Need Troubleshooting Help

My system consists of olive NAC82, NAPSE, CDX, XPS, 2 - HICAPS, 2 - NAP250s, SNAXO, SBLs. 1st HICAP goes to the 82 and the second HICAP is for SNAXO. All of a sudden I’m getting either poor sound or no sound at all. I reinstalled my passive crossovers to test each piece passively and all seemed fine. I then reconnected actively and tried using an older NAXO I have. No sound. I doubt both the SNAXO and NAXO went bad at the sane time so I thought maybe a cable is the problem. I checked the cables for continuity on each wire and they seemed fine. Perhaps I dont have it connected right? The 82 link plug should be fitted - correct? What might be causing my problem and what can I do to fix it? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Both channels (L&R) failed? Snaxi/Naxo power supply?

Can you do a schematic? I wonder if the Hicap and SNAXO are connected correctly?

Thank you both. I’ll post a connection diagram shortly and hopefully my problem will be clear. Thank you.

And please also clarify whether it was working then simply stopped, or if you made a change of some sort and it hasn’t worked since (and if the latter did you do a straight reversal of the change)?

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:8cab4e17-98e4-4c52-b695-ac8be145630f

May help?

Have you gone through all components (both HICAPs, all SNAIC5s) to check they are all working OK when configured passively? Of course you can’t check the SNAIC4, but you say it’s OK for continuity, so…

Screenshot 2024-11-24 at 08.57.31

Screenshot 2024-11-24 at 08.56.38

Screenshot 2024-11-24 at 08.58.39

2 Likes

Your SNAXO may need service if the cables are ok.

Thank you all. I’m in NY so my responses may seem delayed. I connected each 250 and each HICAP passively and they worked. I tried using my spare 102 in place of the 82 actively and no sound. I also tried an older NAXO in place of the SNAXO and no sound. Yes it was working previously but perhaps I changed something by accident. Below is a connection diagram of how it is right now. I’m baffled and its very frustrating. Any help you all could provide would be greatly appreciated. What if anything is incorrect below? Thank you again.

@Richard.Dane : Richard when you have a minute can you please take a quick look at my diagram above and let me know what you think? You may need to enlarge it - my apologies. Thank you very much.

It looks fine to me. You may need to ask someone local to get “hands on” here. I know that Bruce at Innovative know his Naim onions (and also posts here from time to time).

Did you test all the SNAICs passive? Just wondering whether one of them might have an issue.

Thanks so much Richard. Ill check the SNAICs passively and give Bruce a call. I think I actually bought alof of this stuff from him 25 years ago - crazy. I’ll get it sorted out one way or anither. Thanks again as always.

1 Like

@Richard.Dane : Sorry to bother your again Richard. How can I check the 4 pin SNAIC passively? Use both HICAPS for the 82? What are the connections?

There isn’t really anywhere you can use it here passively, unless you have a smaller Naim power amp going handy. You could check the pins and continuity though.

Edit: just wondering whether you could just link the two Hicaps via SNAIC4 as you would in an active system just to test whether you get signal through - @neils ??

Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll try linking them. The 4 pin I bought fairly recently from Chris at AV Options. I’ll get a new 5 pin as well to see if that resolves it. Thanks again.

Just out of interest are you using genuine snaics?
Someone had similar problem a while ago,
Sorted problem by removing the after market brand, and but back the genuine snaics

Yes, you can do that - just disconnect the Snaic5 from the second Hicap & connect a 4 to XLR from the second Hicap to a 250.
The Snaxo Snaic5 can then be substituted between the first Hicap & the 82.
That would check the signal & power of the Snaic5s & signal integrity of the Snaic4.

Regards
Neil.

1 Like

Thanks for the follow-up. Both snaic5 cables are very old but I believe are genuine. The 4 pin between the hicaps is new genuine naim. I’m going to get two new snaic5s and hopefully that will fix the issue. Neil, I’m going to try your suggestion right now and see if I can find the issue. Thank you all. I’ll report back when I have it sorted out.

Passively, all three SNAICs seem to work perfectly with the two HICAPs connected via the 4 PIN SNAIC. I also connected each 250 separately to see if maybe one of them was the culprit - both worked. As soon as I reconnected everything actively, I got very faint high frequency sound from the SNAXO and then nothing again from the older NAXO. Could both crossovers have gone bad at the same time? Very weird.

As you might already suspect, I find it unlikely, in the extreme, that two cross overs would have failed at the same time. I don’t recall all of the connections from memory, but if you have access to the older owner’s manuals for Naim active systems, I would double check the connections on whatever product you have been using to power your active cross overs. If my memory is correct, the Naxo was not wired in the same pattern that the SNAXO was, so perhaps you have made one small mistake in your wiring? It may be that Naim used different conductors in the SNAIC’s when used in active systems, so perhaps your testing these cables in simpler, passive iterations of your SBL system was not sufficient to test them fully. Other than that, I am a loss for why you have experienced the combination of issues you reported.

Good luck,

Bruce