Richard, they are not under guarantee now. Do you think it is an issue? I can easily pop in to Salisbury for someone to fit a new RCA.
Phil
Yes, the Rega RCAs are very good, and as Richard has found it is important to have the inputs tight.
Phil
Not tempted to fit BNC?
I don’t know Phil. That’s why I suggest having a chat with your dealer.
Yes, but not so easy with the thick Rega cable. I use BNCs with my Aro and Garrard.
What’s your go-to stylus cleaning method Richard? TIA
At637 and/or Discwasher stylus brush and some stylus cleaning fluid of ancient and now forgotten provenance…
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Well, well, well. I have just taken DAVE out of the rack, tightened up the analogue RCA connectors on the AR Sound Lunar cable that feeds the NAC52, re-inserted the dac in the rack and switched on my ears.
Ooh, that’s ridiculous. The magic’s back. Streaming has been sounding perfectly fine but not wow recently. Now, the wow is back!
Brilliant tip Richard, many thanks.
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Thanks Richard. BTW which side carries the signal earth from 552 to the phono?
Phil
Good question Phil. I’m not sure. Maybe a search will give the answer or Else ask Rega on Monday.
Richard, I was asking about the SL cable. Might be a silly question.
Phil
Oh sorry. No idea I’m afraid.
Extracted from FAQs
strong textRichard.DaneLeader
A few reasons why we use DIN connections:
Naim use three types of DIN connector:
- DIN4 (4 pins in a 216 degree arc) - Typically used for pre-amp signal OUT and smaller power amp signal IN. It can carry signal as well as 24V DC when used between a suitable Naim Power amp and pre-amp where the power amp’s power supply also provides power to the pre-amp.
- DIN5 (5 pins in a 240 degree arc) - Typically used between a power supply and a pre-amp or phono stage where it carries signal as well as 2 x 24v DC.
- DIN5 (5 pins in a 180 degree arc) - Typically used on source interconnects, inputs and input/outputs.
This picture shows DIN4 (216), DIN5 (240) and DIN5 (180)
So why do Naim prefer to use DIN connectors?
The obvious reason: DIN connections sound better than RCAs…
The phono plug, or RCA connector, as best as anyone can remember, was designed decades ago as a direct current (DC) power connector. Its design properties do not lend themselves to transferring music signals that have very low voltages (less Than 5 volts) of alternating current (AC). This is true - no matter how good the RCA plug is or whether it is made with gold, etc.
The first difficulty with the RCA connector is that it has a high-frequency capacitive impedance of around 200 ohms; unfortunately, the typical cable that connects the two RCA plugs together has an impedance of about 50 ohms. In this situation, the two RCA connectors on either end of the cable act as reflective walls at higher frequencies and bounce information back and forth, trapping the signal and extending the decay time of the signal that is trying to pass from one component to the other. These reflections have an effect on musical information and are especially harmful to low-level signals, particularly quiet harmonics and underlying instruments, where the ringing that is generated by the loudest instruments will smear the smallest signals. The result is that the quiet instruments will blur or fade away when the loud ones come along. The complexities of the music and the tones of individual instruments get lost.
The DIN plug has an impedance that is similar to the cable. It does not reflect like an RCA plug.
Furthermore, the system ground (which should be a stable connection point to which all signals and power supplies are referenced) is absolutely critical to the sonic performance of your hi-fi. A single reference ground point is important so that signal details are not lost in the small, yet significant voltage differences inevitable with separated ground paths.
Many manufacturers point to the great trouble they take to “star ground” everything. Sadly, this is all wasted when you connect your system together with RCA-plugged cables. Why?
When you connect, for instance, a CD player to a preamp with RCA-plugged cable, you automatically have two separate ground wires - the left and right shields going between them. This creates a ground loop, which degrades the musical performance dramatically, and negates any efforts that were taken to ground the internal circuits properly.
If you were to connect these same two components together with DIN-plugged Naim interconnects, you would have only ONE cable with only ONE ground shield surrounding both the left and right signal wires. Hence, only one ground path for each connection and no ground loop.
@Richard.Dane, Sorry to continue.
It seems that Lavender DIN to DIN IC can follow this as both channels are in a single cable. However, SL is two cables which are bonded by the outer covering. I suppose both have a ground shield, but only Naim know.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Phil
I don’t know about the construction of the SL interconnects Phil. Naim would know for sure.
@Richard.Dane, I only asked as I seem to remember you providing this information in a post. So I guess I need to email support@naimaudio.com.
Phil
I didn’t realise the RCA plugs on my Super Lumina RCA to DIN IC were easy to open. So it appears that both the screen and the signal ground are soldered to the outer body of the RCA plug. Of course DIN is a mystery to me.
Does anyone understand cables enough to know the effect this brings? The Rega doesn’t seem to have three wires perhap indicating that screen and signal ground are the same.
Phil
This is what my dealer fitted to my Rega P9.
I don’t know what cables are used on the RP10, but the ones on the P9 are quite thick.
MArco
An enjoyable read Richard, your experience reminds me of my recent one where my LP12 just lost that engagement that used keep me putting on record after record. I didn’t have the locking RCA collars (aro BNC’s) but pulled apart every thing to try and find the problem. In the end, the only thing I hadn’t done was replace the 13 year old felt mat that I was using and presto, the magic was back. All the plugging and unplugging, fault finding and cable dressing also probably helped things when the main culprit was found but this all goes to show just how sensitive and revealing our naim active systems are.
Mario
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