Hi, firstly hello this is my first post on this forum but I’ve got loads of useful information prior to choosing my system.
Sorry to resurrect a previously discussed thread, but here goes. I’m truly useless with technology and need things explaining in ‘Janet & John’ terms! So I find guidance on previous threads a little bewildering to my limited comprehension.
Anyway I’ve a new Naim Uniti PE paired with Focal Kanta 2 speakers via Chord Shawline X cable. I’ve been out and bought a single REL S/510 as I don’t have the budget to stretch to 2 after blowing my life savings on the units! The chap in the shop said I’d not notice any discernible difference using the RCA out (he’s not a Naim dealer) so sold me a 3m cable to connect this way. But on reading on this site many seem to favour using the supplied high level cable via the speakers. So my questions are as follows if anyone can guide me;
1 - Will there be a significant drop in sound quality using 3m RCA cables via the dedicated socket on the Nova to the RCA low level input on the Rel, I bought decentish RCA cables priced at £100
2 - And if I do use the high level connection, am I right in thinking I need to bind the yellow and red wires together and put into the positive terminal in the speaker closest to the subwoofer and then attach the remaining black wire to the negative terminal on the other speaker (ie around 6m away)?
Thanks for allowing to to join this forum and I welcome any suggestions
When I was researching a sub purchase I found REL are very much in favour of using a high level connection, either at the amp or speaker end. Naim suggest the latter I believe, and indeed REL say this is a slight upgrade over connecting to the amp terminals. I have just done this in my second system with a REL sub.
You can actually connect red and yellow together on one speaker neg terminal and black on the other terminal on the same speaker if you wish, or connect red and yellow to pos on one side and take the black across to the neg on the other speaker-which gives a stereo connection, This is as you have described.
If you have bought the REL with the standard lead it is 10m long, and it is easy to strip the casing which means the second plan shouldn’t be hard to implement. I have just done this in my system with a REL sub.
I don’t know about the RCA route/query you raise but can’t really see any downsides to the high level connection apart from having another cable to hide as it goes to each speaker.
The REL website has a series of excellent videos about this stuff.
One thing to be careful of is the PE version is Class D so it’s worth following the instructions in the REL manual on connecting to the PE. If unsure, check with Naim support for advice.
Hi, the Nova PE has a very different amp to any other Naim product, so it may well be that you can use the high level connection from the amp rather than having to connect to the speakers. Your dealer should be able to advise on this - that’s their job - but if they can’t be bothered you could ask Naim Support yourself.
I found the high level connection to sound slightly better when I’ve tried it in the past, but low level also worked pretty well, so perhaps worth a try before you return the cable and try high level.
If you put the sub nearer the speakers than the Nova it may be that connecting to the speakers is more practical. I would advise that you determine the optimum position for the sub before making a final decision on the cable.
Thank you ever so much for all your suggestions. I’ve not seen many owners of the PE post on this forum yet, but after demoing the standard Nova I really feel it is superior (as it should be at a 4k premium!) I was very close to buying the Linn Selekt over the standard Nova as I felt it edged it. However the PE trumps the two of them IMO.
So would it be fair to say that the difference between low and high level is pretty minimal ? if so I may be inclined to keep this as it’s tidier wires! Also I have AudioQuest Evergreen RCA cables, will spending a lot more on upgrading these make a big difference ?
Without mentioning any names I’m not entirely sure my dealer an oracle in this area from what I’ve found. How do I go about contacting Naim support?
I found the difference between high and low level connections to be quite small, on a Superuniti (predecessor to the Nova) and on a 282/250. If it suits you, I would just use it. No harm in trying both if you can be bothered, given that you have the cables.
You can contact Naim support in Salisbury directly by phone or email. Contact details are on their website.
I would go with the cable you have from the RCA. It’s simple, it’s how it’s designed to work, and it will be fine. It’s how I connect my sub to a Nova. Don’t over think it, keep it simple and enjoy the music.
To be fair, Rel subs are designed primarily to be used with a high level connection for optimum sound quality in an audio system. Sure, low level should work fine, but Rel supply high level cables with their subs because they think they are the best option.
Nope, because then the sub will only get the signal from one channel.
I have a REL R-328 I use with a Uniti Atom. I use the high-level connection, and the red goes to the right channel positive terminal, yellow to the left channel positive terminal and the black to either speaker’s negative terminal. As the Mandalorian says, “this is the way.”
The only time you twist red and yellow together is when you have a stereo pair of REL subs, where for each sub you connect red+yellow to positive terminal and black to negative, repeated for each of two subs and speakers. This is how I connect my two REL S/510 subs to my main Naim system, and I connect them to the terminals at my speakers rather than at my 300DR. I do that using two 1.5m REL Bassline Blue cables.
Personally, I have never found that using low level connection to connect a Naim stereo system to a REL sub works anywhere near as well as using the high level connections.
[quote=“JosquinDesPrez, post:11, topic:35060”]
I use the high-level connection, and the red goes to the right channel positive terminal, yellow to the left channel positive terminal and the black to either speaker’s negative terminal. As the Mandalorian says, “this is the way.”
The video on the REL site (and YouTube) that discusses connecting a single sub to speakers appears different; the connections appear to be as I described them. I cannot post a link as it is to a commercial site but it isn’t hard to find with a Google search. Check 2.45 into the video.
Many thanks when you say that ‘this is the way’ you mean that the red & yellow wires are combined and attached to the positive terminal? That’s certainly what happens in the REL video on YT that is mentioned?
Sorry I’m slightly confused as Josquin’s post seems to contradict this advice?
Just to check. The manual I have shows what you say regarding connection to the amp terminals, I think we have been talking about connecting to the speaker terminals, as covered in their video but not illustrated in the manual.
Twin REL TZero’s here - use them with RCA to low level from phono output on my NSC222 - sounds perfect. No desire to have piles of cables attached to the speakers.
It’s a bit confusing. In the face of it, what you wrote seems wrong. The red and yellow are the positives, and the black is the negative. If you connect both positives to one speaker, you’ll only get bass from that speaker. Connection should be exactly the same at the speaker end as the amp end ie yellow and black to left and red to right - or yellow to left and red and black to right, it doesn’t really matter. The key thing is that yellow and red must go to different channels on either amp or speaker, otherwise you’ll get bass from just one channel.
This is exactly what I am referring to. You only combine red and yellow when connecting stereo pairs, one complete sub per channel. I used a single sub for many years. Both channels got one or the other of the red/yellow and one channel got the black.
The only time you combine red/yellow on one post and black on another with a single sub is for a center channel sub.
This is what the manual shows for connecting a single sub to two channels. Whether you do it at the amp terminals or speaker terminals is inconsequential.
If you are using mono-bloc amps, REL says two subs must be used and the connection looks like this, which is also how I connect my two subs (except I use the terminals on my speakers). This is when you combine red/yellow.
Isn’t it that sub bass info is usually mastered as mono, with the same signal on both channels? On that assumption and taking into account my cutoff frequency is the minimum, I would say there should be no big difference in both approaches.
Although I think what you say is correct, and we should have yellow and red in different speakers, in my use case, wouldn’t it be largely irrelevant?
