Naim subwoofer cable?

Hi all - thinking about a KC62 sub to augment my LS50s. It will run off my 172 and 155x combo. What’s the best way to connect? I seem to recall both a DIN and RCA out, but the DIN is connected to the 155 I think. So do I need a standard RCA cable then?

If someone has some guidance here, would be greatly appreciated!

A high level connection from the speakers is usually the preferred way to connect a Naim amp to a sub.
If you want to use the low level connection you can enable the RCA output and use that, as you are using the DIN output for your power amp.
Naim used to sell a subwoofer cable (and possibly still do) which was ‘slugged’ with a resistor to maintain stability of the preamp so it could be worth using one unless the cable will be very short. Designacable should be able to make one up for you with suitable terminations on both ends if you ask them.

2 Likes

Thanks. So if I do use an RCA cable (into the RCA line input below) does it have to have a resistor? Or will a normal cable be fine? I’ve never heard of this before.

The problem is that Naim preamps don’t like long cables. If the sub happens to be close to the amp and you can use a short cable you should be fine with a regular RCA cable, but placing a sub so that it actually works and doesn’t mess up the sound can involve a fair bit of trial and error, which mostly involves moving it around the room to find an exact position where it works well.
I believe Naim’s slugged cable was available in 5 and 10 metre lengths.
Alternatively use a high level connection from the loudspeakers. Then you just need cheap, thin loudspeaker cables.

1 Like

I’m now thinking about the KC62 wireless module

I recommend using the KC-62’s speaker input adapter and running jumpers off the main speakers. The wire for that doesn’t have to be special.

Incredible sub. Enjoy.

3 Likes

I was afraid of that. I’ve developed speaker wire phobia these days. Think I’m going to have to keep the sub close to the speakers and go RCA cable at first. I’m moving so many things around, I’d like to just keep it as simple as possible.

Once this thing arrives, the next question will be where to set the crossover :thinking:

You would normally set the filter to a frequency just slightly higher than the lower limit of your main speakers. Then adjust up or down by ear if needed.

For test purposes I would get a long cable that gives you complete flexibility to experiment with positioning. The cheapest way to do this is to use any old wire such as electrical cable, bellwire, or ultra cheap thin speaker cable. This will cost next to nothing. Once you have determined the optimum position you can cut it down or replace it with something else.

1 Like

You shouldn’t need that much cable. Ideally, with a single sub, it would be placed somewhere along the front plane of the speakers but care should be taken to ensure it is never placed dead centre between two walls. So if you speaker layout in the room is symmetrical the sub will be a bit off to one side closer to one or the other. That naturally lends itself to a fairly short jumpers that will only be as long as the furthest speaker from the sub and they can run back along the main speaker cable if that makes things tidier.

By short, is 2m ok? I think I’m going to initially place the sub just to the right of the right speaker parallel to the front wall so 2/3m should be the maximum length I would need.

I’ll need to build up the patience in the coming weeks to crawl around the floor on my hands and knees looking for the right spot :grinning_face:

For now, I’m going with the KISS method.

A 2m cable should be fine in terms of preamp stability. What it won’t do is give you the flexibility to try a variety of different locations for the sub. It might work fine in your preferred location, but depending on the room dimensions and main speaker positioning, it may not, and you could find that the sound just falls apart.
In the last room I used, for example, the sub worked fantastically well when I put it behind the sofa, but was totally unsatisfactory when used anywhere near the wall where the main speakers were located. Thus my suggestion that you use long bits of cheap speaker cable, even if that is only a temporary solution during setup.

2 Likes

Luckily the KC-62 has two opposing drivers and several EQ modes that are both boundary, corner, and even cabinet aware.

Those don’t overcome the rules of sub placement (otherwise they wouldn’t be rules) but they do let you bend them very far. It was designed to perform and be decorating committee friendly in both looks and placement.

Crawling around like a dog with a 40Hz test tone looking for nulls and nodes is not for me.

One thing that is true is that with subs, quantity does actually outweigh quality. Probably the only area of hifi where this is true. Two lesser subs provide easier placement and much smoother distribution than a single higher quality sub. So you can generally put them in any two convenient spots (but still not in a corner if possible) and have a mostly null free result.

Obviously I’m biased as I have a pair of 62s but the second one really improved consistency for all seating positions.

1 Like

Great stuff - thanks!

Now I have to shell out for a second sub :money_mouth_face:

Hahaha. That’s not exactly what I’m saying. I think the 62 is as placement tolerant as they get.

I found the complete opposite. I had endless problems integrating a lesser quality sub into my system and it never sounded right. As soon as I bought a high quality sub, it blended in so easy. Also, it’s only when you have a high quality sub, that you can really appreciate what a true well defined bass can sound like.

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.