I believe a shield normally adds capacitance. And naim seems to not like high capacitance. Could this be a way of reducing it?
Two failures here in 12 years. Both replaced free of charge but I wasn’t sad to see the back of it when I moved to non-Naim streaming. Quite telling that we have this and the Burndy discussion going simultaneously. Notdiscussions you see with cables from elsewhere.
If I’ve understood the restistor connections correctly (from a photo) its linking the screens to -ve.
A screen will add capacitane thru its proximity to the signal conductors, but this will be a very small number.
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I found the HiLine a step up in performance on my CDS3 to the stock lavender but like many others have had one fail so I’m not a great fan of the design.
With the HiLine on the Superline I find the difference is not as clear cut. I find the HiLine gives more detail and timbre but the Lavender somehow seems more effortless and musical. I find I frequently swap them as whichever I/C I’m using at the time I miss the properties of the other. I’d love to hear some other cables but there aren’t many cables in the correct configuration.
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It depends if the shield is the return or encompasses both live and return to a large extent. I can’t be sure, but it looks as if the return and shield are different. However the use of silver alloy plated copper conductors might counter to some extent the fall off from the capacitive loading.
I don’t find the Hiline cable used as wonderfully transparent as the DNM parallel copper conductor unshielded cable, but I still do enjoy the Hiline cable, and it makes musical replay enjoyable and adds just a hint of highlight… which I do often like.
The capacitance concern with Naim is with their older power amp designs, not interconnects… the former, so I understand, could go into destructive ultrasonic oscillation when driving a too capacitive loudspeaker load. More current designs have have side stepped this.
Here’s an explanation from Naim support about the RCA to DIN Superlumina design (quote copied to save clicking through!)
In the case of a naim system the “preamp chassis earth” is connected to the “signal earth” inside the preamp. Since our preamps have external power supplies the signal ground is used as the preamp chassis screen. Note that in the following description “ground” or “system ground” is the negative or 0V reference of the system and “mains earth” is the earth connection supplied by the mains lead and plug.
In this customer’s case (of an RCA to DIN lead) the RCA connectors will have the signal and ground connections using the individual conductors soldered together. The white sleeved cables are the ground and the red or black sleeved cables are the signal. In addition (since the RCA’s are the source end) the screen will also be connected to the ground via a padding resistor. The resistor is there to control the characteristic of the screen “seen” by the ground.
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Thanks, it is as I suspected above.
Cheers
Simon
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So the tape didn’t last long and the cable didn’t sound quite right since it fell apart. Going with Lavender for now. Such a shame. Lavender is not nearly as good when recently plugged back in but who knows it might need some time to sound it’s best. I know the Hiline does.
I got my repaired HiLine back today. No charge from Naim. I had to cover my dealers’ cost for outbound shipping ($20).
I’m afraid to take it out of the box. I think I’ll leave the Lavender in place on my NDX2 and sell the HiLine before it breaks again. The HiLine on my SuperLine is getting replaced by an AV Options cable once it ships (any time now). Then I may sell that one too.
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You need to take it out and check it before selling it. My friends came back from naim repair not working and assembled incorrectly. Very rare from naim I assume but I would check it anyway.
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I’d be very careful as it might end up staying in, at least that’s what happened to mine, when i was intent of moving it on… 
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Indeed Hiline does take time to sound optimum when reinserted into a socket, because the DIN pins need to gently shift over time to their optimum rest positions when inserted. This is part of the performance you are paying for with DIN Hiline.
Lavender is a lot more rigid, but even that, like Burndy connectors, may have a slight de stressing period when connected.
We kind of should remember interconnect contact plugs and sockets are the Achilles heal in audio connectivity. Performance would be so improved I suspect if connections were soldered.
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The litzy style main conductors are a complete bugger to solder.
I (believe I) remember early efforts to fully remove the ‘varnish’ insulation between strands resulted in the use of a solder pot. Perhaps this would result in an unpredictable length of stiff wire/solder inhibiting the correct freedom of motion for the floating signal pins.
Whatever the theoretical benefits of a direct connection at both ends, it turned out that this was the best solution for production.
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I can’t have the Hilines not touching the floor so I put it on one of those cable lifters. A home made variant where the cable rests on an o-ring slacking between two aluminium rods mounted on a pice of oak tree. It’s important that the o-rings aren’t the bouncy kind and Is made with rubber that lasts. Initially a worthwhile and big difference. Very interesting and something that likely affects the decoupling air plugs ability to mitigate vibration.
I don’t understand this? Is the cable soldered to another cable that is soldered to the air plug? So 2 solder joints for each of the channels and the ground?
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AFAIK it seems like main cable ends an inch from the DIN connector where another wire is added that is soldered to the connector which is shrink tubed. There is also a resistor somewhere between shield and ground it seems.
I can only guess but suspect the main cable gauge is too thick for the DIN pins 
See Adam’s explanation above ^^
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Sounds like a good solution to me… 
No HiLines Here. Ever.
Thing is. The Hiline is very good so even if it’s fragile it might be worth it.
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For me - no, never.