I found the cable on their website but there are no specs and no cross-section pictures, so it’s impossible to tell from how it looks on the outside. It could be just fine or could be totally wrong.
One thing came to my mind: On my 252/300, the hiss disappears nearly completely when I mute the 252 - there only remains a very small residual hiss from the 300, which I can barely hear with my ear right up to the tweeter. Most of it is coming from the 252 and goes away by muting. So I assumed that in the XS3 it is similarly coming mostly from the preamp stage and can be muted. However, I realized that I’m not entirely sure and maybe the XS3 hisses more from the power amp stage.
Nevertheless, I still find the channel difference and the apparently high level of hiss quite strange.
Not necessarily. You could be picking up AM/MW static from how the speaker cables are arranged. It’s a common(ish) problem. You can get the false diagnosis that the preamp is the cause when muting or disconnecting the preamp. But that’s just because you’ve broken the circuit.
I used to get crystal clear radio coming through when I zigzagged my speaker cable under the rack near the 250. When I moved the slack speaker cable elsewhere it went away. Likewise, I also initially thought the preamp was the culprit because muting or disconnecting the pre caused it to go away. But like I said, that’s just because you’ve broken the signal path circuit to the speaker cable areal.
If just for trouble shooting, I suggest you drag out any speaker cable slack away from speaker and amp and see if the problem changes.
If the speaker cable itself is unsuitable and causing the amp distress then that can cause all kinds of issues. I would try with suitable speaker cable such as NACA5 of at least 3.5m per channel and see if you still have the problem.
As for the cables in the picture, if they are internally woven conductors then that could mean high capacitance and low inductance - the opposite to what Naim amps require. However it’s not possible to tell from the pictures. What I can see though are speaker plugs with what appear to be gold plated bananas - these will also impair performance. The ideal here is to match the socket and plugs as best as possible. You should use the Naim SA8 speaker connectors that came with the Nait as these are a perfect material match. Failing that nickel/silver Deltrons will do.
Interesting. In my case, the cable routing is fine and I tried it also in two separate setup attempts and for testing with all cables as far away as possible, but it remained the case that most of it seems to be coming from the 252 and can be muted. But, as mentioned, it’s all on a low level and not audible unless I try to hear it and am very close to the speakers.
In any case, it’s surely a good idea for @Donato to test if routing the cables differently makes a difference
Hi All
just an update on this. the dealer proposed me to use at home the XS 3 he has in the shop for demo.
I tested it and i have the same.issue with hiss. so it seems to be definitely something with my setup. as two amplifiers behaviouring same way.it is.really unlikely they both have the same problem.
i am more convinced now that the problem might be the speakers cable i have got. i will.see if i can get some other cables to make other tests. i could not find so far nac a5 at a reasonable price to buy as it is not sure 100 % this is solving the problem so.do not want to spend a fortune.
thanka again for all support provided.
Hi Suedkiez,
the dealer told me that they hear a hiss but it is not so loud that can be heard from the point of listening.
not sure i can do more test in the shop. will see
Did last final test at the dealer shop wuth my XS3 my speaker cables and my B&W. with the following result:
no hiss at all when amplier is on
but we discovered problems like distorsions on several frequency , we did sent to the amplifer rhe entire range of frequency and on 70, 90 and more, the right speaker reveals problems. so after swapping speakers and cables we realised that the problem was the speaker cabkr on the right. so we assembled new cables RICABLE and we solved this issue.
At home suprise surprise with the new RICABLE CABLES i still have the hiss, less prominent, but no other distortion problems on high frequency.
Still need to investigate why the hiss is present at home and not at the dealer shop
Most odd. I guess it could be a few things; it may be down to an odd acoustic effect in your room. It could be some kind of RF interference. It may be down to ethernet over mains devices (if you have these get rid ASAP - horrible things that can cause no end of issues with high end hifi).
Although my earlier hypothesis was rejected, it may still be worth using an RF meter to measure and compare RF interference at home versus the dealer’s dem room.
Thanks, I did miss the capacitance value and the description when I looked earlier. The capacitance at 70 pF/meter is not extremely high, but it is 4.3 times higher than NACA5, which has 16 pF/meter. That might turn out OK, but unfortunately they are not telling us the inductance in these specs.
I can’t look inside the cable on the photos, but based on how they look (round and fat), and the description, I would expect low inductance. This would be typical for the construction that they describe in the specs: 224 wires in 7 braids of 32 conductors. It’s exactly what I cautioned against in the earlier post:
I.e., “Anything that is braided or litz type (wires within a strand being individually isolated and woven together in a pattern) are usually unsuitable for Naim amps”
And this combination of low inductance and high-ish capacitance would not be good, because you would need many meters to reach the recommended lower limit of inductance (NACA5 has inductance of 1 μH per meter, and recommended minimum length is 3.5 meters per channel, ideally 5-10 - as mentioned in the FAQ) and this would make capacitance quite high at the same time. (And is expensive and inconvenient by requiring many meters). We can’t be sure, unfortunately, without having the inductance value.
I did look for the specs previously but could not find any, including on their website