Earthing

Just plugged in is fine.

Linn are not as good as Naim when it comes to electronics, just look at the Linn Lingo,Julian Vereker looked at design and said that that mains filter will sit on the music, and he was so right…

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That was a comment on Lingo 1 thirty years ago. I think they have learnt a bit since then.

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They are still way behind ,in my opinion.

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But not in mine. The new KDS with Organik DAC raises the bar and sounds wonderful IMO. It’s going to be interesting to see whether Naim goes down the FGPA route for its next generation of DACs.

Roger

You can easily test by unplug /plug in the Linn KDS while listen to another source in the Naim system
and hear how it affect
the amplifiers.

I have and it doesn’t.

Roger

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Okay good

When a Naim box is in use the standby SMPS is switched off, so it isn’t going to affect sound quality. It’s theoretically possible that any noise it did generate could pollute other devices on your mains supply or wired network, but this certainly hasn’t ever been a problem for me (using an Atom and NDX2). It’s very easy to test for any such effects, although frankly I think it’s very unlikely to be a problem unless, say, you had an Atom in standby on the same rack as a Naim preamp or similarly sensitive kit.

I believe that Musos use SMPSs, and not just in standby, so I did try switching my QB off and on as well. I really think this is a non-issue with well-designed PSs except perhaps in the situation you mention.

Cheap affairs in wall-warts may be a different matter, of course.

Roger

The EM field in free space decreases very rapidly with distance.

As for mains pollution, the physics, as I understand it, is that when the gradient (spatial voltage change) of an electric field (voltage) is non-zero a current will flow. Take a solar inverter as an example: it monitors the incoming mains at the meter and adjusts it’s output voltage throughout the AC cycle to ensure that the flow of energy is from the inverter rather than the mains. It only has to exceed the incoming mains voltage a bit to supply the home energy needs. Within circuits there will be active (inductive and capacitive) and passive (resistive or dissipative) components. As you can imagine within circuits low power sources largely have their energy dissipated locally including emission of EM radiation. Energy conservation is required! The same applies to the National Grid which consumes energy getting it from sources to our homes and businesses. The local grid is product of everything connected to it, and these do accumulate with electric motors being a big source of distortion. Any form of voltage rectification is also problematic. The problem being the current flow is no longer in phase with the voltage (power factor is a measure of this).

Hope this helps put things into a better proportion.

Phil

It’s also quite likely that people can suffer from very different amounts of noise/EMI, even with identical kit, if they’re using it in different contexts. For example, I bet anyone trying to run a sensitive hifi rig in a middle floor flat here:

…will be in much greater need of good shielding, earthing etc., than someone trying to run exactly the same hifi rig in this house:

Mark

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