Mine has always been to left of centre relative to the speakers, but this is room centre, which is where the tv is. I concluded that soundstage is really determined by room as a whole. But I think it’s not volume dependent, but I don’t like low volume. I would focus more on the whole soundstage and get it filling the room. A 552/500 setup is heaps better.
Phil
I did some extra checking;
Mine is “off-center” at ~ 7 o’clock. I do play this low volume as the system is in my living and a have te tendency to talk to my roomy/visitors. If i put it a ~ 7.15 its center again.
My 252 volume balance is spot on I wouldn’t worry if I had to adjust it off of centre as I always have the illumination switched off.
Really annoying, however i can’t see how the upgrade to S. Lumina could have cured such issue.
My 552 fortunately seems perfectly balanced with pot at 12’ o clock and voume at 0 i can hear an equal very feeble sound on both channel.
Regards
Roberto
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I have put the question on the balance back to my Dealer to check with the NAIM importer (NL based). I am curious to the answers, also of NAIM to be honest. Is it a slip of the Quality check, is it normal etc etc.
NB: a " workaround" is using ROON with some head-space adjustment… (-3, -4db).
It’s usually down to the ALPS Blue pot - the best for sound, but its weakness is a slight channel balance variance that can exist right at the beginning of its travel. It’s one of the reasons why Naim also provide a balance pot (which also helps where the room contributes to an imbalance between channels). It’s usually not a problem though because at such low levels such any imbalance should be irrelevant. However, if there’s a definite imbalance at normal listening levels then that is a problem. It could be that you’re running a very high output source into sensitive speakers, which compounds any such issue because you’re only able to use a tiny but of volume pot travel right in the area where any imbalance might exist. AFAIK the pots are tested before fitting and the pre-amp is tested and listened to before depatch from the factory. There’s a tolerance though on what is deemed acceptable, and if you feel yours is particularly bad then you should confer with your dealer.
Hi @Richard.Dane,
Appreciate the feed-back! In Normal listen volume there is no issue, its when i listen to music in background while talking to somebody I want the volume low (volume @ ~ 7). I have tested last couple of days and concluded (also based on the feed back from the forum) that i can live with the “unbalance” in the very low volume range.
Thanks @all for the valuable feedback, much appreciated.
No problem, my pleasure.
I have the same issue. Listening mostly to streaming I have considered adding a second interconnect, attenuated, from ND5 directly to the preamp, to use with low volume listening. For normal levels I can them simply switch back to the input from nDac.
Does any of you with more technical insight than myself see any problems with this ??
(except for maybe a minor drop in SQ at low volume listening via the attenuated ic which is not important)
Claus
if you check the end stops of the balance pot are they symetrical? If not it’s just gone on a spine off where it should be, not unknown to happen.
I had the same issue with the alps pot, it was way off till about 7’oclock, I returned it to my dealer and got a new one which is much better, balance is now out below listening levels.
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I got my 252 second hand late last year. I don’t seem to have the balance variation at different gain; however, I have noticed the balance knob itself is physically off center. It turns farther clockwise than counter-clockwise. I have carefully pulled it off and spun it about to the next spline on the pot shaft, but now it’s the opposite problem and turns farther the other way. What that all means is that balanced is when the light is not centered. That rather bothers me for a $12k component.
I didn’t want to muck around with it too much for fear of separating the lamp cable, but is there another way to fine tune the position? For example, is the knob itself one solid piece, or can the female receiver of the pot shaft be turned slightly? 
Do you think the speaker cable can influence position of the pot for listening ? I read that people go over 9 but in my case I can’t go over 8 and in general stay at 7 with my 300dr and B&w 802N. I have french speaker cable MPC that always gave me better result than naca 5 and tellurium black when comparing at home. But I wonder if keeping level so low doesn’t hold system capacity.
Hi JDP,
The splines on the pot shaft & inside the knob do not allow for the knob to have equidistant travel, due to the position the pot is mounted at.
The actual electrical centre position of the pot (not the knob) will never be dead centre. During the test sequence, the operator is required to set the pot at centre according to the signal output & fit the knob centred at that position. So the splines being slightly offset allows the knob to be at 12 o’clock & the pot a couples of minutes fore or aft as required.
You’ll find the volume knob is the same, but nobody notices that one!
Hope that makes sense.
Regards
Neil.
I’m not sure I understand 100%. So dead center for balance (according to signal) is then not necesarily dead center visually? Or is it that the light sitting at 12 o’clock is the measured center balance?
Yes, the knob LED at the 12 o’clock position should be almost spot on signal centre when the unit leaves the factory.
Sorry to confuse with pot/knob relationships!
Regards
Neil.
