Balanced input to Nova

I am a big Naim fan - I have a Nova, my original Atom, and two Mu-So-2’s in my home (and a Qb2 in my office) (all used or open box, BTW). My turntable, by structural necessity, is 25 ft away from the Nova in my den. (Michel Orbe deck => Cary ph301 phono stage => Mac C2200 pre-amp, also all used / open box).

I currently have 30ft XLR cables running in the basement below and back up to all my other kit on the other side of the room. I have the XLRs going into a Radial J-ISO adapter, with a 0.5M RCA cable run into the Nova.

There is a tiny bit of hum with this arrangement. I just found a female XLR to 5 pin DIN cable that’s only 15cm long. Pin arrangement is congruent as follows:

XLR pin 1 (ground) => Din pin 1
XLR pin 2 (red) => Din pin 2
XLR pin 3 (white) => Din pin 3

Some adapters switch pins 2 and 3, and I can’t find any details about the Nova pin input specs on line.

Is this pin wiring compatible with the Nova? If so, it will allow me to have a 100% balanced connection from my preamp to the Nova? (I know no one can predict if it will be less noisy, but it’s worth 14 USD to take a chance, and it would be one less box on my audio stand.)

Thanks for any help you may provide.

DS

The Nova doesn’t have a balanced input, so you will not get the benefits of a balanced connection in a long cable run by running an XLR to DIN cable, although it would still work.

Given that the Nova doesn’t have balanced inputs, as Chris says you can’t can’t run balanced: but there is an alternative that can be good for long signal signal runs: Use balanced cable, but connect the shield to ground at only one end, so you have a twisted pair for signal and ground signal, connected to both ends, plus shielding that does not conduct signal. Best end for the shield to be connected to ground would be whichever of the two end boxes is grounded.

1 Like

Thanks for you insight - I did not know this.

I had a dedicated grounded 10 amp service put in for the table, stage and pre-amp on the far wall, so I will have the XLR ground attached on that end. So may I simply reach into the male DIN plug (going into the Nova) with a needle-nosed plier and break off pin 1? And that is upper, left-most pin as I look at the plug with the pins on the lower half?

Thanks so much !

If you need to disconnect one wire, I would think that it would be easier to desolder it at the back of the DIN plug. Then you haven’t broken anything and it’s easily reversible if you ever need to repurpose the cable.

This. But try to cover the then free cable shield end with a bit of insulating tape to ensure it won’t touch any of the pins

Thanks very much, Chris and I_B.
I will try to find an adapter with the DIN side not plastic-clad to make desoldering easier. On the other hand, though, I have no other DIN sockets in my system (my Atom is used only to power my outdoor speakers in multi-room mode). If I can’t “break into” the adapter easily I may just attempt to break off pin 1.

I hope I’m not abusing your knowledge base as well as your hospitality, but I wanted to: (a) confirm that pin 1 as above is the ground pin, and (b) if I botch the job and don’t excise the pin right at its base, how many millimeters into the small DIN holes is the electrical contact? (I realize that this is not something that anyone will know off the top of their head, and I can always peer into the socket with a headlight and a magnifying glass to make my best guess).

Thanks again.

Normally on a DIN plug, you can unscrew the housing and simply pull the pins out from the back without breaking anything. You can also desolder one in place and cap the trailing wire.

I’m still not sure what the rationale is here though. If you are trying to avoid a ground loop, this doesn’t seem like the way to do it. If you’re getting a faint 50Hz hum it could also be pucked up from the very long cable running near AC mains. Have you troubleshootes this thoroughly first? For example, if you move the nova down near the other gear and connect it with a short cable instead of the 30’ one, do you have the same problem? What about when the turntable ground wire to phonostage is removed?

1 Like

That was the thought behind suggesting behind pseudo balanced, twisted pair plus a shield grounded at one end, where true balanced is not possible, to minimise the risk of him pick up, compared to a standard coaxial (or a twisted pair unshielded) signal cable)

I don’t know if this is too long a story, but I’d like to explain the history of my listening room.

Two (long-winded) reasons I can’t have my turntable near my amp:

(1) Attached are photos of my listening room. We did a major renovation two years ago (photos taken during the work). At the time the renovation began, I only cared about stereo - I have had the Michel Orbe, the Cary PH301, and the Mac C2200, for nigh on 18 years. When we moved to this house - 12 years before the renovation - I could not set up the Orbe next to fireplace. The floor did not have the structural stability. I could tiptoe by and the tonearm would still skip.

(2) More importantly, my wife hates the look of all my stuff - the Orbe in particular. Early on in the renovation, it dawned on me that I could move the Orbe to the back the room, of out of sight in the bookcase. I bought the Naim for playing the FLAC files of my music collection; but the amplifier is so pleasing that I wanted to pipe the vinyl directly to it.

I did not think about the DINs when I hatched this plan, only the RCA’s. So I found a passive XLR to RCA adapter (Radial J-ISO) to connect the 30’ balanced cables to the Naim. (I was not and am not electronically savvy enough to think through my needing balanced on both ends.)

[Digression - my audio project was transmogrified when the wall behind the bookcase was exposed for the kitchen renovation. I realized I could have a multichannel audio setup for movies (wires for rear height and rear surround; and height-mounted surround, and front surrounds mounted by the cross beams picture); and much more future-proofing that I don’t want to bore you with. If I had not done all this planning and work myself, I might have consulted someone that new more about grounding! I did put the dedicated 10 AMP service to all my gear on this back wall, I micromanaged the electricians’ placement of the Romex, and then wrapped all the mains wiring with adhesive copper foil.]

I don’t know if the above has bored you silly or not. Back to the topic at hand.

Feeling_zen: I have no experience with DIN’s did not know they would just unscrew. I will try this first, of course.

As for just running speaker wires across the room: My Orbe-to-Naim stereo system is embedded into my multichannel system. I have become addicted to 5.1 channel music. I have a Marantz amplifier, but the Martin Logan Odysseys in the photo are the main L & R for both systems. So I have the front L and R from the Marantz pre-amp going to the analogue input of the Naim. Since all the multichannel gear is in the front of the room, the Naim must be as well.

So, thanks to all of you, Chris, Innocent Bystander, and Feeling Zen. Here is my short-term plan:
The XLR - DIN5 adapters arrive tomorrow. I will bypass the J-ISO, remove the ground pin, and see if the hum is gone. If not, I will also remove the deck-to-phono-stage ground.

I feel as if I have taken you all way, way down my audio rabbit hole here. I hope this was not too much. I’m new to these fora, and don’t know if other folks get as preoccupied as I do. Please forgive me if I have waxed too obsessively…

Good luck with it!