HI Richard, thanks so much for your reply. It is possible to purchase a NAIM Phono board for this preamp? I think this is the reason i am not getting any signal from the phono imput after connecting the LP12.
these other boards you mention are they costly to replace?
Frank
The phono boards you need are NA522s (MM) or NA523s (MC) in either S, K, or E form , depending on the cartridge being used.
The boards are no longer made but you should be able to find some second-hand. Ring round some Naim dealers and keep an eye out on sites like eBay.
Fort more info on the phono boards, see the FAQ on here.
HI Richard which version S,K, or E do you think best fits a LINN LP12 and a Candid MC Cartridge with the EKOS SE2 tonearm and a Radical PS. Ebay has many 323 photo stages but just found a NEW 523 K pair of phono boards NEW still in the box.
The NA523Ks should be just what you need for the Kandid.
New may actually mean that they are due for a service. These boards have not been produced for many years now so I assume that the capacitors are old.
yes i just saw them still in the box but you are correct that does not mean they do not need an update once received. The price the seller is asking is about double what similar boards have been selling for in sold items plus shipping from England
Another alternative would be to take advantage of the powered AUX2 input on the NAC52 (this gets dedicated power rails from the 52PS) and use a Stageline K, or a secondhand Prefix K. The Prefix would be my personal choice, as I presume you use an LP12, and fits within the LP12 plinth. Only issue is finding one and making sure it has the Linn SME connector rather than the connector for the ARO.
I would suggest that given this seems to be quite an old 52/52PS, with unknown history, then a service of both 52 & 52PS should be arranged.
5xx series Phono boards can be found, pre-loved, without too much trouble. My set of 523’s cost me GB£65, 2 years or so ago.
Agreed. The actual numbers are visible.
@Richard.Dane - Why is there just one 528 V board - ??? There are clearly 4 526 link boards.
There will be another one on the board underneath - it’s accessed through a cut-out in the chassis tray.
Thank you. Interesting. From photos on the www, it seems the layout / arrangement of the NAC52 changed significantly, later.
Such as -
And -
This post seems very useful for later 52’s -
Yes, the layout changed quite substantially, mainly to lose most of the interchangeable boards for the line inputs.
The pictures above suggest at least 2 iterations from the early version, I think…?
It was in constant development throughout.
I would be interested to see & understand this. I failed to find any pictures on the web showing the underside of a NAC52 chassis.
AIUI, there are two boards, one per channel. Richard posted this pic ( from Kuma, I believe) about four years ago .
.
You can see the edge of the second board, and what looks like an “absence of metal” (a large hole) directly underneath.
The NAC52 used a pair of sandwiched main boards. For the Phono input, one daughter board was positioned on the top main board and the second daughter board positioned on the lower main board underneath. Obviously, the only way the second daughter board could be fitted was via a hole in the U shaped alloy chassis tray.
I may have an image of this somewhere, but it could mean looking through thousands of pictures in my Naim picture files…
Yes. Venice Audio. Good guy.
This picture seems to show two 526 link boards along side each other, above the top PCB, behind the Phono inputs…?
