Getting earthing right seems an important aspect of Naim’s design philosophy. Am I right in understanding that in a Naim system, signal and chassis earth are connected only in one component? Is this the pre-amp?
Best regards
Hans
Naim CD players have signal -ve earthed (grounded)
The streamers have a switcable earthing system that either connects signal -ve to chassis earth if the system does not have a CD players includes, or it switches the signal -ve to be floating (open) if the system includes a CD player.
Thanks. Does this mean that in Naim pre- and power amplifiers VE is floating?
Hans
I have a SuperLine/Supercap, is VE also floating in these components?
Only CD players have the signal -ve grounded.
Everything else has an insulated signal -ve.
The streamers have the facility to connect signal -ve to chassis earth with the Signal Ground switch if required.
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I don’t have Naim CD player or Streamer, I have a Linn KDS. Will it have signal (VE) gound connected to earth or is there a risk that there is no signal to earth ground connection in the system?
I’m not sure about Linn systems topology wrt signal grounding.
I have not read anything that suggest it might be problem, we will have to wait for a post from someone who has a KDS on a Naim amp.
There is no ‘risk’ with a signal -ve not being grounded, it might sound no different with or without a signal -ve ground, it might have a background noise. .
The simple answer is to try it, if it’s noisy with hum or hiss, it might indicate the need for a ground.
A turntable can also be an earth point.
A problem with Linn KDS is that it pollutes the mains with the switched power supply.
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How and in what way is this characterised?
Is it measurable and if so what was it measuring?
Do all the new Naim components that use switched mode power supplies in network standby also “pollute the mains” or is it just a Linn thing?
Roger
Only cheap & basic design SMPS, the designed for the purpose internal Linn SMPS’s are amongst the best, as are the Naim units.
I am the opposite of expert on this stuff. However, having experienced ground loops and the like, I would say that the effects of a problem are not subtle or easy to miss. If there is a significant problem, you’ll probably hear it as a permanent and stable hum that is exactly the same in both channels. If you hear no problem of that sort, you can probably stop wondering or worrying.
A ground loop is something different, it’s caused by having x2 earth/ground points and each with a potential difference between them.
With the Naim earth/ground system it’s specifically designed to only have one earth/ground.
Apologies -that’s quite fair and I could have been a lot clearer about the ‘and the like’ stuff - I wasn’t because a ground loop was exactly what caused me a problem last time.
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Most (all?) switch mode supplies are bad stuff polluting the grid and naim is sensitive to have such close to them in my experience. Get linear power supplies when possible.
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Big disagreement on that Slamdam, a well designed SMPS will outperform a LPS on noise.
The main problem is finding a general purpose high performant SMPS on the open market, very few, unlike the easier to build high performance LPS.
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I’m talking about from SMPS out on the grid from where it sits. Not out on DC. Not a secret they pollute the grid in that direction which finds its way into the naim boxes. SMPS are evil IMO. The EMC levels on SMPS are also much greater than LPS. The main purpose for developing SMPS are low cost, low weight, small size. If only looking at performance, EMC, noise etc they are in most cases inferior to a LPS.
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I do not have any clearly audible hum or ground loops but all the recent development of grounding products have got me interested.
Thought I would start by getting the basics right first. Moved all my power leads so they get current from the same wall outlet. Also use fiber cable to the Streamer, which avoids having a 15m ground connection between it and the router. This made a surprisinhly large positive difference.
Now trying to ensure the grounding of the system is optimal before testing grounding boxes etc. Given its importance there is surprisingly little in the way of explanation, description or recommendation in Naim’s, Linn’s or other brands’ instruction manuals or on their home pages.
Hans
I have Block Linn Radikal and Urika phono, the AC link to earth is independent of my Naim AC/Ground links, no problem. Before Radikal, my Lingo was also connected independently from my Naim, because of the Schaffner filtering in Linn.
Assuming no other sources provide this in a system…
is it necessary for the Naim CDP to be
powered ON, for the ingress interconnect -ve (signal ground) to tie to earth (AC mains ground) ?
or
CDP plugged into AC mains but powered OFF, suffices.
Thank you.