Have you changed your mind about a brand? Was it you, or them?

@tomic601 - I have no doubt the Atom sounds good - most NAIM gear sounds great. Dynamic, detailed, neutral etc...

But due to their design "direction" with their amps
- i.e. having to replace the power supply capacitors after 10-12 years
- I’ll never buy another Naim product ever again - it left a BAD Taste.

BTW - 10-12 years is not just a "recommendation" as in...
- "it will keep working but might not sound as good" type of recommendation - noooooo
- My NAIT 5i stopped working completely - KAPUT !

So after 10 years I was left with a couple of options
- a boat anchor (but I don’t have a boat)
- or pay the $430 CDN to have it fixed

So after I had it fixed, I sold it for $650 CDN - that’s a whole $220 back on my original investment of $1700 after 10 years. What a BARGAIN - I THINK NOT

BTW - Naim also tells you to leave the gear powered on 24/7
- well I did that - look how well that turned out.:-(

I would recommend all NAIM owners TURN OFF your Naim gear after every session. You might just get 12 years out of your NAIM gear.

AND what's with the NAIM power-on thump? - almost every other amp out there has "soft start" circuitry which DOES NOT impair performance. Naim are just too lazy to include it - it's part of their "brand identifiers" - a very bad part.

There is no longer any reason to get hooked on NAIM
- it used to be one of the most dynamic amps out there
- but things change and there are always new companies snapping at your heals in the hifi game.

There is a huge selection of gear than can compete with NAIM these days.
e.g. Bryston
- sounds better than my NAIM and comes with a 20 year warranty
- yes, that's a 20 year WARRANTY, not a "recommendation"
- and they live by it and will fix it if it should fail.

As said above - NAIM is living on past glories - they really should wake up and smell the coffee !

BTW - I’m not bitter - but I am a whole lot wiser (and poorer)  :-)

Regards - Steve

Steve - yowsa, your experience would have me in same place. I have a lore hate relationship with my Unitiserve and so far ( 3 years ) a love relationship with the Atom. Best wishes to you kind sir!

I was reading some of the other posts and just remembered my foray into Tube Gear...

I frequented a store that actively promoted Raysonic - and I "admired" a very nice SP120.

At the time, I was using a Yamaha 5.1 receiver in my audio system, so the Raysonic was a welcome upgrade in tonal quality and LOOKS!.

Ah - the warm glow of those tubes was hard to resist and the polished silver/gold case - it looked the part as well.

Fast forward 6 months and I purchased the first set of replacement tubes.

After SIX MONTHS ? is that all I get out of a set of $400 tubes ?

So I google'd Raysonic - to keep a long story short - I had to have the entire thing reconditioned, to take care of a shortcomings in the transformer and some key design flaws in the circuit design
- ca-ching $300
- AND another set of tubes -$400

Needless to say Raysonic is now OFF my Christmas list

So I went back to solid state.

But - I have come to realize not all tube gear is created equal. :-)

Cheers 

IPA, golden loggers or Mexican brews in the Summer; amber ales or dark loggers when it cools down; Montana brewed Kettle House "Cold Smoke" Scottish Ale, any time.

I agree with mijostyn regarding Krell. Their early model KSAs and KSTs had a problem with caps failing from heat. I had an early model KST that failed after just a few years. When I called customer service to see if I could send it in to get upgraded and repaired (I explained that I wasn't expecting for free, that I just needed it fixed) they said that they were no longer supporting repairs on that model and would not suggest anyplace I could send it for repairs. They did offer to sell me a new one, at full price of course. Done with Krell.

I had a ten year old Bryston power amp, that I sent in to have the switch repaired. It came back a couple of weeks later, with a new switch, a list of upgraded parts, re-biased, cleaned and looking and sounding like new - no charge. 

Loved my mid 80s, British made, Quad ESL 63s. They served me flawlessly for nearly 25 years and I only sold them when work opportunities meant moving into a much smaller living space. When I moved back into a larger home, I considered the new Quads, but stories of their unreliable performance after moving to China, led me away from the Quads and am now most happy to have gone with the Maggies.....Jim 

@ ecpninja

Just discovered this thread/your post re: YBA - a few comments to clarify:

● All YBA products are designed by the founder, Yves-Bernard André, in France
● Yves-Bernard André is Chief Designer
● Yves-Bernard André remains a part of the ownership team
● All production is under YBA's supervision & training
● Depending on series, most/all of the parts are French sourced to Yves-Bernard's specs
● All Signature production is Quality checked/tested by Yves-Bernard André
● Any required servicing by our US Authorized technicians in Austin,TX

Hope that helps...
Jim Ricketts/tmhaudio