Hi all
Has anybody tested the above with naim amplification yet:thinking: I’m just about to test one myself within the next few days. If I have issues with my mains conditioner it with end on eBay pretty sharpish after it’s had a chance to settle in
I can currently hear when washing machine is on in the kitchen and I’m three floor up I’m a bit worried about losing some dynamics I have a little bit of a hum from my hicap. Not bad but I can hear it working but not when the music is playing . The hum could even be normal but a doubt it some how . I don’t here and discernible hum from my Supercap. One of My hicap is powering my 242. And the other is powering my headline. They both hum a little. I don’t leave the headline powered up as the headphones use if few and fare between.
I guess I’ll soon be finding out if my hicaps need a servicing
I’m also considering letting the competition tinker with my hicaps and maybe even my Suppercap to get them as close as I can to the DR upgrade. I think I read somewhere that naim’s upgrade to DR was inspired by the competition and that some people even think that the Competition version is better. Going on the feedback that I read on here regarding various bits of equipment that people have used and prefer over newer equipment I would not be surprised one bit to find somebody that thinks that. If we have anybody that has done a side by side comparison on here that could be ingesting
I’ve read that some people even prefer the none DR upgrade made by other companies. I would have stayed in house but the DR door has been well and truly closed. I’m guess that making an Upgrade choice like that would then limit me to only being able to have my naim equipment serviced by the same people that made the modifications further down the road. I’m Pretty sure that would be the case. But it’s worth checking. It doesn’t look like there are too many options if you have a limited budget and want to upgrade your naim none DR equipment to something similar .
I have Puritan 156 with Puritan Ultimate from wall to 156 and Powerlines from 156 to naim boxes. It killed all transformer hum, lowered the noise floor and increased details and separation. I cannot hear any compromises on dynamics and this seems to be the trick with 156 if you read other reviews. All good
Was this when there were fewer electrical components in the household?
We now have WiFi, sky boxes etc.
Naim didn’t recommend less than 3 meter speaker cables & using other manufacturers interconnects but lots of people are now bucking the trend & having good results.
I’ve tried the Puritan & I say it works for me & quite a few others have experienced the same.
Thanks
Mark
To add to Graham’s post, when I was at the factory we would get in or be sent various conditioners that were recommended by customers, dealers, or reviewers and would listen to them on the big system in the dem room. Unfortunately, all adversely affected performance, some dramatically so. Some did these just by being plugged into the mains but without any kit connected directly to them.
To add to this, I had an experience that I have relayed here of a big conditioner (I won’t mention the brand but it looked like a huge power amp) that had been hidden that adversely affected a system I had set up for a music evening at a dealer. When we finally found it and unplugged it from the mains the system soared as I knew it should have done from the beginning.
To date, I’m not aware if there being any mains conditioner that Naim can recommend. I guess the search continues…
So be sure that whatever issue you are trying to resolve with a conditioner is not somehow fixable by other means first, as that would be myself recommendation before considering a mains conditioning unit.
There was some buzzing on my speakers.
After lots of un-connecting & connecting various devices I found it was the sky box.
As like most people on this forum my system is part of my living room. I asked for advice off many hifi enthusiasts and some prominent hifi store owners, none came up with any satisfactory fixes.
I put in the Puritan & buzzing was gone.
The system seems a lot quieter.
I’ve tried with & without the Puritan & I can honestly say there is a bigger difference with it in.
If I could move my system away from the sky box perhaps it would be better without the conditioner but as I said it’s part of my living space which my family use to.
Burg, first of all I would not be too worried by any hum. Sure it can be annoying if you sit close to the system but it is no indication that your kit needs servicing just that the power supplies are doing their job. In fact I’ve recently got an almost new DR555 power supply and that hums considerably more than my older ones do. I would also offer sage council on the thought of putting any kit out to a third party for modifications. Not only is this likely to affect that typical ‘Naim’ sound but also likely to affect the re-sale value.
I, like many on the forum, have played with conditioners and agree with Richard that all of the ones I’ve tried seemed to suppress ultimate dynamics and high frequency detail.
I should however mention that I have a mate who has loads of them in his system along with some modified power supplies and he seems to like the suppression they offer but when I listen to his system I find it devoid of the typical Naim qualities. To me it sounds super smooth, dark and lacking any liveness, which for me robs the music of real emotion. To me it just sounds like a really good hifi system and not a musical instrument capable of bringing you to tears or making the hairs on your neck stand up!
Sell what you have if you are not happy and just buy the DR versions. It will be far more satisfying. One last and final comment, concentrate on the source before messing with stuff downstream. This will often solve a lot more problems if you find your system is not delivering the sound you want.
I have vision and eye-hand coordination issues making it impossible to easily get to our outlets behind our racks. I am therefore using the Isotek power management conditioner which sits on one of the rack shelves. NYC apartments can have lots of line noise. The Isotek system along with Isotek power cables have worked very well. Had we not contended with disability issues, we might never have gotten to a power conditioner.
I bought my power conditioner hoping it would help mitigate transformer hum from the naim gear, which the ISOL-8 PowerLine Extreme solved for good, but the uplift in SQ is something I wasn’t expecting and didn’t bargain for. Now I’m almost glad those transformers did hum, otherwise l might have never known the positive impact a good power conditioner can have on an audio system.
Has anybody compared the SQ benefits of the £1.5K PowerLine, with the SQ benefits of using a Hydra power lead for their Naim boxes, which cost around £200?
Mains conditioner worked for me. I have a naim AV2 which is on the other side of the room of the naim/linn six pack stereo system with took care of the left and right channels. I had terrible interference and buzzing coming from the AV2 because of the long run of the interconnect cable. We tried everything, changing the interconnect cable which worked to a small degree. I asked Naim about using a mains conditioner and they said you could try it there’s no harm, i went out and bought a monster 1000 mains conditioner. I plugged it in and there was no difference, so disappointed, i couldn’t believe i spent about £150 on this thing, but about a week later… deadly silent and still working perfectly to this day.
A couple of years ago i did buy one of those CS947 Tacima 6 Way Mains Conditioner for the main hi fi system ( a lot of high recommended reviews from magazines and people) and that did make things worse, that created buzzing especially with the turntable. I taken that out and is now used on my computer set up. So some you win and some you loose.
I have used a HMS Energia RC 3/1 for years. With all my systems from a SuperUniti, a 272 and in these days a full 500 system it has done a very good job. It lowers the noise floor, no hum of the transformers and no lack of dynamics. It is a passive power conditioner - no idea what is the effect with an active one.
Same as @Blackbird , it is a great unit. It cured the mains hum on my 300 series boxes. Also, without it, I had noise when the fridge kicked in or when a hair drier was in use. Fitting the Puritan cured this problem.
I have never noticed any detrimental effect on sound quality whatsoever. Dynamics are fantastic.
Please bear in mind my system is NC 300 series level - perhaps 500 series/statement may be more fussy.
Puritan classic plus cables are used from wall to 156 and from every box to 156.
Naim may not approve the use of any power conditioners. Nevertheless, if there are insufficient wall sockets to power up all components, you would still have to use one. Otherwise you won’t be able to listen to the system. In this instance a good power conditioner will sound better than a poor design, usually cheap.
@ryder I fall into that category. I need more outlets and they need to be easily accessible b/c of my vision and coordination. This requires a good power conditioner. I am super pleased with Isotek along with their power cables. Drops the noise floor dramatically.
I have a little bit of a hum from my hicap. Not bad but I can hear it working but not when the music is playing . The hum could even be normal but a doubt it some how . I don’t here and discernible hum from my Supercap. One of My hicap is powering my 242. And the other is powering my headline. They both hum a little. I don’t leave the headline powered up as the headphones use if few and fare between.