New heights of insanity

[MikeMusic]

Picked up what Marco said about the left hand side of the unswitched socket being the one to use.
Compared on Saturday night
Unplugged and plugged vigorously first to make sure connections cleanish
Listened
Change the feed to the PS Audio PPP which feed CD, Power and Pre amp bits with the NAPSC to the Naim 82

Listened again
Certainly different, almost certainly better.
Have to try the NAPSC somewhere better to check on that
How can I teel normal people about this without them thinking I'm mad ?

[Effem]

You are mad.

My advice is to take up a new hobby instead - like Crochet :eyebrows:

[MikeMusic]

Got a better sound !
:-)

[Effem]

We aim to please on this forum :lol:

[MartinT]

LOL - I did that about a year ago and found the same thing. Mad!

[Marco]

Nice one, Mark - and best of all it was free!!

There are sound electrical reasons (as discussed before) why what happens, happens :)

Marco.

[Marco]

Btw, if you want another free tweak, plug your NAPSC into a separate mains feed from the rest of your system, i.e. on the house ring main, rather than on a dedicated spur, if you have one, and/or, if you're using a mains block, make sure that it's plugged into the last socket, well away from everything else.

Those little things are a noisy as buggery, and chuck lots of crap into the mains supply. Try it (if you haven't already done so) and see what happens :)

Marco.

[MartinT]

The 5 sockets in the Power Plant Premier are all isolated zones, so as long as the NAPSC is plugged into one and not shared with anything else, it should be fine.

[Marco]

You may well be right, Martin.

However, as the NAPSC PSU simply powers the LEDs and remote control circuitry of the partnering Naim preamp, it has no 'audio purpose', therefore there's no reason why it should live alongside other, more critical components.

All it's achieving, by being plugged into the PPP, is giving the latter more work to do (by injecting noise into it), or at best, nothing and just wasting a socket.

That's why I'd suggest that simply plugging the NAPSC into a spare socket, connected to the house ring main, out of the way from everything else, is probably best :)

Marco.

[sq225917]

There is no electrical standard for which side of a double socket is closest to the incoming wires, it varies with every manufacturer and it varies with the age of the design.

So while one MK socket might be 'left hand closest' for example there is absolutely no rule that says it will be the same for a similar MK socket that is slightly older. Having just replaced 5 double sockets this weekend I'm acutely aware of this as I've had to variously, bend, extend and re-sheath the contents of several back boxes to fit the differences between the old and new socket layouts.

Stating left or right is always the good side simply ignores the physical truth of what exists behind the faceplate.

[prestonchipfryer]

Picked up what Marco said about the left hand side of the unswitched socket being the one to use.
Compared on Saturday night
Unplugged and plugged vigorously first to make sure connections cleanish
Listened
Change the feed to the PS Audio PPP which feed CD, Power and Pre amp bits with the NAPSC to the Naim 82

Listened again
Certainly different, almost certainly better.
Have to try the NAPSC somewhere better to check on that
How can I teel normal people about this without them thinking I'm mad ?

I certainly don't think you are mad! If it does sound better to you, then that is quite ok. Most 'normal' people (what's normal anyway) do not understand this sort of thing anyway. :D

[Marco]

There is no electrical standard for which side of a double socket is closest to the incoming wires, it varies with every manufacturer and it varies with the age of the design.

So while one MK socket might be 'left hand closest' for example there is absolutely no rule that says it will be the same for a similar MK socket that is slightly older. Having just replaced 5 double sockets this weekend I'm acutely aware of this as I've had to variously, bend, extend and re-sheath the contents of several back boxes to fit the differences between the old and new socket layouts.

Stating left or right is always the good side simply ignores the physical truth of what exists behind the faceplate.

Indeed, Simon. It should be pointed out that I was referring to MK and Crabtree double sockets, most commonly used in 'audiophile applications', where the incoming earth is first connected to the L/H socket.

The surest way of knowing this, however, is to take the faceplate off and look at which side of the (double) socket being used, the incoming earth is connected to first.

That side will be the one that 'sounds' best, i.e. it will likely have slightly lower measurable impedance :)

Marco.

[MartinT]

However, as the NAPSC PSU simply powers the LEDs and remote control circuitry of the partnering Naim preamp, it has no 'audio purpose', therefore there's no reason why it should live alongside other, more critical components.

Got you, Marco. In that case I agree that it's best kept away from critical power for audio components.

[MikeMusic]

Btw, if you want another free tweak, plug your NAPSC into a separate mains feed from the rest of your system, i.e. on the house ring main, rather than on a dedicated spur,
Marco.
Think the whole room is the one circuit.
The lead on the NAPSC is long though, might be able to go to the next room !
How about proximity to the Naim 82, CDX2 and LP12 ?
It's quite close at present

[Marco]

Golden rule from my old Naim days: get the NAPSC as far away from the rest of the kit as the supplied lead will allow.

There's a reason, you know, why it comes with such a long lead in the first place... ;)

Don't worry about shoving it on the floor and off of your equipment rack, just get it as far away from the rest of your kit as possible. Naim kit also benefits MASSIVELY from being powered by a dedicated separate mains spur. When you can, Mike, that should be your No1 priority.

It might also help if you could show me a picture of your system set-up, in terms of the layout of all your boxes on the rack, as there could be some more potential gains there, in terms of optimising their performance :cool:

Marco.

[MikeMusic]

Thanks Marco. Wondered why that lead is soooo long.
Must get my head into using a camera and send some pics. - tonight all being well
Looking at it all last night I started to think it could be less than perfect with the mix of Hifi, Tivo, Freeview box, Video, Analogue satellite, DVD player

[Marco]

Hi Mike,

Lol - it probably is.

One of the most important things to do, in order to get a Naim system to 'sing', is in attending properly to 'cable dressing' (so, when you get a chance to sort out pics, let's see some of the BACK of your rack and what your cables look like ;)), and optimal positioning of the boxes themeselves, in terms of separating them out into, as far as possible, 'brains' and 'brawn' items (sources and preamps, from PSUs and power amps).

I ran a top-end (in those days) Naim system of CDS2/XPS2/52/Supercap/135s for years, and trust me, you won't believe the amount of experimenting I've done with regard to what we're discussing. You name it, and I've tried it! :eyebrows:

That's why I know exactly what works and what doesn't... For example, have you tried undoing the collars on the DIN plugs of the cable connecting your CDX2 to your 82? Try that and see what happens... If you hear an improvement, I'll tell you the theory behind the tweak.

Also, are you using a hydra to power the whole system or individual Naim power leads, or perhaps even those from a different manufacturer? Depending on how you answer that, will depend on whether things can be improved there or not.

The fun never ends! :D

Marco.

[MikeMusic]

Ooh just what I want - someone who has been there before me - wonderful. (alzy - wo me !?)
:-)
Layout at the back .... mumble... Pictures !
Could be described as 'not optimum'
Pictures may need lots of words to describe
Fairly sure the room has one circuit for all power.
A *left* hand socket feeds a PS Audio PPP
That feeds LP12, CDX2, 2x HiCaps feeding the Naim 82, Naim 500.
That's 5 so the PPP is full.
All with Kimber mains leads and Naim and Kimber interconnects
Each Kimber replacement was a big improvement over what was there before

[Marco]

Ah.... Ok, let's discuss this further when there are pics! :eyebrows:

Do try the collar thing though (undoing them), in the meantime, and see how you get on. Also what racks are you using - Fraim?

Marco.

[MikeMusic]

Thanks Marco, will do
Mana/mana/mana

[MikeMusic]

Camera is not behaving that well
I have 2 pics at last, thought I had more
What is the best way to get them to you ?

[MartinT]

Post them here, Mike. You'll need to follow the help on how to do so:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2

[MikeMusic]

Thanks Martin
Which is the best/easiest to use ?
I used Picassa a year or so ago
These 2 pics are 1Mb each
Once I get into this it should be nice and easy

[MartinT]

Mike, I suggest that you use Google Picasa and reduce the photos to no more than 1024 pixels wide so that they fit in the majority of browsers used on different machines. Effectively use Picasa to host the images and then use the picture button to link to them. Follow the guide!

Look forward to your first piccies of the system :)

[MikeMusic]

I could be some time....
In Picassa my pics are 2816x2112 pixels
Looked all over for a reduction to 1024. Help file no good either.
(Wish I could start new stuff knowing what to do)

[MikeMusic]

Duh
Looks like its picnik

[MartinT]

How about this help, check 'size to upload' near the bottom:

http://support.google.com/picasa/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=13821

[jostber]

I found Image Shack the easiest to use:

http://imageshack.us/

It will resize the image for you when uploading.

[MikeMusic]

Think I have it
Here's the first I took, reduced in size
https://picasaweb.google.com/111442969742675709717/Hifi#5720061315180571090

[Marco]

Sorry, Mike, linky no worky:


Sorry, that page was not found


Since you've used Imageshack, just resize and upload the image(s) from there :)

Marco.

[MikeMusic]

I can email it to you. Can't see anything else that works in Picassa

I'll ask one of my customer/friends how to link it, can't be difficult

[Marco]

Sure, don't see why you need to use Picassa, when Imageshack works perfectly well... :scratch:


Marco.

[realysm42]

Photobucket is easy too. Size it up and then copy straight from the IMG link you get and paste it on here.

Piece of piss.

[MikeMusic]

Thanks
I can be slow sometimes. Usually ok when I'm set up - except with Sage Payroll which I eventually dumped in favour of Moneysoft !
If it is still too difficult I'll swap