As my family rarely “let” me play music as loud as I’d like through the speakers and are around all the time now, obviously, I decided to upgrade the headphones. So Stax SR009 'phones to 009S, SRM727 energiser to SRM8000 and added a Powerline (very worthwhile, BTW), but also changed the HiLine 5-pin DIN to 2 RCA interconnect to a Superlumina to feed from the 552. Unfortunately when changing it over yesterday, I got miniscule volume; a bit like Rob Brydon’s man in a box! Using socket 4, as did the HilIne and input 1 on the SRM , so tried socket 6 and input 2. Both 4 and 6 should have output, but no difference. When disconnecting, the miniscule volume disappeared, implying it was making a connection to my mind. The grey band is at the 5-pin DIN end, i.e. the source but despite explaining clearly to the dealer and the dealer explaining clearly to Naim the requirement (It was a special order), it seems to me that the wrong pins are probably connected in the 5-pin DIN plug. Has anyone had a similar problem in the past/do you think that is the cause? In the year-end rush have Naim been making more mistakes, as a friend of mine recently got a faulty new Atom…? Annoying as I traded in the HiLine so can’t use my £10k headphone set-up over the holidays and well into the New Year until the Superlumina is fixed (if indeed that is the problem).
Although it sounds like the wiring is wrong to use the output sockets from the 552, if you have a Naim source you could plug straight into that instead if the energiser has its own volume control.
The wiring of your cable would be correct for this application. At least you can use your new headphone setup until you can get a replacement cable.
And if I may add…
I run several headphone systems (Stax 009S, Utopia etc. ) and for quite a while ran my headphone amps out of the 552 with a purpose made Chord Signature Tuned Array cable.
I recently was inspired to do some testing by a fellow forum member (MagicBus) and starting connecting my headphone amplifiers directly to my sources - Linn KDS and dCS Rossini. Magicbus experimented with directly connecting his headphone amp to his ND555, Linn KDSM, and Chord Dave.
Both of us preferred bypassing the 552 completely and connecting the headphone amps directly to the sources.
Thanks for the suggestions; connecting to the source would be an option for the ND555, but not the LP12 (which has a SL wired inside to the Urika to a 5 -pin DIN plug). There would be the minor hassle of disconnecting the ND555 from the 552 and connecting the Stax though, I guess. Could you connect with 2 RCA out in parallel though, or it only sends output through 1 socket at at a time? In the end I found an old cheap 5-pin DIN to 4 RCA cable in the a big bag of old stuff in my workshop and connected that to output 4 on the 552/the 2 right RCAs to the Stax. Bingo straightaway (if a bit tinny-sounding), reinforcing the thought the SL is just made wrongly. The grey ring is at the 5-pin DIN end, which I believe is meant to signify it’s the source end, I suppose they just did it wrong on the day. Annoyingly careless for the cost and after specifically explaining the purpose of the cable and waiting about 6 weeks for it!
Is this one that is powered off the speaker cables? My mate has one and has installed a switch on the speaker cables to switch between the loudspeakers and the energizer.