Hearing music with the volume control turned down

Hello community - I’m hearing bleed through music through my speakers with the volume control turned completely down on my Supernait 3.
I removed the DAC and connected the Oppo CD player directly and I still hear music. No buzzing or hum. I’m using RCA single-ended interconnects.

Oppo BDP105D
Denafrips Pontus II 12th
Non-Naim Power supply
Supernait 3
Loom of Audio Envy cables and power distribution

Seeking guidance.

A very faint sound bleed at lowest volume setting can be the case with the old style pots combined with very high gain, especially with a very high output digital source. To silence completely just press the mute button.

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Greetings Mr. Dane - Thank you for the positive and prompt resonse. The output voltage on the new DAC is listed as 2.0V. Shouldn’t this be compatible? In addition I removed the DAC from the system and connected the Oppo CD player directly and still found the same results. Isn’t the nDAC closer to 2.2 V?
In any case you’re telling me that there is nothing wrong with the Supernait’s volume pot?
Kind regards

Yes, the arrival of digital standardised output at 2V, although it’s often exceeded, either a little or sometimes by a lot.

I couldn’t tell you for sure without hearing for myself, but if it’s so faint you can’t hear it from the listening position, only when you put an ear close to the speaker, then that sounds like it’s normal to me. What are the speakers? It will be exacerbated by very sensitive speakers.

Also, volume turned all the way down isn’t zero volume, it’s minimum volume.

There’s another current thread on the same subject: SN3, The speakers singing even with volume turn off
Worth merging if not too late @Richard.Dane?

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The speakers are Totem Forest Signatures at 87db.
I can hear it slightly from the listening position. I havn’t changed speakers.

After using the search engine and located the other thread, read in interest.

My concern is the amp is a year old and it didn’t exibit this anomaly.

The Nait 3 never existed this anomaly for over a year.

Best to speak to your dealer then - let them try it and see what they think.

Thanks Rechard, and everyone. Calling my dealer in the morning.

could you update us what is the dealer answer
I have the same phenomena

Greetings - I’ve been in contact with AV Options, my Naim dealer. The sound does stop when muted. They suspect the anomaly is normal and caused by the use of single ended interconnects instead of DIN cables. However Chris West has messaged Naim UK to verify. I’ll know nore when Naim responds.

I don’t understand how the plug type can affect the way the VC behaves, unless the DIN inputs have lower gain, but that would seem unlikely…

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As indicated earlier I’m waiting on a definitive answer from Naim UK. I did locate some information on our FAQ search engine. I’m not completely sure that the comments completely answers the question at hand however.

Mr. Dane with your permission I’d like to share your thoughts on DIN cables vs Single ended RCA
Interconnects.

"… So why do Naim prefer to use DIN connectors?

The obvious reason: DIN connections sound better than RCAs…

The phono plug, or RCA connector, as best as anyone can remember, was designed decades ago as a direct current (DC) power connector. Its design properties do not lend themselves to transferring music signals that have very low voltages (less Than 5 volts) of alternating current (AC). This is true - no matter how good the RCA plug is or whether it is made with gold, etc.

The first difficulty with the RCA connector is that it has a high-frequency capacitive impedance of around 200 ohms; unfortunately, the typical cable that connects the two RCA plugs together has an impedance of about 50 ohms. In this situation, the two RCA connectors on either end of the cable act as reflective walls at higher frequencies and bounce information back and forth, trapping the signal and extending the decay time of the signal that is trying to pass from one component to the other. These reflections have an effect on musical information and are especially harmful to low-level signals, particularly quiet harmonics and underlying instruments, where the ringing that is generated by the loudest instruments will smear the smallest signals. The result is that the quiet instruments will blur or fade away when the loud ones come along. The complexities of the music and the tones of individual instruments get lost.

The DIN plug has an impedance that is similar to the cable. It does not reflect like an RCA plug.

Furthermore, the system ground (which should be a stable connection point to which all signals and power supplies are referenced) is absolutely critical to the sonic performance of your hi-fi. A single reference ground point is important so that signal details are not lost in the small, yet significant voltage differences inevitable with separated ground paths.

Many manufacturers point to the great trouble they take to “star ground” everything. Sadly, this is all wasted when you connect your system together with RCA-plugged cables. Why?

When you connect, for instance, a CD player to a preamp with RCA-plugged cable, you automatically have two separate ground wires - the left and right shields going between them. This creates a ground loop, which degrades the musical performance dramatically, and negates any efforts that were taken to ground the internal circuits properly.

If you were to connect these same two components together with DIN-plugged Naim interconnects, you would have only ONE cable with only ONE ground shield surrounding both the left and right signal wires. Hence, only one ground path for each connection and no ground loop… "

Gracie. Those aren’t really my thoughts, or at least I wouldn’t wish to take credit where it’s not due - the information is taken directly from the Naim ‘bible’ , which was aimed at conveying some of the Naim knowledge base to Naim’s dealers and distributors.

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They do not.

I am not in agreement with the Naim dealer, in this case.

The RCA being 200ohms is nonsense.

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