So THAT'S What It Is Supposed to Sound Like!!!
Posted by: Greg Beatty on 10 June 2003
Had some free time with the kit this weekend (rare these days with four-month old in the house) and did four things:
1) Tracked down and corrected an earth loop. The LP12 would buzzzz with the ground wire disconnected and hummmm with it connected. I unplugged and unhooked the cable/tele connections and the LP12 was SILENT when the ground wire was reconnected. I inserted a RadioShack ground loop isolator thingy between the tele audio out and the Nait 5 - viola! No more problems with the LP12.
Records, and everythings else, improved as a result.
Note: If you don't have a turntable to use as a Ground Loop Detector and you have a tele hooked up to your hi-fi, you just may have a ground loop and not know it. The other inputs/kit did NOT buzz or anything with the ground loop but ALL sources were improved when the loop was removed. More dynamic and "makes more sense" all round.
2) Ditched the Monster PowerBar 1100 in favor of a Wiremold strip. I compared the two using just the Nait and my Sony ES series CD player and the Wiremold won hands down. This was not the case with the ProAc Response 2's, which benefited from the added smoothness of the Monster, but the Allaes reveal the Monster to squish the dynamics and just make everything less interesting.
3) Uncoiled the NACA 5 and wrapped the excess 'S' style. Jeepers Mr. Wilson, this is fun! Whada difference!!! Really opened things up.
4) Add a touch of compliance under the Nait 5 and between the Nait 5 and the VCR siting on top of it. Yup - the Nait does not like my VCR sitting on it apparently but adding compliance between the Nait and VCR mostly mitigates the negative effect.
The cumulative effect of these four changes was a laugher. The system has a much more even tonal balance and sounds way more 'real'. The sound opened up and is HUGE now. My wife put on one of her classical CDs and Oh-My-Gawd - I have never heard my system sound like this with CD.
What these changes didn't fix is the A-Musical nature of my Sony CD player. I had a seller bring a CD5 round last week and only had it in the system for an hour. But I couldn't listen to the Sony for three days afterwards. It just sounded musically broken
The effect has worn off but has not been forgotten. I passed on the CD5 due to the case being bent and having a non-Naim power cord with it.
The changes almost make me have buyer's remorse over the 2nd-hand FlatCap 2 I just ordered - I'm not sure I need it. But I can't wait for it to arrive
- GregB
Insert Witty Signature Line Here
1) Tracked down and corrected an earth loop. The LP12 would buzzzz with the ground wire disconnected and hummmm with it connected. I unplugged and unhooked the cable/tele connections and the LP12 was SILENT when the ground wire was reconnected. I inserted a RadioShack ground loop isolator thingy between the tele audio out and the Nait 5 - viola! No more problems with the LP12.
Records, and everythings else, improved as a result.
Note: If you don't have a turntable to use as a Ground Loop Detector and you have a tele hooked up to your hi-fi, you just may have a ground loop and not know it. The other inputs/kit did NOT buzz or anything with the ground loop but ALL sources were improved when the loop was removed. More dynamic and "makes more sense" all round.
2) Ditched the Monster PowerBar 1100 in favor of a Wiremold strip. I compared the two using just the Nait and my Sony ES series CD player and the Wiremold won hands down. This was not the case with the ProAc Response 2's, which benefited from the added smoothness of the Monster, but the Allaes reveal the Monster to squish the dynamics and just make everything less interesting.
3) Uncoiled the NACA 5 and wrapped the excess 'S' style. Jeepers Mr. Wilson, this is fun! Whada difference!!! Really opened things up.
4) Add a touch of compliance under the Nait 5 and between the Nait 5 and the VCR siting on top of it. Yup - the Nait does not like my VCR sitting on it apparently but adding compliance between the Nait and VCR mostly mitigates the negative effect.
The cumulative effect of these four changes was a laugher. The system has a much more even tonal balance and sounds way more 'real'. The sound opened up and is HUGE now. My wife put on one of her classical CDs and Oh-My-Gawd - I have never heard my system sound like this with CD.
What these changes didn't fix is the A-Musical nature of my Sony CD player. I had a seller bring a CD5 round last week and only had it in the system for an hour. But I couldn't listen to the Sony for three days afterwards. It just sounded musically broken
The effect has worn off but has not been forgotten. I passed on the CD5 due to the case being bent and having a non-Naim power cord with it.The changes almost make me have buyer's remorse over the 2nd-hand FlatCap 2 I just ordered - I'm not sure I need it. But I can't wait for it to arrive
- GregB
Insert Witty Signature Line Here
...RadioShack of course
Here's the link:
http://www.radioshack.com/searchplus.asp?type=ALL&find=ground+loop&pagetype=toggle
I don't know if they have RadioShacks in the UK. Maplins may have it???
Its been written about on the forum before and works a treat. The tele already sounds bandwidth limited anyway, so the degradation to it by using the isolator as an interconnect is Insignificant Compared to the Power of the Force. Opps, sorry - but you get the idea.
- GregB
Insert Witty Signature Line Here
Here's the link:
http://www.radioshack.com/searchplus.asp?type=ALL&find=ground+loop&pagetype=toggle
I don't know if they have RadioShacks in the UK. Maplins may have it???
Its been written about on the forum before and works a treat. The tele already sounds bandwidth limited anyway, so the degradation to it by using the isolator as an interconnect is Insignificant Compared to the Power of the Force. Opps, sorry - but you get the idea.
- GregB
Insert Witty Signature Line Here