What the others said. If you want to read old discussions about the various possible causes in detail, simply search for Balance and Pot and you’ll find more than you want to read 
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Hi,not to alarm you,but I initially had the same problem,for me it was the left channel that needed balancing up. I lived with it for a week or so,and then the left channel disappeared altogether,switched speaker cables over,and the right channel disappeared. It turned out to be a sticky relay,amp went back to Naim,and was repaired,no problems since,balance knob now fully centered,worth talking to your dealer.
My first Naim amp was a Nait 5i into PMC 20-23 speakers, and did the same thing. It’s awfully distracting having the image so far off beam and it never did go away, not until the amp became a 250.
It’s back now with the 552 preamp esp at low volumes where the image is almost exclusively left channel only at very low volumes e.g. late-night listening. I know people on here love Naim for all they’re worth but tbh it’s another one of those things that clouds my view of Naim - brilliant gear but let down by the most basic of things sometimes. If it was one amp in a million that wasn’t quite right it’d be the right thing to let it go, but it’s something that people have raised on here since I first found this site what, 5 or 6 years ago? And the suggestion above that it may be that the balance knob is misaligned is a bit rich. It’s one of the regular suggested causes / fixes, which suggest that the manufacturing process errs a bit towards the that’ll do mindset.
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Naim haven’t stood still here. Witness the volume controls on the Statement and the new Unitis. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this Statement tech trickles down in the next generation of Naim separates. Of course, the reason Naim have stuck with the ALPS pots is because they sound just so good. I recall the NAC552 development many years back and a range of alternative volume controls were evaluated, which included cost no object resistor ladder controls among many others, to see what was what. Overall the ALPS Blue triumphed. So Naim have kept with it despite it’s idiosyncrasies, especially at very low levels.
As for checking the alignment of the knob, this is definitely worth doing as it can slide on the spline if the securing nut is not done up tight enough (but not too tight!) or the knob is rotated beyond the end stops of the pot.
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Hello,
While it isn’t untrue that I like the Naim sound and even prefer it to my recent home trials of very high level Accuphase and McIntosh amplifiers, I do believe that the use of the Blue Velvet ALPS pots is absolutely perfectible and a source of frustration for many Naim users.
On my Supernait 2, the volume pot was more or less functional but the balance post was off by nearly 90 degrees. No sane person in his or her right mind could listen to music with an image that far off center. I thought for a while that my room was a contributing factor, until numerous REW measurements did not conform this and the addition of 8 (!) GIK acoustic panels did not solve it either (but certainly did improve general imaging, first reflections and bass resonances, by the way…). My only solution, which indeed worked, was to carefully pull out the balance knob from its spindle and reposition it while taking into account the imbalance to the left…This equates to a form of “cheating” by allowing the brain to see the green light in the vertical centered position while the pot is functioning with a compensated imbalance. Result? Perfectly centered image.
Next up…I decided to upgrade to a brand new SN3 and a HCDR. This time the volume pot was totally decentered to the left at low volume. This is much more difficult to address than for the balance pot. I couldn’t live with that because it equated to poor engineering and QC in my mind so I returned everything, hence my subsequent home demos with Accuphase and McIntosh.
Guess what? The less costly and simpler technology of the Naim equipment were/are 10 times more satisfying musically than the big-name boys.
Now, once again, I plan to return to Naim but my first anguish will be to see what kind of pot imbalance I will be dealing with at first run straight out of the box. I really do think Naim should rethink this and make them precise and stable. Brgds.
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Hi @joy_boy you’ll soon find everyone here is slightly mad.
To check if your balance knob is misaligned turn it completly right and completly left.
If the left/right turns are not even distances then the knob is misaligned. You can have it fixed, my 252 is well out but I turn the lights off anyway and just forget about it. Until now…
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Indeed. That seems to be the answer, even though it’s still there at the back of your mind. At this level of expenditure it’s really not good enough to have to implement shonky workarounds to convince yourself that it really does work ok.
On a box that’s just a handful of months old and went straight from carton to Fraim and where the balance has never been beyond 10/2 o’clock, suggesting that it’s either loose or has turned on the spline only really adds to my supposition that Naim treat £21,000 worth of preamp the same as a £900 Nait. It’s not a good look tbh.
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It would be most unusual but I wouldn’t rule it out, as no matter how much you try to ensure everything is just right, sometimes things go wrong. That’s why there’s a guarantee.
Thanks for all the replies, its very much appreciated. Hello to you all.
I’ve had a days holiday booked today and have been playing around enjoying some music. On reflection I’d say it seems to be that approximately 2’oclock on the balance control that seems to be the perfect spot. Although I’m not an electronics engineer (I’m in a different field of engineering), I can appreciate the nature of the Alps Blue Velvet pots and what’s occurring here. I’m just glad this is considered normal and not a fault.
Perhaps returning the unit could be considered in future if it really does bug me and this imbalance could be ‘refined’ somewhat by the wizards at Naim, but for now I think I’m comfortable with it. It just sounds so good once its positioned perfectly.
I suppose my only observation here is why Naim didn’t take the opportunity to brief their customers, via the instruction manual, that due to component selection and/or room acoustics, some offset in the balance control to ‘perfect’ the stereo image maybe necessary and is considered normal. There’s very little regarding the balance control in the manual.
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I don’t think you will find any manufacturer of anything anywhere implying potential problems with their product in the manual!!
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Tbh a balance pot shouldn’t need any explanation, and it’s difficult to imagine Naim adding a comment to the effect that despite their best efforts they can’t guarantee a centred image on your shiny new Naim box.
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This is true. Maybe I should return it and see if it can be ironed out?
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If it’s not the variable low-volume imbalance but the LED is consistently off center, it’s just a question of re-aligning the knob like Richard said in his first answer.
Would checking/ adjusting the balance knob be a DIY process on a 552?
Yes it would appear that this is the case. I don’t think volume has any effect on the required position of the balance at this stage.
Just throwing some ideas out here. I’m wondering if the run in process could possibly end up with an imbalance between channels down the line and not something that’s apparent during the manufacture and test process!?
You can do it on your own, but beware of the LED cable and the splines. A few things about differences between models is here:
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My new 252 had the variable low-volume imbalance that was just too much, as it started at 8 o’clock (and below) on the volume knob, which was not all that low and impacted normal night listening levels. It went back to the distributor and they replaced the volume pot with a more tightly selected one.
After this, low-volume imbalance was initially not completely gone, but started at a low enough level that it didn’t matter.
But interestingly, it got better over the next months and now the volume pot is unbalanced only at the very lowest end, shortly before being silent. So I guess that things can change over time and the same might apply to the balance pot.
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Yes I understand. I mean, ultimately this isn’t interfering with my listening enjoyment at the moment. I’m happy to be patient and see if this changes in time, monitor the situation, collect my thoughts and then make a decision whether to return or not. There is a 5 year guarantee after all.
I’d say with a degree of confidence that because of speaker placement and my room, it’s probably more necessary that I have to bias the balance control a little further over to find that sweet spot than someone who’s room was completely symmetrical, unlike mine.
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