Dearly love my N50, purchased earlier this year. It sounds wonderful on my 2nd system, with a P6, Mojo, and Rega RS3s.
With a recent cartridge refresh (I wore the Exact out in two years!) to an ND7, I noticed a hum issue. At first I thought the problem was the ND7 (per my other thread), but during troubleshooting realized the issue was actually the N50.
Had issues through the N50 phono stage plugging into the main system with my LP12, and when I used my Creek 4340 integrated in the office (replacing the N50), no hum whatsoever. So the issue is with the N50.
It’s been sent back to Naim for a looksee. I did see the other N50 hum thread, and there was some reference to a possible remedy, but I didn’t fully understand it. Any other similar experiences, or am I perhaps missing something?
Hi, not the same but I had hun issues come out of nowhere with my Rega RP6 into a Supernait a while back and it seemed to defy logic.
Short version is it turned out to be an aging TV which was putting noise into the mains, but it took lots of stripping it all down to one plug at a time to be able to identify it.
I’ve got two Nait 50’s and neither have hum issues on vinyl, but experience showed it can be completely baffling to identify the source, some components are however more sensitive to show it up.
Resolving it was simple, bought a new TV….
Good luck.
Should add that whilst it looks like two positive instances of showing the N50 to be the cause it could just be it is the common one to highlight an issue elsewhere.
Hum issue could be due to other electric appliances within the room/house and your phonostage collected the noise. I fixed mine by unplugging a mini refrigerator in the listening room.
And also make sure if your LP12’s signal ground is done through power supply, then don’t connect that ground tag to your N50.
Had hum with the DecoAudio SUT and N50/LP12 - cured (as Deco suggest in their leaflet) by linking the Deco ground with the Linn ground (no ground on N50)…hum completely gone.
I sold my N50 as whatever I tried I could never rid it of hum on the phono input, shame as it sounded really nice streaming, but one good input does not maketh an amplifier.
Just try to ground the N50 from the earth dedicated terminal on the rear (mine also hums if not grounded, as many others have reported). Unless there is some real fault/issue, when grounded to a mains socket earth, it goes utterly quiet.
Mumetal shielding is no panacea though - it can reduce hum but also adversely affect performance. Naim used to supply it for anyone wanting to fit MC cards in the NAIT3, but really they felt it better without - i.e. best not fit MC cards.
As other have mentioned personally I’ve experienced a good few hums and buzzes with analogue play back over the years and none of them turned out to have been down to the phono preamp or amplifier. The worst from a noise point of view and frustrating elusive to identify was an intermittent one which I eventually tracked down to a electric oil filled radiator tripping in and out on it’s thermostat that I used for about a month in the daughters bedroom whilst waiting for a new radiator to be fitted that would run off the central heating.
The last bit of noise I had was a very low level buzz through my speakers (100db sensitivity) when no music was playing it was annoying that it was there but not intrusive when music was playing I essentially became convinced it was down to a issue in my DIY phono stage some soldering or a capacitor noise or maybe the valves or leads of the phono picking up some interference from power leads. I spent ages on multiple occasions trying to find it re routing cables swapping plugs rewiring interconnects etc but to no avail.
During that time I owned two Regas one with DC motor and four different vintage Thorens two TD 150, TD 160 Super & a TD 125.
The middle of last year I purchased a Technics SL1300G guess what the hum has gone I was really over the moon it wasn’t the valve phono.
My Nait 50 phono is also silent when I have used it’s phono input.
No the noise disappeared when I moved to the the modern Technics TT. The noise was was not audible on my other speakers just the 100db sensitive ones and then only very very faintly. It was never loud enough to actually be a issue just an annoyance that I couldn’t track it down and I wrongly suspected my valve phono as the cause. In retrospect it was probably some form of common grounding issue with motors or tonearm that is not a issue on a modern TT like the Technics.
Bottom line, a different amp with the exact same situation has zero phono hum…so there is something happening with the N50. My dealer listened to it and thought the phono was noisy, but my hum was pronounced. I don’t think my house is the cleanest in terms of electronic noise, but it could just be that some equipment is touchier than others. My guess is that part of what makes Naim special is treading close to a line with sensitivity…my Whest phono preamp is super touchy about proximate transformers…to be clear that is not the issue here…
Sure, but it sounds like some sort of ground loop connected to the input of the N50.
The N50 is renown for its low noise and absence of hum compared to other Naim amps albeit on the line inputs. Undertaking the ear to speaker tweeter evaluation demonstrates this.
