Superline

Thanks Douglas yes I have A Supercap DR and it’s gpoing into a S1 preamp so it should all sound great. I think I’m stopping here!!!

Yes, you get 10k, 1K, 500, 220, and 100 ohm plugs with the Superline. Once you find a value you prefer then you can order a Z foil Airplug version as a nice little upgrade for the future.

The higher up the Naim tree you go the less hi-fi and the more music.

Thank you Richard

Totally agree Douglas and I’m hoping the SL will top it all off :+1:

Just found your thread fom 2019 Douglas!

I’m just looking into the air plugs - if I was to go down this route would I be ordering the following:

Naim Superline Z Plug Deep Cryo 576R and 470pF ?

Thanks Pete

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Sorry, not able to come up with detailed advice on the plug loadings on the rear of the Superline.
When the Etna was installed my dealer advice was to see how I found the degree of treble and go from there. After a week or so they fitted two Airplugs based on my listening.
If I had chosen the “wrong” plugs coupled with the tweeter on my 802 D3s it might have been a bit too bright, so needs some thought before you specify the ones to go for.
At this level its all quite subtle IMO.

I had forgotten my post of going on two years ago.

I do not think that Z foil and cryogenic treatment is applicable to capacitance (pf) plugs whilst ‘air plugs’ are, in my experience, beneficial to both resistance and capitance plugs.

Richard

There is no right or wrong for which loading you like best, as i have found out lately, it depends on certain things, cartridge, cable, rest of your system, the recording on the vinyl and lastly your mood.
Its a shame you have to pick a certain loading and go with it with the superline, as being rear mounted is not really user friendly, if you want to change loading all the time, plus expensive if you want the better plugs.
So if i was you i would try them all and see which one you like best on a variety of albums

It’s easy enough to try the different plugs ( no need to power down) and it sounds better this way than via switches, and even allows a bit of an upgrade too with the Z foil Airplugs.

I know what you are saying Richard, but having owned a superline and many others, the superline isn’t the easiest one to adjust and live with.
Its hard to beat the instant adjustment that you can get on others from a front switch or even remote, as you can instantly hear any difference, rather then second guess, so far easier and quicker to set up, plus i have found i personally prefer different settings for some albums, that i wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t as easy to change.
Not saying the superline is bad as its far from that, just saying that it could be even better, as i didnt realise this, till i had one that could be adjusted so easily

Yes, I can appreciate the easiness of a switch (although I find the dip switch variety infernal things). Unfortunately switches introduce performance compromise that Naim have sought to avoid, hence the plugs.

I guess others have sorted out any performance related problems with that a switch my add, as most top end phone stages use this method.
Like all things, there are switches and switches, like plugs and plugs

There are, but Naim found any switch here was a compromise best avoided.

That was many years ago, things have moved on some since then i would say

I’m no engineer, so couldn’t say. Probably Steve Sells would know.

Dunc,
I found that the Superline was unusually sensitive to the selection of resistor.

Changing the resistor plug by +/- 25 Ohms made a noticeable difference, e.g Dynavector MC cartridges sound noticeably better with the 453 Ohm plug over the 470 Ohm plug. The standard 500 Ohm plug seriously degrades the performance. In contrast, with other phono stages, a change of +/-100 Ohms made a barely any difference.

For this reason alone, most phono stages are fine with a selection of circa 5 resistor values, which can be managed via a switch, whereas a Superline would need many multiples of this.

This seems to be a peculiarity of the Superline design and may be another reason for Naim choosing plug-in resistors over a 50 way switch.

Best regards, BF

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Hi BF

There was a Superline Z Plug Deep Cryo-576R & 470pF for a previous sale from a ‘sellers’ website . The seller said they were a perfect match for Linn & Lyra cartridges. Looks like i’m going to be doing a lot of fiddling around. My Ortofon A95 is low output and it was set up by a lovey guy and Linn specialist who’s no longer with us, he put 100R and 4.7nF combination in and it has sounded fantatisc for the last 3 years or so.