Naim Audio Reviews 128

We bought the Naim Mu-So from a French retailer (Boulanger) in 2019.
Very good sound but we had to return the product as the Bluetooth was not working properly.
Although the product was no longer under warranty, our speaker was returned and repaired, free of charge, within a short time thanks to the help of Naim in the UK (Thanks Jordan!) and Focal in France.
We're very happy with the speaker even though the bluetooth system is probably not the best on the market. The sound, on the other hand, is just excellent, not to mention that the speaker is just beautiful.

Just had more great service from Henry at Naim. I have just read a couple of posts saying how prro the service is and not hearing back - hav they checked theri spam as I have always had a quick response and they really do try to help if they can...almost like the old days!

Bought a Naim Mu-so 2 in Australia from a local AD for more than $3000.

Just over 2 years of use later the knob died. Tried to contact Naim support 3 times have not received a reply in 2 months.

I was told by the dealer that The Australian distributor was dumped by Naim/focal and there is no current distributor in Australia and therefore no one to contact regarding a repair. I tried to contact the old Australian distributor with no luck.
$3000 paper weight.

Please beware that these look and feel pretty but once they’re dead there’s no chance to repair them in Australia.

Edit: I emailed mu-sosupport at Naim twice -which is listed on their website but not monitored.

JLS quoted $1200 repair. Which is 60% the cost of the new one right now. The warranty on repair would be only 90 days. For a $1200 repair. Not a “smooth process” like the replier Naim suggests.

Buyers should definitely beware.

Terrible environmentally to have such a dense piece of equipment die after 2 years of light use to go to landfill.

Great sound, but app is extremely unreliable and customer support non-existent. I’ve tried to get support three times and have never had a response.
AVOID

I needed to contact Naim Technical Support regarding an issue with my Naim Uniti 2. I received detailed support via email, in no time at all, with clear to follow instructions. Great service, many thanks.

Had a problem updating my Naim Muso v1 from software V1.8 to v2.0. I am very pleased to say that with help from the Naim Tech Support Team , namely Duncan my problem was resolved and the update installed successfully.

Duncan Roberts replied quickly to my query about CDS II puck rubber grips, and is now sending me a few. Excellent!

I am lucky enough to own a pre and power amp combination from Naim and have had these for over 40 years , they were second hand when I bought them . They have had a service during this time when some internal components were replaced and the sound quality noticeably improved . I have also purchsed an NDX streamer which has allowed me to explore the full variety of music available without comitting to purchasing a physical product which has allowed me to expand my musical knowledge and enjoyment . I have found Naim to be quite customer focused during my long relationship with the brand .

Great sound - when it works!
The item that I have a problem with is a Naim CD555. This is one of the most expensive CD players in the world. The CD player cost in 2011 £18,345 including it's power supply. On my player there is a little round ring that they refer to as a platter. It is about 14mm in diameter. This fits into the centre of a CD. This broke into three pieces in 2018. The player still worked with two of the pieces which stay in place due to the magnet in that area of the player. However, I decided to send this player back to Naim to be repaired. The cost of this was £585.19! In November 2020 the platter broke again. I contacted Naim Technical support and received this reply: - "To confirm what we spoke about - the CD555 you own S.N - 317767, has been authorised to be repaired free of charge, due to a faulty CD platter that has cracked, the unit was repaired in Feb '18 last, which you paid for in full. Please show this to your chosen Naim Audio Dealer as confirmation that the repair is FOC (Free Of Charge).The only thing you will need to pay will be the carriage from your dealer to us, which of course you can settle with them. If you need anything else - please ask"
There was no mention in their email of a time limit for the repair. We were in the middle of Covid and went into a lockdown just after so I decided to defer the repair. Between then and now nothing has changed. The CD player is performing fine and the sound produced is magnificent. But I thought it was time to take Naim up on their offer of a FOC repair. But guess what? They said that time had run out for this repair offer. But there wasn't any time limit mentioned!! So what has changed? In their last accounts they show a balance sheet worth £19.9 million, turnover of £39 million and a healthy pre tax profit of £4.9 million, so they aren't short of money! But they want me to pay again to replace what they describe as a "faulty platter", why? Last time it was £585.19. How much will it be this time? You can be sure that the price hasn't come down. And if the last one only lasted 21 months how long will this new one last?
A shame that the technical support isn't the same quality as the sound. What an arrogant lot! I have three Naim systems that together have cost me an absolute fortune, but I will never buy another Naim product. Be warned!
In their reply they invited me to contact them so that this could be resolved. I did, and they have completely ignored me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a recent support question about a Naim amp I bought over 30 years ago. It was answered quickly and professionally. Amazing service! Says so much about a company and its culture that customers, no matter whether existing or new, are looked after in the same way. Thanks!

My call was answered quickly and the agent I spoke with was knowledgeable, helpful and courteous. Although Jordan couldn't give me the correct advice immediately regarding a non standard Naim component connection set up, within a couple of hours he'd emailed me back with a complete connection scheme for my particular system.

I have found that their support team have been extremely good, having chased solutions down and resolved problems for me. Bear in mind that Naim having been at the forefront of digital music, that their older products can look long in the teeth, with software sometimes not behaving as modern counterparts do. But the sound is fantastic, and maybe a 2nd hand purchase now and then buffers the hi end cost of new Naim. BTW they replaced a motherboard for me 3 years ago and when a different component on it failed, I suggested the industry standard is better than a 3 year lifetime, they agreed and repaired free of charge.

I had various problems with the NAC. All the support had in mind is to put the blame on my network. I was able to prove, thanks to my dealer, that it was due to the current version.
Anyway, the support didn't seem to care or the support was just not qualified enough.
The next product will certainly no longer naim

After a hiccup with a new, boxed unit that decided to stop working overnight (possibly due to thunderstorms but we really don't know) Naim replaced the unit without question and extremely promptly. Outstanding service from Naim and thanks to Henry O'Shea for dealing with it so professionally.

I wrote to Naim seeking help to resolve an issue I was having getting my Muso 2 Wood Edition to link with my Plex library in my iMac. The connection was erratic and very frustrating! Jordan replied and talked me through possible causes in detail via email. He then performed an analysis remotely to research further and established that a wi-fi extender was the probable culprit! I replaced this with an EE mesh disc costing £75 and the problem completely disappeared! Now I reliably have access to my large Plex library made from my CD collection. This looks great on my iPad and works reliably and well! Thank you so much to Naim and Jordan in particular for the swift, detailed and effective attention you gave me. Perfect after sales service!

I own a unitilite. The cd transport continually jams when trying to eject a cd. Apparently I am not alone in having this problem. It appears to be a design fault. Naim will not accept responsibility for this and will only converse through a dealer. To repair the ‘problem’ they quote in excess of £500. To have it serviced as well in excess of £900 which is more than half the original price.

I purchased a CD player from this company just under six years ago for the eye-watering amount of £2200. However, it has now developed a fault, the CD rattles in when you try to play it. I was shocked to discover that Naim do not now repair CD players due to a lack of spare parts.

I think it is outrageous that a CD player costing this much should break down in less than six years and the company has no way of repairing it. I am also astonished at the blasé attitude of the company. When Naim wrote to me telling that they couldn’t repair it, they signed off by saying “we hope you can appreciate our commitment to providing quality products and services to all our customers”. What a bizarre comment. A £2200 CD player that breaks down in less than six years is not what I call a quality product and being unable to manage the stock of spare parts is not what I’d call quality customer service.

Naim’s public image: ‘We can service or repair just about anything we’ve ever made.’ Nick Ray, Naim Service Department in Connection Magazine, talking about the company’s 50 years of production.

The reality: ‘Please know that we have carefully considered all possible options and have concluded that both practically and in terms of warranty, we are unable to proceed with the repair at this time due to the shortages discussed… thank you for your patience and understanding.’ Jordan Baker, Technical Support.

Says it all, really. Breath-taking arrogance and duplicity.

*** UPDATE***

After Naim refused to repair the CD player, I sent it to Electronic Partners in Sheffield to be repaired. They sent me a ticket saying they had received it, and 30 minutes later an update saying the problem was caused by a cracked spindle, which was a generic part and would cost £30 plus labour and shipping to replace. I gave the go-ahead and the unit was sent back to me the same day. Contrast that to Naim, who wouldn’t even take the player back to have a look at it, and failed to realise what the problem was when I sent them a video of the CD player in operation via Dropbox.

I now have the unit back and it is working perfectly, the only problem is that every time I play it I’m reminded of the scam artists who took £2200 of my money and then couldn’t care less that it developed a fault. Hopefully the hi-fi press will have the journalistic integrity to soon expose the complacency and arrogance of this once-great company.

Sad but true. Connectivity is very unreliable. I have been trying all morning, nearly 2 hours. No rhyme or reason. Support is non existent. Check other reviews, Naim have not bothered to respond to any reviews in over 5 months. That's called Customer Don't-Care.
Really sad, I committed to pay the high price to support a UK brand, sound is great - when it works, reality is this is a French company and they made nearly £5 million profit in 2021 so why can they not afford or care to provide support?
Product & Support not fit for purpose. AVOID.
Just ordered Sonos Era 300 from Richer Sounds. My brother has one and it is 100% reliable.

I have owned Naim Audio equipment since the mid 90s. I was very happy my old system until a small part became unavailable and the entire system was redundant.

I purchased a new system, a Unity Star with a Muso2 as a second room component thereof. There are some things to like about the new system, but I think one should to take into consideration the considerable cost of these units and what value they actually represent.

The Muso2 is very stylish with a wonderful rich sound for such a compact form factor, however some owners (including me) have found it to be very unstable. Given that the Muso2 puts a lot of eggs in the basket of 'connectivity' and area where it fails so often, speaks about it's value proposition.

The Unity Star has outstanding sound paired with the Neat Iota Xplorers, although again, flaky connectivity lets this unit down. The value proposition of these units is their network interoperability and the primary interface being a mobile app. Both of these are woeful.

If you are very forgiving of products flaws for the sake of design, perhaps an android phone user, or an owner of French cars, maybe it's for you.

I loved my old Naim system, it was beautifully made and very reliable. This is just disappointing.