Currently I have a Naim 282/Supercap-DR/NAP250-DR amplification system and about to buy a pair
of ATC SCM40A active speakers to use together with 282/Supercap-DR. (I know NAP250 becomes
redundat in this case.) I am not technical man in HIFI so I face some problems with wiring
between Supercap-DR and active ATCs.
Supercap has 2 of DIN type of output sockets and the speakers have female XLR inputs.
Could ATC be considered as mono amp in this case? How exactly should they be wired together ?
Some say single DIN to 2 XLRs (Y cable) others say 2 runs of DIN to XLR. I am really confused.
What wiring schemes should be used in this case:
Normal
Normal wiring has the screen of the cable connected at both the DIN and the XLR plugs.
Pre-amp Reference Earth
This wiring has the screen of the cable connected at the DIN plug end only.
Speaker Reference Earth
This wiring has the screen of the cable connected at the XLR ends only.
To be honest I do not even know what these options mean so of course I am not able to choose
from them.
Could I buy a finished cable that fulfills these purposes or it should be custom made ?
Please help me out if you could to choose the best solution.
@Simon-in-Suffolk has recently gone active and can advise, he went for a balanced mode and purchased a unit to enable balanced. I am sure he will be along shortly, to explain.
Thanks Gazza, yes I found NACs donāt seem to work their best with long unbalanced output leadsā¦
So my answer to convert the NAC output to balanced. So get a 4 pin DIN to phono lead of 50 cms or so from Naim or Flashback or similar. This plugs into your NAC powersupply signal output.
Connect the phono leads into audio UnBal transformersā¦ I use Canford transformer converters, which are designed for the professional market to do exactly thisā¦ and only have minute insertion loss ā¦ and then run longer balanced XLR leads, I use Van Damme leads, to the active balanced inputsā¦
this then becomes a true active connection. One of the benefits of going balanced is that you have separated signal return from ground, thereby by improving performance through the cable.
You can kludge it and directly wire unbalanced into pseudo balanced, but you will be compromising performance, and possibly introducing issues with earth loops etc, and can even potentially damage or stress electronics causing premature failureā¦ so I would avoid and use the method I suggest above.
Thank you very much for your reply.
Then - if I understand well - there is no need to use supercap 2 sockets.
1 is enough and I need a cable that runs from SCDR to āCanford transformer convertersā
and from there to the speakers a pair of balanced cable is do the job.
Dear Simon, would you be so kind to share some information on that transformer/converter you are using. Where can it be bought ? If you have, a link could be appreciated. Others may also be interested.
For me it seems that to connect Naim preamp PSU to active ATC speakers could generate
some problems and is not really hassle free. I have heard so much good things about active ATC speakers so I would like give them a try.
Iām running a 52/Supercap into ATC 40a active speakers. Iām in the USA and had a pro audio company called Redco in Connecticut make me up a 6 foot pair of Mogami 2549 cables din to XLR.
I looked up the pin wiring of the XLR speaker end connection in the ATC manual and I looked up the pin wiring of the Naim Supercap din outputs on the Internet and I gave Redco this information. The ATC manual advise the wiring should be done pin to pin.The cables are excellent and I think they were around $40.
I had emailed Naim asking about cable length with this gear and they said I should be fine with a 6 foot pair. They advised that with long lengths of cables a resistor might be needed. Iām not sure with what lengths this becomes advisable. The output structure of the 272 is different from the 52/SC so this is not a requirement with the 272.
But best convert to balanced cabling and true balanced config on longer runs if your actives support true balanced. I canāt see any reason to use XLR and balanced cable over unbalanced phono if you are not going to run balancedā¦ unless of course your active has no unbalanced phono in.
I found a noticeable SQ improvement and lower background noise running true balanced.
This guide might be useful for those that want to know more and why connecting unbalanced phono/DIN directly into an xlr balanced connector has SQ performance disadvantages.