Vintage NAIM NAC/NAP

I hear no difference. I think both cable’s are 100% the same exept the silver coating on tbe CT3.1S

I dont think there’s is an audible difference. I have no golden ears :rofl:

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Just curious, is each K20 cable running in the correct direction ? The Linn triangle should be pointing towards the speaker end - I seem to recall thats in the opposite direction to the printed writing, just to help confuse everyone, but not 100% sure.

And if youre using Naim right angle connectors then each cable run is for a specific channel / speaker, otherwise you’ll be out of phase, but that should be a more obvious degredation.

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Everything is set correctly. Everything is Ok.

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Ok, cool. So will you just pick the one that suits you best for non-sonic reasons then?, i.e. cost, looks, flexibility, etc.

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It is a brand new K20 and has a proper input capacitance of 16 pF per meter at 1 kHz. The inductance is 0.93 µH per meter at 1 kHz.
Cable length is 4m each

NAC A5 has an inductance of 1uH per meter.
Cable Specific Capacitance is slso 16pF per meter.

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According to… legend… Linn K20 is very similar… to Naim NAC A4. Both were made by BICC. NAC A4 came first.

Naim contacted BICC and a payment was made. This was used by Naim to fund the development of NAC A5. Which was/is NOT made by BICC…

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Sounds great with my 62/140/HiCap

Coaxial Type DIY speakers. Plans from German HobbyHiFi Magazine using Celestion TX1225CX drivers

Great Sound

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I have a lot of fun with the whole setup so far. Today, I managed to eliminate the slight transformer hum in my HiCap; the NAP140 is completely quiet. I installed a spare IFI AC Purifier in the first position on my power strip, which not only helped to eliminate the hum but also improved the soundstage I think.

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The slight hum is back again on the HiCap, but it’s not annoying. However, I want to get rid of it as well as possible. I will check tomorrow if everything is plugged in with the correct phase. Maybe this will help

Perhaps you might think about a dedicated separate spur to supply power to just the HiFi components.

I put one in here at home some 30 years ago, just laid a spur supply from the main fuse box using cooker wire to feed double unswitched sockets, (rather primitive in today’s terms), but at the time it was possible to do such things yourself, and I knew what I was doing…

It certainly cleaned up the power to the system, and I lost all the pops and clicks from the fridge and kitchen lights. Now household mains are much more polluted and even with the more involved jumping through hoops that would be needed these days, the effort would be worth it for you, and your NAC72, HICAP and NAP140 will benefit.

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Further investigations revealed a deep hum coming from the speakers, which are 92 dB fitted with 15" woofers. The hum is slightly audible but not very loud, and it does not change when I increase the volume. This deep hum is caused by the Nap140. The mechanical transformer hum on the HiCap is almost gone. When the Nap140 is turned off, the hum disappears. It’s time for a recap.

I will replace the current power strip with an Oehlbach model and also construct new power cords using Supra LoRad 2.5 cables soon

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Finally, I have found the main problem. I have two streamers: the Arylic up2Stream HD and the Wiim Pro. When I connect either one to the USB power socket, I experience a slight ground loop hum caused by the streamers when they are plugged in via a USB-C power supply. Tomorrow, I will grab my old Auralic Aries Mini to see if this unit also causes a ground loop hum. If so, I will try to run the 62/140 without the HiCap

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