seems to be just with the LP playback; P8, superline, supercap
no way to troubleshoot this since no spare gear or cables
i’m pretty sure the problem is with the 4 to 5 pin naim cable
(at least i hope it is)
is that possible?
and can i fix this?
A multimeter should be able to provide a basic connectivity/resistance check on the cable.
Was it fine and now suddenly isn’t?
Has anything else been changed?
Why do you think/hope it’s the din cable?
I’d suggest turning everything off, unplugging and replugging all the interconnects one at a time, and powering back up… has anything changed?
I would think the interconnect is the least likely.
The phono stage or the cartridge are more likely. Has there been any event such as little hands wrenching the cartridge so that it’s riding the groove at an angle?
Perhaps you could also describe what you mean by imbalance? How much? A bit? A lot? Any changes other than just channel volume?
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oh yeah, left and right volume
the interconnect would be cheapest to replace and
i did turn everything off, switched left and right speaker wires
and there’s a definite volume decrease in one channel
Have you tried switching the cartridge channels? I would do that to check. Also check the cartridge alignment, including VTF and bias.
Like FZ, I reckon the cart or the phono stage would be the more likely culprits, unless you feel you may have done something that caused damage to the interconnect somehow.
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been like this for 3 carts and 2 turntables so not the cart
also, i don’t feel that i damaged my cable somehow but i do feel the cable may
have been improperly manufactured which is much more likely
OK, yes, that’s different, in which case you’d be right to double check the interconnect.
Has it ever been balanced?
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Thats… concerning. How long is that period of time…?
How come you have not done something earlier…?
I very much doubt that an interconnect lead problem could cause this.
Methinks the Superline is not very super.
PS. You have… checked with your Naim dealer…? Stating the obvious, here.
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You could so some trouble shooting with what you’ve got with a bit of temporary system reconfiguration. If you’ve swapped L&R on the input to the SL and the same channel imbalance persists then I’d be tempted to get back to a basic system to try to narrow down the problem.
To see if it’s SL / SC related you could run the SL from the SN2 via a SNAIC5. Put the Burndy link plug back in place on the SL. You’d need to borrow a SNAIC5 from your HC / SN2 combo so you’d need the link plug back in place on the SN2.
With the P8 > SL > SN2, do you still get the imbalance between channels ?
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And - just checking - is the imbalance present at all positions of the volume control on the SN2, or just at low volume settings?
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good plan, i’ll try that
didn’t occur to me the SL could run just with aux2, thanks
It’s something to try and at least it takes the SC, Burndy and 4-5 interconnect cable out of the equation.
If this gets rid of the imbalance then the next step would be to power the SL from the HC via the SNAIC5 and connect the HC to the SN2 via the 4-5 cable and see how that goes.
I’ll be interested in what you find.
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thanks a bunch for the great tips, never would have thought of
checking with the aux2 which as you said, eliminated a lot
of possibilities in one shot
turns out the cart connectors on the P8 were loose, well, some of them were loose
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Oo-kay… So its now fixed…? You said previously that this problem had been there with 3 previous cartridges and 2 previous turntables…?
Not yet making much sense to me.
The next test would be to put the Supercap back in and see what that does. I expect the problem to return - because (so far), its seems the SC (and/or its various leads) was/is the main problem (time for a service maybe…?).
Looking forward to the next report… 
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If the tonearm leads have been subject to any angular force they can get very loose easily. The connectors are fragile and easily damaged.
So if you used needle nose pliers instead of tweezers, you could easily end up with ends that loosen after a couple hours and affect successive cartridges.
You might want to review how the cartridges were installed and swap the tonearm lead if the problem “backslides”. If you’re using a non Rega arm with a separate headshell, you can buy replacement cartridge jumpers with fresh “tight” ends.