Wall socket or multi socket

Happy new year guys everyone. Last doubt of the year… but do you connect your Nait amplifier directly to the wall socket or to a multi socket? Do you make any differences?

Have a dig through this lot discussed in detail.
Should last you until the bells. :partying_face:

Neither. I use a Grahams Hydra.

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I’ve always found regardless of what is used it has to be plugged in somewhere.
:partying_face: :+1:t2:

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:rofl:

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Another vote for the Hydra. Note the recommendation, though, that it be used only for Naim equipment - which may make the recommendation pointless for the OP.

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Sorry for my ignorance but what is this Hydra?

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It’s a series of Naim mains cords wrapped together inside a plastic sheath, with a single 13Amp mains plug, made and sold exclusively by Grahams HiFi in North London. The idea is that all the Naim units are on one mains circuit, enhancing the ‘star earthing’.

You need to specify how many ‘heads’ are on the Hydra, depending upon how many Naim units are in your system.

It would be of no benefit to you, as you have just the one Naim component in your system (if I’m rereading your Profile correctly).

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I prefer a “multi-wall socket” :blush:

That’s your choice, of course, but you’d get better sound with a Hydra.

But, as they say, yer pays yer money and yer makes yer choice!

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yes I only have one nait 5si piece and I think for now I will only stick with this or at most in some time I will go towards an SN3

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Do you make these hydras yourself ?

No. If you’re pointing to the similarity between my forename and the surname of the family behind my former Naim and Linn dealer in London, that’s just one of the rich coincidences that life throws up every so often!

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Easy to get our naims mixed up.

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I’ll give one a go if I can pick one up cheap enough on eBay. I’ll need a 5 pronged one though.

If you ask Grahams for a 5-way, they’ll provide it.

One more wrinkle to this story is that we wanted a similar star-earthed thing for Tasmania. I expected Grahams to sell me a Hydra with an Aussie plug on the end.

Instead,Grahams explained that they preferred not to do that. They suggested that I let them make a star-earthed power block with my standard UK kettle leads (or Powerline if I wanted) fed from a single Aussie plug and socket.

Apaatently it works like a Hydra and is more bother for literally no audible benefit in the UK, but is what you need down here. I didn’t argue, bought it, and it works well.

Apart from the big metal box, and potentially better obeying rules outside the UK, the apparent difference is that it suffers less diminution in efficacy if some sockets are not used than a real Hydra does. We tried it in the UK system before we left, and a brief listen did not dispute that claim.

It may well be that it is proper star-earthing and no switches that matter most if using all outputs, not the Hydra shape per se. Just a thought….

I did. They ignored my email. I then I got all petty and childish and decided not to bother with them. :crazy_face:. I’ll no doubt pick one up at some point.

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you guys are fantastic, there’s always new things to discover in the Naim world. Soon I will bother you about the connection of a Rel sub. In the meantime I will try to connect the Nait 5si to a wall socket with a standard cable and compare it with the connection with the Wireworld Aurora 7 cable connected to the Wireworld Matrix 2 multi socket in turn connected to the socket wall mounted with Wireworld Electra 7 cable with Neotech sockets.
A nice comparison right?

I’ve been a wall socket fan for quite a while. Tried and still have a Hydra, so very easy to make a simple comparison. The Hydra was better than standard Naim leads into my three double MK wall sockets, However, PL’s into the same three MK wall sockets was miles better than the Hydra. I then tried the early version of the MusicWorks block but still found the wall sockets preferable. I hasten to add that the wall sockets are star earthed and the earth goes back to five one metre copper rods also in a star arrangement.

I recently made some changes to the system and happened to remember that I had an old Matrix 2 block connected to the TV, so thought it time to have another try. I plugged my 500 into just one MK socket side, the Matrix in the other and everything else into the sockets in the Matrix. This time it sounded better than the three wall sockets. I’m not sure why but I suspect this order benefitted the star earthing arrangement for some reason. That’s where I’ve left it for now but may try one of the new MusicWorks Peek blocks to see if that’s even better than the Matrix 2?

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