advertisement


Naim NAC32.5 fascia replacement

wylton

Naim and Mana member
I bought a rather nice, albeit cosmetically challenged NAC 32.5 last week. It coincided with the RSL boards I had on loan. The preamp sounded really good, but I needed to do something about the fascia; it was badly off colour and was very fragile. The previous owner had damaged the fascia when sliding the case off. I bought a replacement fascia from Lok Hi-Fi; quite expensive, but when needs must.



First, the volume and switch knobs have to come off & the two nuts on the toggle switches, then it's a matter of getting the old fascia off; I used a long-bladed knife.



I used some solvent to remove the old glue. Be careful not to get it everywhere; I used some cotton buds.



I inverted the chassis & put it on a sheet of glass to ensure correct alignment (the backing of the new fascia just peels off & sticks straight on).



Job done! I'm quite pleased with the result, just waiting for the new RSL boards to arrive now!

 
A good job. Well done.

I have a chip under the ‘mains’ button on my Nait 1. Second system. Should I let it bother me? Hmmm. I swear I was fine with it until your post!

How good is the quality of the new fascia?
 
Looks brand new now, Wylton.

I always chuckle when someone lists their old chrome bumper Naim as having the 'gold' graphics. Nicotine graphics, more like; although prolonged exposure to direct sunlight likely did as many in.

Enjoy!
 
The gold graphics aren’t nicotine though, but a cost cutting blip from Naim. I’ve a pair of (mono) 110’s and one is fresh as the day it left factory aluminium screen printing, the other plastic has cracked bottom edge and gold lettering.
 
The NAC 42.5 I have in the office system upstairs system has gone off colour too, but the fascia is in better condition than the NAC32.5 I bought. My NAP250, on the other hand, was originally screen printed, but had a new fascia fitted back in the 90's when it went to Naim for a service and is still fresh as a daisy.
 
I also replaced a Naim fascia recently, simply so that my olive gear would match. I got the greenish fascia from somebody in Holland, it was NOS and cost me €50. I had planned to send the brownish fascia that I removed to a fellow Fishie, though that hasn't worked out (another story).

Anyway, I made a video of the removal surgery to show how I did it, it could be useful to others here who are thinking of doing the same. There seems to be a lot more glue on the CB gear, the Olive had just two strips of double sided tape. I used a plastic spatula rather than a knife, to avoid scratching anything. Video below:


Sean
 
With the old-style facias I’d expect a little lighter petrol (naphtha) would help soften the glue as you work, kind of like removing sticky labels from LP sleeves. I’d be reluctant to try it with olive though as I assume they are back-printed on clear. I’d have thought the chance of damaging those, whatever the method, was quite high.

PS Interesting to note the labelling change on the 32.5 input selector. I’m pretty sure mine was the later type with the ‘aux’ label rather than two phonos. It certainly had the later knob style.
 
Interesting to note the labelling change on the 32.5 input selector. I’m pretty sure mine was the later type with the ‘aux’ label rather than two phonos.

Yes, I guess that Naim thought that not too many people would be running two turntables. Functionality remained the same as far as I remember, the infamous shorting links being used for high output sources. Me, on the other hand have more that one record deck, which was the main drive to me buying another NAC32 (I had one back in the 80's).

Chris Frankland, not surprisingly gave the NAC32.5 a rave review in the Nov/Dec issue of the flat response. Some nice B/W photos & the review sample had Phono 1 & 2. I mention that only because I happen to have a copy laying about nearby!

This 32.5 with RSL boards, will replace a nice NAC 12S which I have been enjoying lately.

Most people, btw, won't be concerned in saving the old fascia; mine was completely £$%*ed!
 
Yes, I believe early 32s had two sets of phono card for MM and MC. Then they introduced the 328 variable input card in place of the second phono, but kept the BNCs. That continued on into the 72 which then got the 326 link cards and finally a DIN socket and a pair of links instead of any input card.
 
I’d be reluctant to try it with olive though as I assume they are back-printed on clear
They are back printed but it is a pretty robust coating. I wouldn't want to scrape it with metal but anything else seems unlikely to scratch it. The one I removed is as good as new.
 
There are several different implementations of those CB facias, some of which age much better than others.

The older CB equipment had the fascia's made out of aluminium strip with the black part silk screened on. They never yellow but you can scratch the black off. My 42 is like that.
newer CB equipment has the facia made out of a 3M black plastic sheet material with the lettering and graphics silk screened on. With them it depends on the type of ink used. Some of gear has the graphics in white, which yellows and others have the graphics in silver which doesn't. Both sorts go very brittle so can crumble in the corners or along the base where either the case catches it on removal/re-fitment or the plastic is unsupported.
 
My Nap 110 monoblocs have the alloy fascias, so still perfect. The HiCap fascia went brittle and gold. About 3 years ago I took a hi res digital photo of a Nap fascia and printed it on best quality heavy weight semi matt photo paper, sealed with a quality satin photo paper sealant, removed the old plastic one, not easy as it just breaks into sharp fragments like eggshell and stuck the photo one on with photo mount double sided tape. It is still perfect. My 32.5 has a very dark grey plastic slightly textured fascia, with phono and aux. It is one of the last ones going by the serial number, and it is still perfect.
 
gEJ946h.jpg

To be continued….
 
As I said elsewhere, my NAC42.5 in the office has gone off colour like the picture of the 32.5 in the first post, but it's all in one piece, so I will leave it, My NAP250 had a new fascia many years ago, when it went back to Naim for a service & that is still in perfect condition. When I bought it new, the logo was silk-screened on.

I have a new project on the go, building an input expander & that will need a fascia. I have sheets of the slightly textured plain black material, but sticking them on has been a challenge previously. When I built the TPX supplies, I used contact adhesive, but that stuck to the chassis, but not very well to the fascia. I'll use double sided for the project & will revisit the TPX fascia's too; this is the tape that was on the back of the new fascia that I fitted to the NAC 32.5:

 
Great to see these classics getting attention. On a different tangent has anyone been able to make or squire replacement knobs for 32.5 or Nait etc the small ones
 


advertisement


Back
Top