Naim

[Nigel]

Not heard of them. I'm sure they will work well though. Where is DSJR when you need him hey?

[_D_S_J_R_]

Shane used to own Rega ELA's I remember. The RS3 is an updated and to me less 'rough' version of the ELA 'sound' so he should like it.

I never liked the Index in any form although the mk2 was slightly better than the first. The Helix was far superior to me at the time. The Nait 2 was never a favourite amp of mine, sorry, and lacked the charm of the original, so the lack of power and little real musical insight showed it up more in my experience... I may have worked at a prime Naim dealer, but that didn't mean I was compelled to like all of them!

[karatestu]

Nac72, Hicap + Nap140 (x2)is a combo I have owned in the past. I really liked it at the time (2007) but my eyes have been opened since. I modded the bollocks off all of them over the years but there was only so far you could go. Naim love a big bastard power supply - the hicap has a 500VA transformer in it, a couple of 15,000uf smoothing caps and a very agricultural regulator based on the LM317 application notes. The NAP140's really did improve a lot when I removed one of the amp boards and turned them into mono blocs.

It is said that the NAP140 is constantly on the brink of instability, partly because of the amplifier circuit and partly because the two amp boards share a common power supply (single secondary transformer, bridge rectifier and 4 smoothing caps.) There is even a power supply tapped off this for a preamp. Naim send signal and DC power down the same bloody interconnect - go figure! And to top that off, when using a hicap the signal from the preamp is sent there before going on to the power amp(s). Utter madness.

[antonio66]

"when using a hicap the signal from the preamp is sent there before going on to the power amp(s). Utter madness."

I could never understand that Stu when I owned 62/HiCap/140.

[karatestu]

Naim trot out some bollocks that it is all to do with correct earthing. In a noisy power supply

[_D_S_J_R_]

Julian Vereker told me it was to do with capacitance...

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

That makes no sense, you have probably mixed it up with speaker cable. A series capacitance blocks DC and a parallel capacitance blocks varying amounts of HF AC (depending on value). We are talking about a DC voltage rail running inside the same cable as AC signal lines. The DC is not going influence the AC as there is no field. The AC from that close proximity may bleed into the DC rail but will then hopefully be removed by power supply filters.

I see it as just not good practice, *everything* that has a different function should be kept away from others. Same reason I hate wiring looms.

[Geoff.R.G]

That makes no sense, you have probably mixed it up with speaker cable. A series capacitance blocks DC and a parallel capacitance blocks varying amounts of HF AC (depending on value). We are talking about a DC voltage rail running inside the same cable as AC signal lines. The DC is not going influence the AC as there is no field. The AC from that close proximity may bleed into the DC rail but will then hopefully be removed by power supply filters.

I see it as just not good practice, *everything* that has a different function should be kept away from others. Same reason I hate wiring looms.

I agree, however transients on the DC supply may cause transients in the signal which is highly undesirable. This, and completely off topic, is the premise of SFAR88. Taking the signal into the PSU when it isn't necessary seems beyond pointless.

[karatestu]

I see it as just not good practice, *everything* that has a different function should be kept away from others. Same reason I hate wiring looms.

I completely agree. Bloody wiring looms - Naim are big on this. My amps and power supplies have wires making their own way to their destination. No sharp bends but I do tend to take the shortest route as long as it is away from transformers and AC wiring.

I also like to have volume pots and selector switches at the back of the case with extension shafts to the front panel knobs. Helps to keep the wiring as short as possible. I use 6mm wooden dowel for the extension shafts.

Power switches are usually on the front of Naim stuff (except CDP's) but I like them at the back for various reasons.

[_D_S_J_R_]

That makes no sense, you have probably mixed it up with speaker cable.
I see it as just not good practice, *everything* that has a different function should be kept away from others. Same reason I hate wiring looms.

These memories aren't so vague and we and JV were talking Naim interconnect 'theory' at the time. More likely he got it wrong or fudged something up to shut us ignorant twats up. As for putting DC lines and *unscreened* stereo audio down the same multi-conductor, it makes little sense to me and and served to mess the stereo image up (I tried a SNAIC outside of a Naim system with horror at what it did to the sound on it's own, let alone added to the rest of it). But then and back in those days, imaging wasn't deemed important.