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Anyone heard Naim NAC 42.5 or 62 Chrome Bumper?

Hi 8 ball audio,

I have an all chrome bumper Naim amplification set-up - currently being serviced - consisting of a NAC32.5 (purchased new by me around 1998 - it was one of the last 32.5 produced I believe), two Hi-caps (one for the 32.5, the other for a pre-fix phono stage), plus a NAP 180 (which was originally a 160 but was converted to 180 spec by Naim in the Salisbury factory about ten years ago). I am booked to collect them from being serviced on March 16 and you'd be welcome to have a listen to them if you would like most weekends after that. You would be welcome to bring your own kit to hook-up to the Naims and/or I have a number of source and speaker options that you could listen to them with. This is not a sales pitch, just an honest offer for you to have a listen to them in a relaxed domestic setting if you'd like to.
 
I've asked Tony to delete this thread as Gaius says it's moving way off topic and degenerating into who should pay what to whom for what. I've become tetchy so my apologies especially to Gaius.

I think it's served it's initial purpose.
 
A small point 8 ball but the thread isn't yours to delete, It's ours. You just started it and I'm pleased it answered your questions. You never know another purpose might come along in a minute. (they do that purposes)
 
MVV said:
A small point 8 ball but the thread isn't yours to delete, It's ours.
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And perhaps when you've finished trolling do you actually want to add something useful?

Exactly the reason people can archive their threads on other forums...
 
I think the principle of buying old naim gear having a listen and passing it on without loss is a good one. It enables one to listen to a whole range of old naim equipment, both serviced and unserviced. Best of all, it is has enabled me to build affordable systems for the young uns and it is great to see my nephew enjoying his student days with talisman 2's, a converted 32, converted snaps and modified 140 that will all be good for another 20 years +. He'll be able to sell it without loss in years to come - the best kind of gift. All down to pfm.

Perhaps now is the time to mention that I had a 110 for sale, in fantastic condition, with a nice new genuine on/off switch and a lovely li'l red light. a snaic too. Given the advertised price of £240 and that snaics sell for c.£15 this made this particularly sublime 110 the second cheapest I have seen on pfm or fleabay since 2007.
 
8 ball audio said:
And perhaps when you've finished trolling do you actually want to add something useful?

Exactly the reason people can archive their threads on other forums...
Click to expand...

There you go see what I mean, no purpose for ages and ages and then just when you think it is over and you will go and read something more interesting instead, one shows up!

Trolling? All my posts were designed to be useful to you including the last one. However in the spirit of posting something that will be immediately useful to you, how about this practical little exercise:

Breathe deeply

Feeling stressed evokes tense, shallow breathing, while calm is associated with relaxed breathing, says Michael Lee, author of Turn Stress into Bliss. So to turn tension into relaxation, he says, change the way you breathe.

Try this: let out a big sigh, dropping your chest and exhaling through gently pursed lips, says Joan Borysenko, director of Harvard University's Mind-Body Clinical Programmes. Now imagine your low tummy, or centre, as a deep powerful place. Feel your breath coming and going as your mind stays focused there. Inhale, feeling your entire tummy, sides and lower back expand. Exhale, sighing again as you drop your chest, and feeling your tummy, back and sides contract. Repeat 10 times, relaxing more fully each time.
 
With that attitude Mr 8ball I think any future help from the members here may be in short supply.
 
clamnell said:
I think the principle of buying old naim gear having a listen and passing it on without loss is a good one. It enables one to listen to a whole range of old naim equipment, both serviced and unserviced. Best of all, it is has enabled me to build affordable systems for the young uns and it is great to see my nephew enjoying his student days with talisman 2's, a converted 32, converted snaps and modified 140 that will all be good for another 20 years +. He'll be able to sell it without loss in years to come - the best kind of gift. All down to pfm.

Perhaps now is the time to mention that I had a 110 for sale, in fantastic condition, with a nice new genuine on/off switch and a lovely li'l red light. a snaic too. Given the advertised price of £240 and that snaics sell for c.£15 this made this particularly sublime 110 the second cheapest I have seen on pfm or fleabay since 2007.
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I'm wishing I hadn't posted what was only an opinion.

I don't recall who it was but someone tracked ebay prices of Naim stuff and posted a link to a spreadsheet of data that covered 2010. I just looked at it.
For a NAP110 in 2010 there were 18 sold. The minimum price was £125, the maximum price was £275, making an average of £210.

Stuff is worth what people will pay so if people are paying upwards of £220 for a NAP110 then that is the price. However, I would not pay over £200 for a NAP110. I would much rather go for a 140 or a 160. I've owned all 3 of those at various times.
 
I think the average would have been brought down by faulty 110's appearing in the same column but no matter. (I was looking for a cheap second 110 for some years in order to try monoblocking and ones that work do cost a bit.) The point is if you can enjoy the hobby without losing money I feel! IMHO the 160 is fantastic, a bigger 110, whereas I have always found the 140 disappointing. I couldn't say why exactly but it is consistently the case.

I also think that worrying about servicing naim power amps should happen a long time after sorting out a decent psu. It should also come after sorting out the pre-amp. Power amp servicing/modification seems IMO to be the least effective bang for buck upgrade and I am very content playing a 160 with 1983 caps. Happier with that than my recently serviced 160 with new caps...
 
clamnell said:
I think the average would have been brought down by faulty 110's appearing in the same column but no matter. (I was looking for a cheap second 110 for some years in order to try monoblocking and ones that work do cost a bit.) The point is if you can enjoy the hobby without losing money I feel! IMHO the 160 is fantastic, a bigger 110, whereas I have always found the 140 disappointing. I couldn't say why exactly but it is consistently the case.

I also think that worrying about servicing naim power amps should happen a long time after sorting out a decent psu. It should also come after sorting out the pre-amp. Power amp servicing/modification seems IMO to be the least effective bang for buck upgrade and I am very content playing a 160 with 1983 caps. Happier with that than my recently serviced 160 with new caps...
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I wouldn't be worried about servicing at all.
 
misterc6 said:
I used to keep the spreadsheet until it became too time-consuming.

You can prove anything with statistics. The average quoted was a mean distorted by a significant number of total wrecks including the one that fetched £125. The median, which is a more significant measure of average in the context of finding a decent 110 was closer to £240.

Manufacture of the 110 ceased in 1987 so any unserviceable one is at least 25 years old and a service needs to be budgeted for in any 110 purchase.

The 110 is my second favourite NAP of that era behind the 160.

Malcolm
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Malcolm,

I wasn't actually trying to prove anything for the sake of proving it, it was just an observation based on how I perceive what seem to me to be ott comment these days about the NAP110, so this will be my last post on this thread as I expect what I'm posting isn't going to be popular and I really don't want to get into an argument.

I believe that at £220 a NAP110 is overpriced, that's about what mine cost brand new back in 1985. I wouldn't be expecting to sell it for that same amount right now if I still owned it today and I certainly wouldn't pay that again despite inflation.

Regarding the spreadsheet. I hadn't realised total wrecks were included in the spreadsheet, I believed the data applied to fully working equipment and it hadn't crossed my mind it may include broken and defective stuff. Sorry if my earlier post was misleading.
 
misterc6 said:
Then I surmise that you have never seen the insides of an amplifier after the aged large electrolytic capacitors have ruptured.

It's not so much servicing as preventative maintenance, the closest analogy I can think of is a car's cam belt which can cause catastrophic damage when it fails which is why the advice is to replace it regularly.

This is my last post on this thread, and possibly this room of the forum.

Malcolm
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Well put (and stay put) Malcolm.

Running a 25YO unserviced power amp is a handy way to take out a speaker or two when it fails so there's often collateral damage to sweep up too :)

I recapped my 110 when it was about 15YO and the main ely's (ITT I think) were pretty well gone by that stage. I dread to think what they'd be like by now if still in the amp 10 years further on.

Mr Tibbs
 
misterc6 said:
Then I surmise that you have never seen the insides of an amplifier after the aged large electrolytic capacitors have ruptured.

It's not so much servicing as preventative maintenance, the closest analogy I can think of is a car's cam belt which can cause catastrophic damage when it fails which is why the advice is to replace it regularly.

This is my last post on this thread, and possibly the audio room in general.

Malcolm
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Don't do that Malcolm. Just look in occasionally you are 'the' SH Naim expert on pfm and would be sorely missed.
 
misterc6 said:
Then I surmise that you have never seen the insides of an amplifier after the aged large electrolytic capacitors have ruptured.

It's not so much servicing as preventative maintenance, the closest analogy I can think of is a car's cam belt which can cause catastrophic damage when it fails which is why the advice is to replace it regularly.

This is my last post on this thread, and possibly the audio room in general.

Malcolm
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I guess the meaning of my comment, that I took for granted was obvious, was lost among you lot on a forum. Naim equipment is built to last, it is built like a battleship. I think we can agree on that. After many years reading this forum, and before that the naim forum, I think people are conditioned into believing a service is an upgrade. It is in that context that I would not worry about servicing at all. The idea a service is an upgrade appears to be the primary and most common reason people send stuff off for a service, naim amps generally aren't sent off for a service because they are in imminent danger of exploding and taking out the loudspeakers with it? Very, very obviously, in the context of an amplifier that is in poor shape, or an amplifier that is 25 years old and has never been checked (this introduced out of nowhere by another poster) then yes, it needs to be checked over and components requiring renewal need to be changed. I shouldn't really have had to clarify this, I'm not bloody stupid but I clearly made the mistake of thinking all of that was obvious because we all (not just one bloke) know what naim equipment is.

The bit in bold above is an ott reaction but please yourself.

Mr Tibbs said:
Well put (and stay put) Malcolm.

Running a 25YO unserviced power amp is a handy way to take out a speaker or two when it fails so there's often collateral damage to sweep up too :)

I recapped my 110 when it was about 15YO and the main ely's (ITT I think) were pretty well gone by that stage. I dread to think what they'd be like by now if still in the amp 10 years further on.

Mr Tibbs
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MVV said:
Don't do that Malcolm. Just look in occasionally you are 'the' SH Naim expert on pfm and would be sorely missed.
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You're all getting more than a bit carried away. I can't quite believe how some of you people react at times when someone makes any kind of comment that doesn't follow the party line. You're all hooked on the NAP110, I get the picture and I think the OP does too. I think the 140 and 160 are both better but that's just me.

So to clarify, ~£250 on a NAP110 plus £170 min on a service whether it needs one or not is the advice in response to the OP? £430?
 
May I declare an interest as I have bought Gaius' 110

At £245 plus £179 for a service at class A I have a power amp back in the pink of health
Amortised over ten years and allowing a bit here and there for postage etc that works out at less than a pound aweek
Probably in ten years there will still be a market for this piece of equipment
In which case I will be quids in!
If this initial price is too much, then there are other favoured amplifiers that can be bought for not much money. I also have a big Old Yamaha receiver in perfect nick bought for less than £30
Or I did until my eldest decided his need was greater than mine!
I like CB naim. This is partly nOstalgia and partly because they offer great value for money
John
 
Brian, I don't know why you quote me. I don't give a f*** about the 110. I was more interested in the value misterc6 could add to the audio room. As for amps I'm not sure that any similarly specced amps are any different from each other.(please not again! It is done and will never be resolved)
 
John,

Glad you posted that.

My point about servicing is...was it critical the 110 you just bought have the service immediately, or did you have it done because it's "the done thing?"

The OP is on a budget. I see no reason why he should be told to *worry* about including the cost of a service because I wouldn't expect him to pay £220+ for an amplifier in imminent danger of failure that MUST have an immediate service.

This seems a fairly straightforward point to me, I don't know why some are getting so jumpy about it.
 
MVV said:
Brian, I don't know why you quote me. I don't give a f*** about the 110. I was more interested in the value misterc6 could add to the audio room. As for amps I'm not sure that any similarly specced amps are any different from each other.(please not again! It is done and will never be resolved)
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I don't have the faintest idea what you're on about. Not a clue. I quoted a few posts and yours is among them. I'll remove it if you like?

I too appreciate the posts from "mister6' but if he wants to leave the audio room over nothing at all (if he's said that because of this thread), then he's going over the top but that's his call.
 
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