that all important stamp in the book when it comes to sale or trade in. I personally don’t blame Naim - it’s their reputation at stake after all. I’m just about to return my UnitiServe for a new CD transport, having discovered its nigh on impossible to replace it myself (Naim alter firmware of  Teac transport). At least it will maintain its second hand value should I decide to sell. As for the cost, in the world of high end hi-fi £350 doesn’t buy a lot - sad but true. For those to whom it’s unacceptable there’s always Denon, Panasonic etc..!

I am slightly puzzled by your response, on one hand you extoll the virtue of a Naim service history, this is after discovering it was nigh on impossible to repair yourself ?

My Unitiserve failed after 28 months, has been with my dealer for 4/5 weeks awaiting a Naim repair slot, the likely overall repair timescale will be in the region of 6/7 weeks. Under the extended warranty I have to pay a standard charge of £340 for the repair, I haven't sought out a 3rd party repair, as you say £350 doesn't buy you a lot. I have no option, as without the repair the unit has no value, ahead of the repair I have been discussing with my dealer an alternative server that should be more reliable and provide better performance, no it won't be Denon or Panasonic !

I think you mistake, again , the issue of affordability and value for money/customer service. Can I afford a Unitiserve and the subsequent repair....yes, do I think after 28 months, under warranty that ,without the unit being examined to determine the fault, I require to pay a standard repair charge of £340 and wait 6/7 weeks for the repair, that this is value for money/good customer service....no.

This experience causes me to question the two Naim systems I run, the manufacturers that gain from this scenario won't be Denon and Panasonic, as it's nothing to do with affordability, more likely to be Linn or Moon.

glasnaim posted:

Timmo1341 posted:

iliria posted:

Timmo1341 posted:

 

This thread puts me in mind of my Dad and his first ever Mercedes. He’d lusted after one for decades, and finally bought a very nice, reasonably priced second hand 300SLK. What he hadn’t factored in were the approved dealers servicing costs, and the price of original parts!

The moral of this story? If you can’t afford the cost of ownership, best look elsewhere. If you’re covered by consumer law, by all means press your case. If not, as the youngsters of today say, ‘suck it up’!

Again the wrong analogy. There are plenty of independent places that specialise in repairing Mercedes and at much cheaper prices than official ones. And you pay the approrpiate price for the parts. Naim does not give you the option at all.

Agreed, but that won’t get round the issue of service history. At least with Mercedes dealers you are guaranteed properly trained mechanics, original, quality parts etc., and that all important stamp in the book when it comes to sale or trade in. I personally don’t blame Naim - it’s their reputation at stake after all. I’m just about to return my UnitiServe for a new CD transport, having discovered its nigh on impossible to replace it myself (Naim alter firmware of  Teac transport). At least it will maintain its second hand value should I decide to sell. As for the cost, in the world of high end hi-fi £350 doesn’t buy a lot - sad but true. For those to whom it’s unacceptable there’s always Denon, Panasonic etc..!

I am slightly puzzled by your response, on one hand you extoll the virtue of a Naim service history, this is after discovering it was nigh on impossible to repair yourself ?

My Unitiserve failed after 28 months, has been with my dealer for 4/5 weeks awaiting a Naim repair slot, the likely overall repair timescale will be in the region of 6/7 weeks. Under the extended warranty I have to pay a standard charge of £340 for the repair, I haven't sought out a 3rd party repair, as you say £350 doesn't buy you a lot. I have no option, as without the repair the unit has no value, ahead of the repair I have been discussing with my dealer an alternative server that should be more reliable and provide better performance, no it won't be Denon or Panasonic !

I think you mistake, again , the issue of affordability and value for money/customer service. Can I afford a Unitiserve and the subsequent repair....yes, do I think after 28 months, under warranty that ,without the unit being examined to determine the fault, I require to pay a standard repair charge of £340 and wait 6/7 weeks for the repair, that this is value for money/good customer service....no.

This experience causes me to question the two Naim systems I run, the manufacturers that gain from this scenario won't be Denon and Panasonic, as it's nothing to do with affordability, more likely to be Linn or Moon.

 

Unlike some on this forum I changed my stance having been reminded of the potential value of a sound, documented service history. As there’s every likelihood of me having to replace the Serve in the near future due to storage limits, the choice appears to be between spending £350 and trading in for approx £750-800 or selling as paperweight/door stop for a fiver!

Yes, it would be nice to have someone do the repair for a couple of hundred (transport approx.£50, return carriage approx £40, couple of hours labour @ £50 hourly rate - not unreasonable), but my Naim dealer wouldn’t then touch it with a barge pole as a trade-in. So for the sake of saving £150 I lose much more when selling. I appreciate in the case of the 10p resistor this argument holds less water, but same principle still applies.

I don’t think many Naim owners will ‘cut and run’ to Linn or whoever as a consequence of this. Cutting off nose to spite face springs to mind.

The issue with the OLED is I think it fails prematurely in numbers sufficient to be a known issue, my guess if Naim could rewind the clock they would use a different component as this one obviously sucks. So given this relatively cheap component is failing their customers and badly damaging the reputation of what is otherwise a very worthy units, you would think it a smart move not to lump it in with their one price fits all repair program, by all means let them cover their costs and no need to service the unit, it's only five years old, it doesn't need a service surely.

With regards the service, for the £350 repair, do they as procedure replace key parts as part of the service regardless of the condition of the original parts, or is it a check and replace as necessary? if the latter then possibly they don't often have cause for major overhauls on these relatively young units.

One last point, didn't Mercedes get themselves into real difficulty a few years back by purposely downgrading their engineering quality in pursuit of greater profitability, it took them a few years to regain a reputation for quality. Not that the analogy stacks up as I think the overall quality of Naim is very high, but by not addressing this fairly small issue now could cost them dear in the future and is very shortsighted in my opinion. 

bobbyrab1 posted:

One last point, didn't Mercedes get themselves into real difficulty a few years back by purposely downgrading their engineering quality in pursuit of greater profitability, it took them a few years to regain a reputation for quality.

Great memories about that. A colleague of mine - a sales rep - had a big Mercedes E series. For some unknown reason his car entered often a safety procedure, not allowing the guy to drive faster than 100 km/h. We - the simple techies - had so much fun about it ...

Timmo1341 posted:

glasnaim posted:

Timmo1341 posted:

iliria posted:

Timmo1341 posted:

 

This thread puts me in mind of my Dad and his first ever Mercedes. He’d lusted after one for decades, and finally bought a very nice, reasonably priced second hand 300SLK. What he hadn’t factored in were the approved dealers servicing costs, and the price of original parts!

The moral of this story? If you can’t afford the cost of ownership, best look elsewhere. If you’re covered by consumer law, by all means press your case. If not, as the youngsters of today say, ‘suck it up’!

Again the wrong analogy. There are plenty of independent places that specialise in repairing Mercedes and at much cheaper prices than official ones. And you pay the approrpiate price for the parts. Naim does not give you the option at all.

Agreed, but that won’t get round the issue of service history. At least with Mercedes dealers you are guaranteed properly trained mechanics, original, quality parts etc., and that all important stamp in the book when it comes to sale or trade in. I personally don’t blame Naim - it’s their reputation at stake after all. I’m just about to return my UnitiServe for a new CD transport, having discovered its nigh on impossible to replace it myself (Naim alter firmware of  Teac transport). At least it will maintain its second hand value should I decide to sell. As for the cost, in the world of high end hi-fi £350 doesn’t buy a lot - sad but true. For those to whom it’s unacceptable there’s always Denon, Panasonic etc..!

I am slightly puzzled by your response, on one hand you extoll the virtue of a Naim service history, this is after discovering it was nigh on impossible to repair yourself ?

My Unitiserve failed after 28 months, has been with my dealer for 4/5 weeks awaiting a Naim repair slot, the likely overall repair timescale will be in the region of 6/7 weeks. Under the extended warranty I have to pay a standard charge of £340 for the repair, I haven't sought out a 3rd party repair, as you say £350 doesn't buy you a lot. I have no option, as without the repair the unit has no value, ahead of the repair I have been discussing with my dealer an alternative server that should be more reliable and provide better performance, no it won't be Denon or Panasonic !

I think you mistake, again , the issue of affordability and value for money/customer service. Can I afford a Unitiserve and the subsequent repair....yes, do I think after 28 months, under warranty that ,without the unit being examined to determine the fault, I require to pay a standard repair charge of £340 and wait 6/7 weeks for the repair, that this is value for money/good customer service....no.

This experience causes me to question the two Naim systems I run, the manufacturers that gain from this scenario won't be Denon and Panasonic, as it's nothing to do with affordability, more likely to be Linn or Moon.

 

Unlike some on this forum I changed my stance having been reminded of the potential value of a sound, documented service history. As there’s every likelihood of me having to replace the Serve in the near future due to storage limits, the choice appears to be between spending £350 and trading in for approx £750-800 or selling as paperweight/door stop for a fiver!

Yes, it would be nice to have someone do the repair for a couple of hundred (transport approx.£50, return carriage approx £40, couple of hours labour @ £50 hourly rate - not unreasonable), but my Naim dealer wouldn’t then touch it with a barge pole as a trade-in. So for the sake of saving £150 I lose much more when selling. I appreciate in the case of the 10p resistor this argument holds less water, but same principle still applies.

I don’t think many Naim owners will ‘cut and run’ to Linn or whoever as a consequence of this. Cutting off nose to spite face springs to mind.

I certainly hope they don't "cut and run', Naim makes great hifi. I evaluated systems from both these manufactures ahead of moving to Naim, I preferred the Naim sound. However problems with the roll out of the Nova and now reliability/warranty issues with the Unitiserve coupled with restrictions to hi res streaming options has just got me thinking that maybe there are alternatives out there. 

I hope everything works out as I am still a huge fan of the Naim sound.

Pierre B posted:

Hello Tony, not nice as you say ;-)

But : iOS or Android. I can't have the app running with Android. It does show my Naim Unity B840 but when i click on it I'm back to "configure a new product" or "find a product".

Hi Pierre,

I've come across this as well. I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous but go and try the following:

1. On the "find a product" page, look for the option that says "Manually add through IP address"

2. The IP address is visible on the front displ.... oh jeez

2a. Go into your router admin page to find out which IP address was given to the Naim

3. Enter the IP address into the app

4. Either it will find it, in which case you're done and it should stay that way, or...

4a. The app gives you an error that it cannot find anything on that IP address. In that case,

4b. Go back to the "Find a product" page and tick on the type of Naim product you're trying to add

4c. Now it shows up and you can add it, and it should stay in the app.

If you restart the app then it should work without any faffing about with ip addresses. The old Unitis and other legacy streamers don't need setting up in the app. It just finds them and if it doesn't then the app needs restarting, assuming the network is ok.

best

David

Thanks to both of you.

The app does find the Uniti, sometimes on its own, sometimes by specifying the IP address. So, I can see it on the app display but then no menu to go to so, if I click on the "picture" of the Uniti nothing happens except that the hour glass restarts and the app takes me back to the find item menu where I can again select my Naim model or type the IP address. Turning in circles... I do not have any iThing... don't like Apple :-(  so I use and Andoid Huawei and a Samsung tablet. Both results in each of them.

I though it come be due to my firmware being rather old... ?  But the update procedure needs a working display.

Pierre.

Pierre

Did you try restarting the app? You restart the iPhone app by double-clicking the home button and swipe the app upwards. Then press the home button once and reselect the app. It should look again for the streamers. Oh I see you use Android. The procedure is different but you should still try it.

You probably know all this, but it's also worth restarting your router and once it has fully restarted, then restart your Uniti and the app.

You don't need the Uniti front display working to do a firmware update. But you need to check what Uniti firmware version you are on before you do anything and you can get that via the app.

best

David

Pierre, I've moved this a room where you may get best assistance (although David appears to be doing a fine job).  In all cases where you experience issues it's best to update to the most current firmware.