Isn’t this a ‘when did you stop beating your wife’ type question?
I think this is extremely unlikely - I can’t see how it can, to be honest.
It may have been just a tad presumptuous indeed. Which I thought was justified in this case.
I think it is, but… do you have specific electronics in mind? Speakers come with spikes. Everything else is on Hutter Racktime. Also spiked below the base layer. Musicline Powerigel mounted off the floor on a piece of very old and tatty wood.
In the meantime, pulled the Sky box out of the pre with no issues and… no immediate difference. Will see how it sounds tomorrow morning and the early afternoon before going to swap the loaned lavender back from my Hi-Line.
The CD player would be most impacted, in your case. Not sure I fully understand the design principles behind Racktime. As a simple experiment that will cost you nothing, could you try placing the player on some other (solid) surface as far from (between) the speakers as you can and see if it makes a difference?
Hutter Racktime is a very fine equipment support indeed. I’d suggest it’s something that Mike really doesn’t need to concern himself with.
^^ Indeed.
If the ‘bass and mids are gone’ , something is broken and no amount of tweaking will fix it. It’s simply a matter of simplification and substitution, until the faulty item is identified. For example - A borrowed integrated amp would in short order rule in or out a problem with his 4 box Naim amplifier, considerably narrowing down the problem area. Without access to a ton of test equipment this is how complex faults are narrowed down ‘in the field’.
But I think HQ should step in and send a competent dealer over as this is clearly very difficult for the OP to handle by himself.
If memory serves, it is just the mids that have gone, not the bass. And that is one reason for not suspecting speakers, because they have single full-range drivers, just supplemented by a supertweeter (the other being the simultaneous demise).
Hi Mike, I am very pleased to see that you are going through the process of elimination now to hopefully find the issue. For me, the saddest part of this story is that you didn’t want to listen to any music on your system. Let’s hope this can be resolved and the culprit can be found!
Regards
Geoff
Now, my next suggestion is genuine despite being incredibly personal, so I am not expecting any feedback whatsoever from the OP. It’s simply an outside possibility that might have been overllooked and I had it done a few years ago.
Ears examined and syringed. And this was despite 6 monthy aviation medicals that included hearing tests and no identified loss of hearing whatsoever. And no obvious indications of wax build-up.
As I say, incredibly personal. No comment required nor expected. If the post gets flagged, I will delete it without delay.
I don’t find that incredibly personal at all @Don and nor would I ever take offence. I would always take any health related suggestion seriously. I only wish everyone would.
I have mild tinnitus but my hearing has been tested in the last year and I was referred to hospital as there was (and is) an unresolved pressure issue. That said my audiology results were within the range you’d expect for a man of my age and arguably better at some frequencies. Things can deteriorate quickly so it’s of course always worth thinking about.
However, in this instance, Mrs. H. is also clear that the system has deteriorated and the 14 year old is adamant how Muso QB sounds better. Now, I do think she needs her ears testing and the 14 year old has a now resolved history of glue ear and exploding ear drums but both currently think something has changed.
Currently on the way to get the Hi-Line back but there’s potentially been an interesting change today so I’ll report back on that later of the opportunity arises.
My ears get clogged up too, and it’s more like a veil over the entire range of sound, not just something like mids. I would suspect possibly something with the 202, though most people on here have been narrowing in on cables.
Eustachian dysfunction, which is a fancy term for a blocked eustachian tube(s), can do very weird things to your frequency response until it resolves as I know from my own occasional experience. In my case last time it happened it did reduce my mid response quite a lot. The bass and treble weren’t affected. I was lucky that it only took a few hours to sort itself out, but if you google it, it can be a more prolonged thing.
Best
David
Interesting. Why the 202 specifically?
Mine is long-term an not an actual blockage.
Yes, this can be very weird. I had it for some months 4 years ago. I happen to work internationally a lot and when the plane was above a certain height, the ears were suddenly open. More down to earth, they gracelessly closed again. What ultimately helped was a week off and in bed to recover.
My secondary employment is organist / pianist in a church and I remember well looking at my hands to check if I had the right chords since my ears did not do the trick …
Couple of things to report back.
A couple of people mentioned supply early on in the thread so here’s your feedback.
Borrowed multimeter has initially recorded 254V tonight. I’ll take further measurements throughout the week. Top end of acceptable variation I’d have thought but is it likely to stress any kit to the point of irritating it?
24 hours since the Sky Plus/DVD being removed from the 202 and, er, there has been an improvement. More bass definition and some warmth. @james_n mentioned this and I think says that removing may not produce an instant impact. It could be over several days. There has definitely been a change for the better. Vocals remain sibilant and harsh though. Previous experience suggests XPS2 on that front. However, before I get to that I think it’s time to see what no TV can do for at least another day.
Mrs. H. and I were discussing this. Sky etc. has never been on AV. Has been on Aux2 for a few years simply be tase it’s easier for me to locate at the end of the row. However, prior to that it was on Aux1 and we don’t recall a single issue. Could it be that simple?
If not, then does @james_n or anyone else have any suggestions to mitigate whatever the Sky box is leaking/introducing?
Finally, didn’t power down to reinstall as was confident the Hi-Line could be reinstalled by me easily enough and so it proved. May yet power down if only to ensure red goes to red etc (despite being 100% confident it already does) but that what’s going on inside the Naim connectors is all well.
Anyway, a further 24 hours of no TV sound to follow.
You might want to consider an alternative to your Skybox arrangement.
I have TV programme and film access via apps on my mobile which I then stream to the TV with Chromecast. TV sound goes into the system with an optic cable…
Music is from a Tidal account so it’s allnet-based.
The Sky box stays. Chromecast I’ve found to be very poor comparatively when I tried it. After leaving the IC out for 48 hours my initial reaction is to move back to Aux1 and see what happens. Also perhaps to power down and unplug the Sky box each night.
Hi Mike - if you’ve not noticed much difference (if any) removing the Sky box connection then i wouldn’t consider this an issue - moving inputs on the 202 won’t make a difference. I would look at it again once you have the system sorted as it can produce a subtle degradation in SQ (as mentioned earlier in the thread) but i think that you can tick a box here and move on to checking other items.
The mains voltage you measured (max is 230V +10% so 253V) is high and accounting for a little bit of meter inaccuracy, you are at the top of the range allowed. It’s certainly worth keeping an eye on and measuring at different times of the day as the loading on your local network varies. Are you in a rural or town based environment ?