Naim Speaker Plug Soldering.... and a gripe.

Mykel - I'm no expert but I have done this job a couple of times now and found the following way the easiest..

Place a piece of timber appx 1.5" x 0.5" x 18" in a workmate or vice.

Drill 2 x 4mm holes the same centres as the plug appx 3" from the end of the timber.

Disassemble the Naim plug and place both pins in the holes - orientate the pin springs downwards -ie south (aids in correct bite on connecting up)

Strip 5mm from the end of the A5 - try not to crush too much

Cut out the dividing strip on the A5 so that you have at least cleared the body of the reassembled plug.

Lay the bare wires (good album!) over the slots.

Decide which pin will be the positive - I use the cable direction markings on the A5 and you will notice a little POS tab on the Naim plug body.

With a screwdriver gently feed the A5 strands into the slot. Start at the bottom -once they're in the rest will follow. Do not force the strands! Gently does it.

Gaffer tape the A5 down on the timber so that you now have a rigid mechanical connection.

Take a hot soldering iron with at least a 5mm tip and as powerful as you have and hold it on top of the pin head.
Preheat the pin till it's ready then transfer the tip to the vertical face of the pin slot and start to feed in the solder from the top of the A5.

The solder should flow immediately and take a couple of seconds to fill the slot.

(If the A5 sheathing starts to smoke you've gone too far and have solder running down inside the sheathing ie NOT GOOD so cut it all off and start again!)

Repeat the process and then allow the thing to cool sightly before removing the assembly.

I like to put a bend in the A5 at the amp end to enable the cable to sit flat on the support shelf as it exits the amp.

I think that's all

Hope this helps

Regards

P

But I've done it a few more times than he has methinks!

One good thing he suggests for the DIYer at home is to use a wood plank. If you didn't, you'd probably melt the plug since you'd let the 4mm pin heat up. Those with a bit more experience can do the job direct to the plug since they are used to it and don't let the pin heat up (this is where I differ with P's suggestion).

P mentions checking which pin to use as positive. This is important! When soldering the amp ends of the cables, it is important that you solder one set of pins with the positive on the left pin and one with the positive on the right pin. Then, you will have left and right set up correctly such that the 'Pos' tabs of the plugs will be on the outside and won't foul on each other. To see what I mean, try the unsoldered plugs in the amp, you'll see that - looking from behind - the pins should be Pos-Neg-Neg-Pos. Therefore, to dress the cables neatly, it's important to solder the plugs in this way. Not so interested in the speaker ones since turning them over is just a neatness issue, but dressing the amp cables usually means less lateral pressure on the connections in the amp. Here's the procedure I usually use:

Unscrew the top of the plug. Put in a safe place.

Take a vice and clamp it to the plastic part of the plug that holds the pins such that you can still solder into them easily. We have a vice that grabs horizontally. This way the pins are vertical and I'm looking down when soldering. In other words, don't clamp top to bottom of the plug base, but side to side.

Orient the pins so they're pretty much up and down with reswpect to the short sides of the plug.

Cut about 2 - 3 inches of the centre strip of NACA5 away.

Strip half an inch off the end of the cable (not just 5mm).

Holding the cable between left thumb and forefinger, take one set of pliers and squeeze together the copper strands so they fan out vertically. You can be firm, it won't bite back! Do it to both positive and negative run on the cable. Remember, locate the positive run by the ridge on the outside of the plastic sheath.

The strands should now slide nicely into the pin. Push them down onto the pin first. Then, holding them down with a finger placed over the top, slide the cable forward so that it becomes a tight fit to the sheathed portion of cable.

Hold cable between legs so it doesn't move (ooh-err).

Grab hot 5mm iron and tin the iron a little.

Lay the tip of the iron flat on the pin keeping the strands in the pin-head.

Rotate the tip clockwise a little (as if upturning a rock looking for frogs). Feed some solder in. The combination of hot tip and slowly heating cable should make the solder flow into place.

Close the tip over the pin-head to help the flow. Keep feeding until you just see the solder flow to the plastic sheath, alternately opening and closing the the tip of the iron to help it along. Try not to do too much as it will make the sheath melt (and you'll probably have melted the plastic base). But you do want it to reach the sheath since this keeps the cable airtight.

Pull the tip off the pin as soon as you can. Hold the cable in place for a few seconds to let it dry.

Repeat the process for the second pin.

After the second has dried (just a few seconds), take wire cutters and snap the protruding ends of the (now tinned) cables to the pinhead.

While the cable is still warm, take pliers and squeeze the positive and negative cables toward each other (near the base of the pins) so the cable will fit easily through the plughole when you attach its top. Give it a few minutes before doing that.

That's how I was taught to do it. Maybe you should find a decent dealer who can do it, or wait until yours has built up the experience and has some more plugs in backup so he can make yours up!

Regards,
Frank.

Use a big iron; 75 watts.

So there you have it Mykel.

The fully comprehensive dealer method and the complete novice version.

I guess some good must come of it all in the end.

Regards

P.

PS Frank - stop bloody well calling me Pierre will you.

Please

Thanks for the cable solder howto !!!

I have an old piece of 3/4" plywood about 2 feet long and 3-4" wide that for some reason is still hanging around. I guess it knew its future purpose before I did.

Will let you know how it turns out and how they sound compared to the old Linn rhodium? plugs they are replacing. I am keeping the Linn plugs on the amp side, they do not put any load on the Nait's connectors. ( They are still in very good shape and don't require spreading to get a good contact like their speaker end bretheren.)

Thanks again !!!

mykel

Your "dealer" charge you the right fee for the plugs.
But.....
Soldering plugs on NACA5 should be a very frequent task for a dealer. We do it well, fast and for free when buying cable, plugs are supplied whith amps and speakers, we always have plugs in stock.

I thought it was the same for all dealers....

Selling Naim is not like selling Rotel amps... You have to chose your dealer carefully.

Maybe you should explain your experience to Dimexs, the canadian distributor (514)-384-3737.

From Frank:

quote:

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Rotate the tip clockwise a little (as if upturning a rock looking for frogs)

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Brilliant! It's this type of thing that makes this a nice place to be. Thanks Frank.

Best;

Mark
(who has never found a frog inside a Naim speaker plug, but vividly remembers a half-eaten Cornish pasty in a Macintosh IIcx)

mykel,

Naim and Dimexs are now aware of your problem. More assistance will be provided to your dealer.

You see, it's good to complain.

Emmanuel

I was a little concerned we might get another 'handbags at fifty paces' kinda thread!

There P, that wasn't so bad, was it? Well done to P and Frank for some great descriptions.

I'd like to add that you can get away with an iron less than 75w, if you use a bit large enough - it's the thermal mass of the bit that makes the difference.

Rico - all your base are belong to us.

Thanks again everybody.

Yes, I know about Naim and Dimexs, PaulS and I have traded a couple of e-mails on the subject.
I did not want to cause any @#$%; figured they ( the new shop ) may need a bit of time to get their heads together,but the lack of cutomer attention I did find disturbing.

Time will tell, hope the store doesn't black ball me !!!

Thanks again for the tips and concern !!

mykel

No hard feelings eh?

My previous subterfuge on the subject wasn't THAT deliberate y'know

Go Easy

P.