advertisement


Naim SBL mark II main drive unit needed

chrisn

chrisn

pfm Member
Not really in the right place, but DIYers seem the most likely prospect.

I need an SBL main drive unit to replace one I have just blown sadly. Mark II, just one or even a pair.
Naim no longer have any of them them.
Anyboby have any?
A really tatty pair of whole speakers would do as long as there is one working bass driver!
Chris
 
Credos don't have the damping bits on them either - but it's easy enough to cut them off the dead SBL driver and stick them on the new one. I doubt that you'd notice the difference if it was matched or not anyway, given how crap the passive crossover is.
 
Last time I saw Naim selling them was @ £345 per driver:

If you are sure they will fit, Credo auction link on ebay: here
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Intro bass units used a plastic chassis rather than alloy.

No direct experience of this, but I believe Credo used a very similar unit to SBL2s, just not so carefully pair matched.

It would seem a shame to cannibalise a nice pair of Credos for a single drive unit for SBLs! And expensive.

I once bought a pair of SBL2 drive units for "spares or repair" for (if I remember rightly) £7.50 including postage!

Someone must have been playing a guitar amp through them since one of the voice coils was mostly detached from the cone and the other one was rubbing where the varnish on the voice coil had blistered and was rubbing in the magnetic gap.

I wouldn't have the patience to fix them today but it's surprising what you can do when Naim effectively tell you to f--k off!
 
i was told by any that once the voice coil was damaged they can not be repaired hence why I had to get a new set of drivers.

once lockdown ends I am going to loom at a pair of intros i will post back when I get them
 
peterm said:
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Intro bass units used a plastic chassis rather than alloy.

No direct experience of this, but I believe Credo used a very similar unit to SBL2s, just not so carefully pair matched.

It would seem a shame to cannibalise a nice pair of Credos for a single drive unit for SBLs! And expensive.

I once bought a pair of SBL2 drive units for "spares or repair" for (if I remember rightly) £7.50 including postage!

Someone must have been playing a guitar amp through them since one of the voice coils was mostly detached from the cone and the other one was rubbing where the varnish on the voice coil had blistered and was rubbing in the magnetic gap.

I wouldn't have the patience to fix them today but it's surprising what you can do when Naim effectively tell you to f--k off!
Click to expand...
How many decades of support would you consider reasonable for Naim not to be effectively telling you to F off?
 
david ellwood said:
How many decades of support would you consider reasonable for Naim not to be effectively telling you to F off?
Click to expand...

Forever! ;)

https://www.naimaudio.com/connection-magazine/23678/more-than-repairs-servicing-your-naim-product

From the above:
"With very few exceptions – such as the DVD5, for which transport mechanisms are no longer available – just about any product from the past 40+ years of Naim production can be serviced and returned to as-new condition..."
 
Intros have a different driver with a shorter pole piece and a plastic phase plug.
No good for SBL's.

Credo's are the same driver but without the dampers, which are easily enough transferred, as are Allaes and sl2's.

I wonder how long it will be before peeps are buying up Allaes and SL2's to fix their SBL's?

There must be a specialist out there (C'mon Falcon) who could manufacture or remanufacture a 3rd party unit given the number of speakers out there.

I've now managed to buy 3 pairs of used SBl's with knackered drivers so there has to be a demand. Probably more than you think.

I've also blown a few myself! One just died and one pair were killed by a new year's eve party years ago.

Not such a big issue when they were still in production and reasonably priced.

SL2's and Allaes are only about 12 years out of production so discontinuation of support is a bit poor, particularly considering the price point of SL2's.
 
Not terrible but back in the heyday they would have had no place in the market.

Kans and stands cost about £250 then and SBL's were introduced at £700 which was about the same as an LP12 with Ittock (and no cartridge)

That compared with the budget speakers of the day at about £150 inc stands and budget TT's at £100 ish. It was a total no brainer to spend the extra money in those days!

It was only when prices started going a bit silly with no improvement in sound that the scope for any intermediate models came along.

By comparison a reasonable 10 year old car would have cost about £1k and a washing machine about £250 to £300.

Can't quite figure how we got from prices then to now!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top