What is the hour your volume dial pointing, 70db sound very high is it appropriate to late night or early morning. It sound to me aliitle bit strange
8 o’clock. Too loud for early or late listening but at that level the sound is nice and involving.
I have an SN2 and as @Stephen_Tate said, I don’t experience any issues with imbalance at low volumes. Obviously, some do, but there must be many Naim owners that don’t have this problem.
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Not so few, but yes, it probably has nothing to do with the model but it is variation between individual pots. Whatever the probability, I would recommend unpacking the unit at the dealer and trying the pot at the desired level. That’s better than what I had to do, pick up the pre, drive home, install it, find a very unbalanced pot, uninstall, repack, drive to dealer, send back, and a week later repeat
An easier way, i would guess here, is to plug in some ‘easy to drive’ but also some revealing headphones and try to listen in a very quiet environment. I often listen to my Grado SR325 e cans via the SN3’s built in stage, and whilst i can hear a very slight unbalance at the most slightest bit of volume, luckily this isn’t the case through my speakers. Obviously this isn’t a problem with the headphones. Also one ultimately has the control of the balance rotary?
Another other thing to consider here is making sure that both speaker cables are working exactly as a pair, IME this is a lot harder to achieve than one would ever give the credit for. I cannot tell you how times this has caught me out, blaming the pot(s) in the amplifier, when actually it has always turned out to be improper connection, one way or another. At lower volumes the unbalance can become even more enhanced when this is the case.
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You are right of course, there are many factors. I just tried how my pot, speakers and room behave now:
At 50 dB and sitting 2.5 m from speakers, my pot is now balanced, however my speakers are just 86 dB sensitivity. At 40 dB there is a very slight imbalance that I can live with as I never use volume this low. That’s with the improved pot.
With my previous 90 dB speakers and the original pot, 50 dB were annoyingly unbalanced, and it started at higher volume already. Unfortunately, the balance knob is not a good solution in this case because what it does is attenuate one channel. This means that if the volume pot enters the unbalanced range and you use the balance knob, this lowers the overall volume. Then you probably increase the volume a bit, which changes the balance of the volume pot again, so you use the balance knob once more, affecting the volume, and so on. It’s no fun.
Of course if you always listen at very low volume, the balance knob doesn’t have to be changed as much, so that would be less annoying. However, for dedicated very low volume listening (without a need to ever go higher) there is dedicated hifi gear and I don’t think that simply dialing down the volume on kit that is predominantly designed for normal levels gives you the best result for the money
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I am not sure the imbalance has something to do with the level of the volume, my SN2 is somewhere at 11 o’clock on the balance knob and this is its permanent position, regardless of level of the volume dial.
This is a different thing. Sometimes the balance knob was installed with a bit of an offset compared to the actual pot’s center, then you get what you have. There was recently a poll thread about this particular kind of unbalance, whose only effect in practice is that the LED is not at 12 o’ clock. I.e. it is only unbalanced if you insist on putting the LED at 12, and the whole thing is independent of the volume.
There is a different thing where the volume pot becomes gradually unbalanced as you approach the lower end of the volume knob’s travel. This exists and it is well documented and much discussed. It is an inherent property of the blue Alps pot, and there is some variation between individual pots, some do it more and some do it less.
In most cases it is not an issue at the usual volumes, but if you happen to have a pot that does it more and combine it with the desire for explicitly low-level listening and maybe more sensitive speakers, it can become an annoyance
Yes i agree with you here that in these circumstances the balance control isn’t always the answer.
Well i hope we haven’t scared off the OP here as the SN3 for me remains a formidable amplifier and is capable of some serious music making, regardless of volume level. I can only fully recommend it and would say to those who are considering in purchasing a SN3 to go ahead with full confidence and to not be put off with some of the imbalance issues that have been reported here. In any case one always the dealer to turn to, and of course Naim themselves.
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Sure, the SN3 is great and I don’t want to scare the OP off either. Just saying that there is a variance between individual pots/units - my dealer’s demo 252 didn’t do it at all and then my own did it -, so might be best to check before taking it home 
Or maybe there’s an option to tell the dealer/Naim in advance that low-level is important.
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Actually, my SN2 balance knob is always at about the 11 o’clock position as well, but that’s because my room is so badly unbalanced.
What’s a good iPhone app to measure dB please?
This may be helpful:
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Not the specific text coming up from that post of mine @Suedkiez linked, but discussed elsewhere in that thread
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The rest of the thread too, but I think your post explains the limitations of phones and apps very well and even contains recommendations:
Having compared apps it seemed reasonable to pick one of those giving readings very similar to a number of others. The two I settled on (having slightly different functions suited to different things) are Decibel X and dB Volume
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I thank all who took the time to write me an answer. If to take aside the imbalance thing.
I really want to know if in 45-50 DB there is decent sound with body and strarcture so one can still enjoy from sound atmosphere or in those volume this amp will sound lean
I play my SN2 quite low at times especially when we have friends over and are talking. At these times however, I turn on my subwoofer to aid in the presence of mid and low bass. This makes a big difference and allows us to feel the music nicely without our speach being drowned out.
I use the sub for most classical music I play, as it brings out instruments in the pieces that require it. I love to hear/feel the buzz of the double bass for instance.
Each of my speakers have two 10 inch bass drivers, so they produce plenty of low frequency right down to 18 htz, but at low volumes, or even mid volumes with classical, I really appreciate the subwoofer.
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I think you don’t have to worry about your question. The amp doesn’t play a big part in this imo. In normal use (loudness range), any decent amp has a virtually flat response of frequency vs gain/volume. Unless it has a loudness function of some sort.
The speakers and the room play a much bigger role here.
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Wuee, hi Stephen, well found, it was a long time since I read you. How are you? You started like me with Nait5si and ND5xs2! I am still there. You then used XS3 and SN3. I have to take this step but I am hindered because the good old Nait5si still sounds good after 7 years of use. I would like to try XS3 but what about the SN3 apart from listening at low volume? I don’t want to spend a lot of money but if it will give me much more than my 5 for the SN3 I could evaluate it. However I am more inclined to the XS3.
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The cables used in the system could also have an influence over very low level volume structure, body and atmosphere.
With a coherent loom of naim powerline, hiline and naca you should be good.
For certain - other cables will have a more laid back and softened flavour, while others a more brighter and crisp sound.
I have used cables that sound excellent at very quiet volumes, but are all over the place at some louder volume.
The more closer attention payed to setup and perhaps more importantly your source should bring about more detail.
And of course, you could always just plug some headphones in and turn it up.
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