ND555 at Olive System

Hi DB

May I ask, did you used to work at Martlesham?

Jim

Long ago…when it was a Lab that developed kit. :bear:

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I have got my 2 x 135s direct into radial double socket. Then block into 2nd double socket. All Powerlines.

Then with block sequence is Supercap 2 powerline (preamp), then 3 sources. Source power supplies are 555PS, XPS2 and then ND5XS2.

I took the cabling mains set up from your ideas. Seems to work really well with my set up. All non Naim gear is on shared ring main Lingo 1, phonostage and Zoneripper NAS.

Good! :slightly_smiling_face:
The main thing is to live with it for a few days that way and get used to it - then decide if it works long-term or not for you.

My preference is for the Bass to be powerful and clean but to maintain any ‘wild’ quality it often has - meaning full dynamic-handling. Also the seamless transition through midband voice to an easy HF image and this set-up gave me this.

Some configurations bloat and compress the bass or sound ‘forced’ - but I like an easy natural presentation that can do dynamics well when present, so I aim for this.

Not many people think to try this layout.
It puts all noisy class AB stuff direct to wall - they create and make their voltage noise signature there - then the ‘island’ of the mains-block between them normalizes itself to that and relative to it allows for a high common-mode rejection of AC mains noise, as the Pre-source develops a difference voltage into what you eventually hear.

…well that was my theory - I tried it and it works for me. :bear:

DB.

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Lots of theories. Other main one is put all Naim stuff on block star earthed and then into mains socket. Musicworks G3 or G4 are being used.

I have Wireworld Matrix 2 block.

Chord M6 and S6 are the new blocks being used.

I am okay as I am and think that 135s on powerlines into mains sound pretty good to me.

I am not a scientist, but I definitely noticed a darker presentation with more bass with powerlines.

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The darker presentation is a lack of harmonic distortion from the bass. I also use Powerlines for all my supplies - they take a couple of days to settle-in but over time they give a relaxed seamless sound.

Yep - I’ve heard that too - not to my taste.
If you are not bothered about the Bass power-handling and careful with music selection then it can work well. If you like complex layered music and want every strand of that to work into its own space then the supplies that pull the most and a dynamic current, the Power Amps, need to be direct into the wall.

But if it works and you like it then that is the answer!
When you are just playing your music and enjoying it and not thinking about upgrades then something is correct.

DB.

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As this is my blog … and it maybe has some reference to ND555

Bad Day… My HDX got stuck.
Suddenly it was in “please wait” yesterday. Could restart it - but this took very long.
Today I tried to copy a CD onto it - again “please wait”…
Restart even longer (10 min plus) and as far as I saw even reading brought it to “please wait”
I think the HDD at its last breath…

I brought the fellow to the naim service point which is 30 min drive away.

HDX is old…yes. And the repair is not so cheap. BUT - the HDX is part of my sweet spot system… I need it - and exactly this HDX, which (in my ears) sounds so lovely.

As a HDD always dies a bit slowly, I really hope that reading errors could be the explanation for the ND555 stuttering once in a while. Stuttering became more often last week and now HDD is dead … think this is it!

I have found your responses very interesting and more palatable than the ‘10mm cable everywhere’ options.

My problem is the mains hum on my 300 series gear (which was also present on my NDX2/SN3) varies from barely noticeable to very loud. I have not been able to pin down the root cause - the louder periods do not coincide with any other activity e.g. fridges etc…
I ran a separate radial (4mm cable) to a double socket and this did not improve matters over connecting to the downstairs ring. Due to decor etc. it will not be possible to adjust the mains any further e.g. convert to ring.

Turning off all other circuits on the consumer unit did not help either - it took a long time for the hum to get louder so was a long time without other circuits being on. All gear is connected to a Titan audio mains block and cables are a mixture of Titan audio an puritan. I did use all Powerline lite cables to see if matters improved but sadly not.

Next steps may be to measure the mains voltage for a while to see if there are periods of over voltage. A trial of different blocks may be on the cards.

I may also put both power amps direct to the radial wall sockets and the rest of the gear via the block into the downstairs ring.

I am also considering a puritan 156 mains conditioner.

What are your thoughts please?

Hum is usually (always) caused in the Naim power supplies by DC-offset voltages appearing in the mains supply in the house.
This - when it happens periodically here - causes a very loud noise, as I have seven Naim supplies to sound-off when they get this.
What causes it is outside the house somewhere on the mains grid that I can’t fix. These DC-offsets cause the toroidal transformers to run noisy. generally it is not a pure DC voltage offset but a distortion of the mains waveform from a symmetric sine wave to getting chunks bit-off near peaks where something is pulling a heavy current.
For me I know it is only occasional and it passes and I put up with it.

There are solutions - a good large local Isolating transformer with some effective filtering or even local regeneration of the sine wave mains will fix it.
Some people have found items that do this and there are many that do it but also worsen the sound of the Naim equipment while removing the hum.
I have heard that on rare occasion Naim may have found some of these that do seem to just remove the hum and have no adverse effects, but I do not know what make and availability for these.
People in the know may offer-up their suggestions.

DB.

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Many thanks for the response, much appreciated. It is not too hard to live with so I may trial blocks/conditioners but won’t stress too much about it.

Knowing what it is and that it passes and is not damaging the equipment but just your mood at the time helps.

The cheap conditioners will always impart a ‘smear’ or feeling of it sitting on things and holding-back performance, so look at the more expensive solutions and any reviews from people with good HiFi equipment that rate it, is my suggestion.

DB.

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Try an Isol-8 Powerline Axis distribution block. Basically a very good distribution block with DC blocking, and no negative impact on sq in all my years of use.

G

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As a matter of interest, did you ever try ND5XS2 into ND555?

(I would expect it to sound worse than just ND555, but with decoupled streamer and dac you never know whether it might sound better until you try.)

Have not tried yet … maybe someday. What about 2x ND555 in a row :slight_smile:

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Hdx returned from service.
Hdd replaced - bios battery replaced - all tested. Psu adjusted - this was good out of spec. All tested and database restored.
Really good people here at naimfocal Germany.

I had some struggle yesterday to restore all settings - there are a lot of settings.
First I could not arrange my synology to be found. With changing workgroup and enabling protocol it worked. Disabled protocol again.
Synology I need only for manually backup.
Must do a full backup again these days.

HDD is fine - sounding healthy when you put your ear on the case. Lately there has been a faint but strange hard clicking inside.
HDD had a noticeable a noticeable of bad sectors according to naim. bad sector at system data and…

Copying is so much faster now.

Hope that he will be fine for some time now.

Quick test with an album, where the nd555 had stuttered recently went good.

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You would need 4 x 555 power supplies to do that justice! :rofl:

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Melco D100…
Just found out that you can also Burn CD Images :slight_smile:
The LED is red when it burns … cool :slight_smile:

Hi,
all works totally fine.
The only thing I recognize is that I can hear the HDD inside the HDX (again).
But only when coming really near to the unit.
Hope this is all fine !
Think that the old HDD was going a bit silent in this way down.
Remember that in the past I could hear it more - but not recently.
So all fine, I think!

Sound HDD = healthy spinning sound. Only SDD dead silent - I know :slight_smile:

Thinking again about next step.
HDX had TLC… and is fine.

Have tested melco n10 recently and decided against him - liked rough hdx sound more.
Has the n1zh the same sound signature? Tempted to test him as well.
But if it has the same signature, this might be not a good idea, and will end in stress again :dizzy_face::rofl:

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If the HDX works and your happy with it can you leave it at that?

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