Naim Headline 2

I have tried 2 different adaptor cables a 2 rca female and it only has 2 signal wires and 1 ground to Din, where the tape out has 2 left channel & 2 right channel Din plug.
I also tried a 4 rca female to Din as this would have all the channels but leave 2 plugs over and as I don’t want to start cutting and soldering wires and risk damaging my 52.
I think my only safe but costly option is a Din Headline .
Thanks Lee…

I’m not surprised that your RCA2-DIN5 doesn’t work - they are more commonly wired to the signal inputs

But with your DIN5-RCA4 cable you should be able to discover which two RCAs are signal outputs.

Speak to your dealer. They should be able to arrange for Naim service dept to convert your headline to a DIN version.

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I only tried the red & Black plugs not the other 2 . i will try the others when i get home tomo
thanks for all the help everyone …

I would expect red and black (sometimes white) to be preamp inputs The other two should be what you need for preamp(fixed level tape) outputs. The DIN5-RCA4 cable that I had several decades ago (Akai 4000 R2R to Meridian 101 preamp) used white & red as inputs and blue & yellow as outputs.

Just make sure the 52 & NAHA are powered down before plugging things in!

The standard NAHA has a captive signal cable.

It has it’s detractors. I love my HL2/HCdr combo but, there are without question some superb alternatives on the market. Inexpensive tube headphone amps are pretty popular and a few are very good indeed. In fact, decent headphone amps are so abundant it is hard to single specific ones out.

I’d suggest listening to a few really good dedicated analog only amps to see whether the HL is your cup of tea. While I think a HL2/HCdr is hard to beat, it is pricey. And a HL2/FCxs or HL2/NAPSC should alk be considered as different headphone amps.

A HL2/NAPSC was not enough of a jump over my orevious Rega Ear (fabulous for very little cost). The HCdr made it into a different beast entirely.

Yup, and my Olive NAHA has a DIN on the end of its captive lead.

IIUC, in Monkeyman’s case he’s got male Phonos at the end of his captive lead. So he’s got hold of a couple of adaptors with RCA females, but has only tried two of the female phonos. So he will try the other two later and see what he gets :slight_smile:

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Hi
Back home from girlfriends now and tried plugging yellow female into black rca of Naha and white female into red and it works but sound quality is not great prob as only cheap adaptor lead £5 ish as only one I could find at the time . Also my Bengal cat is attacking me demanding attention !!
Im not a fan of expensive leads but they need to be better than these !

Well at least you’ve demonstrated proof of concept. I’m very surprised that “the sound is not great” though. I run my olive Headline from my 82 (Input socket 6) via a 10 metre DIN5M-DIN5F extension that I knocked up using El Cheapo STP from Maplins. It sounds bl00dy good with my Sennheiser 650s.

Maybe your Headline needs the “infamous” service; you could get the connectors reworked at the same time.

I may have been a bit hasty ! my little hugo dac is a bit fiddly and needed turning up a bit ,
and my small but punchy pmc db1s kick with this supercap so headphones are probably not going to match them bass wise …

Can somebody give their input on a Naim Headline 2 powered by supercap connected to a NAC 552 DR.

will the NAC 552DR contribute to the sound?

…also @Richard.Dane maybe able to answer this one? Is it possible and if so what sort of results can be expected from running a HL2 off the Aux socket on a 552. I see it recomended for the Superline but not sure about the HL2 as its an amp.

It’s possible but not recommended as it created an earth loop in the system and impairs overall performance. Best to use s dedicated PSU.

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I’d be interested in a definitive answer on this too.

My guess is there is no influence from the pre as the volume knob is bypassed when listening via headphone out.

Well, the signal routes through the pre-amp and through the tape circuit, so this will have some influence. The tape circuit on the NAC552 is particularly fine. IIRC there were some interesting posts on a thread about this on the old forum. Maybe worth trying to do a search.

Interesting, thanks Richard

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