Hi to the forum. Some advice on a developing situation would be welcome.
On Friday night all was well with the system. Listening to music with volume at 8 position. Left the system powered up as usual. Saturday morning when approaching the system it sounded like a fan heater had been switched on and the volume was fairly loud (between a 9 and 10).on our system.
The sound was coming from the left hand speaker ( as you look at the system). I switched off the power to the speaker (Martin Logan ESL), but the noise continued. I switched off the power to the subwoofer behind the speaker (REL S212), but the noise continued. I switched off the NAP 300 power amp and the noise stopped.
I checked all cables for tightness, all ok.
I then re powered the subwoofer and speaker, no noise. Switched on the power amp after five minutes, the noise came back.
I then switched off the power amp for a couple of hours. No noise. So I played an album, all good. Phew I thought.
However, as soon as the album finished, the noise came back to the LH speaker. The noise level was louder than previously - probably 11 . I have left the power amp switched off since then (18 hours ago).
Do I re power to see if the noise comes back? Or will this risk causing further damage?
Do I accept the power amp needs to go back to Naim for repair and service? The power amp, pre amp and super cap were all bought new 2016. If one goes back, should they all go back for servicing at the same time?
We live in the Algarve, so it may mean being without the heart of our system for an extended period.
At ten years your non DR components would be ready for a service, although less crucial for the NAC, so you might as well send all 3 back. As to the noise I would suspect the 300, especially as it is only one channel; although have you checked cable and connector integrity, including the power cables? And just to rule out the speaker, have you tried swapping the speaker cables over to run the channels left to right etc?
@ChrisSU I’m thinking the same. I will call a dealer in Lisbon tomorrow to gauge what support they can provide (they claim to be a Naim dealer on line but do not appear on Naim’s list of vendors). I will also call a Naim dealer in Seville who are listed as an approved dealer by Naim. Seville is closer to us than Lisbon.
Challenge will be how to provide amplification for what is likely to be circa three month period.
This is where second systems come in. Might be an excuse to get one for another room. Something a fraction of the cost of the main system but decent enough for serious listening sessions. You’ll be surprised what you can build for the cost of a single Supercap. Source, integrated amp, speakers. Takes the urgency and pain put of downtime periods on the main system.
@feeling_zen Thoughts are drifting that way. Planting the seeds with Mrs B. I still have the front end (Innuos used as server) and DAC. Need a bit of oomph for the Martin Logan’s.
I need to do a bit of research to see which amps are capable of driving the speakers for the next period. Then I could build up a second system possibly linked back to Innuos (used as a server) and to provide headphone listening. I have a Qutest DAC following the upgrade with the Holo May.
An upside to the current dilemma of getting the power amp repaired.
In the words of the Pythons - always look on the bright side of life.
The Naim dealers in Spain will not service them directly and will send them to UK with all the BREXIT costs. I suggest sending them directly to the Italian Naim Authorised repair centre LASA Piacenza, Italy who have an excellent reputation.
Thanks Frank. I have been in contact with LASA and also a dealer in Lisbon (who will send the unit back to Naim). I’m also checking out alternative integrated amps to use as an interim fix.
The idea being that this amp can be used in a second system. The interim amp should have a headphone amp. The front end will be a music server (using the CD library that is already ripped into a Chord Qutest DAC (already have that).
For an integrated amp, initial thoughts are something like Supernait 3 or Naim S3. Early days on this thought.
