A most helpful thread as I have had intermittent hum since I added the XPS DR to my 272 and 250 DR system a little while back. Lived with the irritation for some time but this has given me the impetus to do something about it and I also splashed on the Isol8 Powerline Axis and picked it up this morning. At first blush it seems to have added some definition and tonality on the sound which is very pleasant and so far, no hum. Shall give it some time to see how it evolves but fingers crossed, a good investment.
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Going off on a bit of a tangent here, (please excuse my ignorance) - is a DC blocker a type of mains conditioner? I recall forumites advising to avoid mains conditioners as they destroyed the Naim sound.
If they’re different one might be of benefit to me also.
Regards,
Steve O.
Nope it’s not. A DC blocker only remove DC from the AC. A conditioner do more than that and what they do is by many claimed to limit the performance and I agree from my testing too. The Supra DC blocker is much cheaper than the isol8 but maybe it’s not available everywhere.
I’d put these as a thing of last resort, treating the symptom but not the cause. Dealing with the thing that is actually causing the DC must be best, though it’s not always possible, say if you live in a flat and it’s coming from downstairs. Good mains and good earthing are much better than putting something between the mains and the stereo that could potentially strangle the sound.
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My naim also hums when the TV is on, when the TV makes a ZZZZZZZZ sound, the naim will follow and hum.
The noise from my XPS was very loud, no exaggeration. I was worried that something would break with that amount of mechanical noise coming out of it. I had to keep the system turned off and it effectively put our living room out of action (the system provides TV sound). So I needed to find a fix quickly.
I knew the culprit was the TV following some trial and error. The TV is a brand new 65" OLED, very nice and quite pricey. Other than a DC blocker on the hi-fi I didn’t see a way to stop the noise.
There are cheaper alternatives to the Isol-8 such as from MCRU. However some of those other options had an in-line “block” of some sort which would make placement difficult for me.
Anyway, its all good! I had never heard of this problem before but thanks to everyone on this forum have managed to sort it.
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