End of my tether

I bought my current kit just over a year ago, put it on fraim and not had to “fiddle” with it since. Only thing I have done is unplug speaker cables when I changed speakers and upgraded to SL at same time. I have and old Defender and that needs constant attention. If my hifi was the same it would be out the door as I dont have enough time for both !

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Can anyone, from his own personal experience, point out another solid state Hi Fi manufacturer whose products are more temperamental than NAIM’s?

There’s nothing temperemental about Naim kit. People…ahem men…just like meddling.

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This seems an odd request Haim since you, possibly more than anyone here, seem the happiest person on the forum having had the same Naim set for roughly twenty five years, apparently without problems!

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Hi Mike,

I liked the suggestion earlier that you may have a grounding issue. This is not always accompanied by a hum, just in a degredation in sound quality. I had this issue 18 months or so ago, and it took me a while to work out what was happening.

My suggestion would be to disconnect everything from your system apart from the CD and just listen to that. I found sound changes were NOT instantanious. The system had to settle back into an equalibrium, which took a while; this is partly why it too so long to diagnose.

I would not only disconnect the TV from the system but also unplug it.

I haven’t picked up whether you have the system on its own ring/spur. If not I would think about what else you have introduced to the circuit.

I do appreciate how bl***y frustrating these things can be, there are times when I just turn my back - normally lasts a couple of days!

M

Oh, I agree, in regards to my own simple Naim set up, but plenty of people on here go on about what sits where on Naim’s expensive, ugly shelves, and their higher end cables seem to break just looking at the gear. Plus all the add on power supplies etc. and Naim’s own intransigence regarding other brand additions to their systems can be all a bit much for some people.

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Not so for me - am am not averse to the occasional tweak, but it is not something that gives me enjoyment in itself, only if the result is beneficial (and I often struggle to assess differences). Soldering like Ikea furniture to me is a means to an end, saving the cost of paying someone else to have assembled - and there is some satisfaction in a job well done.

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Not at all. I like the NAIM sound so I stuck with my setup despite loosing a 3.5 transport way too early and the humming which the dedicated circuit can not eliminate. I am just not willing to pretend that NAIM Is not difficult to own and enjoy.

@Haim. I’ve had Naim stuff for 14 years. Nothing temperamental at all. Set it up and play the music. True it didn’t work very well when I didn’t have the speakers properly connected!

@mikehughescq Mike what do you mean by the speaker cable being kicked?

Regards,

Lindsay

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Exactly, reliability & the sound reproduction is why a lot of people keep buying.

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Bit of a straw man, there, I’d say. I have never found Naim kit to be in the least temperamental.

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Over 30 years here and over 30 different boxes (mostly Olive) and the only real problems have been down to user error.

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I already made my point. Just ask yourself honestly how many members had experienced mechanical noise (humming) with their NAIM gear? It is just that they train you here to accept it as a norm and then there is no temperamental stuff in sight. Have a good day.

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Or ask my wife about radio noise coming through the speakers - it would rive her nuts. I’ve managed to tame it pretty well by now but for awhile had to turn off the kit to watch TV.

Noise from the PSUs is because of Naim’s choice of toroidal transformer. They could use a quieter one but it wouldn’t sound as good.

After 40 years of Naim ownership, i can confidently say there is nothing difficult about it at all, unless you want to make it so. Like anything you buy, a Rolex watch, a Hasselblad camera, an LP12… you need to periodically service it to keep it at its best. No news there then.

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I agree with Gary, but the design of Naim kit is more than a little quirky (for want of a better descriptor), and this can leave it more open to vulnerability than most mainstream kit. Somebody (james_n probably) hinted at this earlier when he talked about earth leakage noise and how it can degrade performance. Naim preamps in particular are designed in a way that pays meticulous attention to earthing quality and this reaps dividends in terms of the unique sound quality it delivers. The problem here is that the quality can be seriously degraded by connecting sources that have comparatively poor ground systems, introducing performance limiting noise even when not in use. From experience I wouldn’t ( for example) leave a sky box attached to my preamp if I wanted to enjoy the maximum performance my high quality CDP or TT sources are capable of.

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I have our TV connected to the 282 via DIN. There is no difference in sound whether the TV is plugged in or not.

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But do they have to use a large toroidal? I compared a 272/XPSDR with an Auralic Vega G2 both at my dealer’s and at home and preferred the latter, and not by a small margin. I now have better SQ and a hum-free lounge.

I know only a decade of Naim ownership is short measure by comparison with many here, but noise from the XPS was a major factor in my move away from Naim for my main system (along with a desire for simplicity.) It’s also why I still have my Muso QB in the kitchen and enjoy it every day.

Roger

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Well they believe so :blush:
My XPS is quiet but the Supercap gets buzzy, not for very long though.