Change colour of light in HiCap?

[jeremy roebuck]

I've got two chrome bumper HiCaps which work fine but a recent reorganisation onto a Quadraspire rack now has them sitting side by side. One has a red light and the other is green - for purely aesthetic reasons I'd like them to be the same

1. Any advice on how to change?
2. Which colour will sound best? ;-)

Any help with Q1 much appreciated

Jeremy

 

[Rico]

You'll need an appropriate LED, patience, soldering skills, a knife, possibly a resistor (there's a chance the old one is a bit crumbly with age) and some sleeving. Soldering Iron & Solder.

I'll move this to the DIY section - if you're interested in travelling this path you'll get the best advice there.

OTOH, why not send it to Naim for a factory service?

HTH

Rico

 

[prowla]

You could get some of those 3D glasses and see if the Hi-Caps jump out at you .

 

[Mr Pig]

“why not send it to Naim for a factory service?”

Fantastic! How do you change an LED? Send it to Naim for a service! :0)

Rico, Naim don’t pay you at all do they? ;0)

Actually Jeremy, Naim are great about this sort of thing and quite happy to help you do such minor jobs yourself. If you give them a call they’ll probably send you all the bits you need, instructions on what to do and I doubt they’ll charge you much at all. Swapping an LED is simple, you can buy packets of the things in Radio Shack.

Another thing you can do is change the hi-caps to look like olive style ones. More expensive and more work obviously but nice if you like the newer look. The black front on the old kit is just a plastic sticker which you can peal off, the olive front sticks on it its place. The new knob replaces the old one and if you turn the case around so that the chrome edge is at the back you’ve got a black edge at the front! The newer cases are a slightly different colour, mid-sheen dark grey instead of gloss black, but it’s not obvious at all.

The biggest problem is the NADI board, the little LED board that lights up the Naim logo. It is powered by the wires that supply old LED but it needs more power so you need to add a resistor piggyback to the one for the old LED. That’s not the problem though. The hard bit is the fact that there is no cut-out in the front plate for the NADI board, you’d have to cut one yourself or have no display illumination. Not an insurmountable problem if you don’t mind getting in about it :0)

Incidentally, Les at Avondale can send you new caps if you want to re-cap the things. He charges about half what Naim charge for a pair, I did it not that long ago.

 

[Mick Seymour]

You could leave them as they are to impress any nautical friends .

Mick

 

[Rico]

Fantastic! How do you change an LED? Send it to Naim for a service! :0)

Colin, calm down. Surely you can make the connection, you know, join the dots between "oh dear have a red LED hicap.... must be very old.... probably due for a service.... send it to Naim. Not difficult, really. and even for balance you'll note I included "directing you to the DIY room for help and expertise".

and no, they don't pay me. <slaps side of head>

Rico