Mains - why bother.

There could be many reasons why your home made hydra was worse than the stock Naim cable but IME doing the mains made a big difference.

quote:

Went back to my standard Naim mains leads (two standard leads into one Crabtree plug)

Which is a hydra anyway. It's only worth getting the 'proper' one if you need more than the number of leads you can stuff into a single plug.

'Doing the mains' involves running a separate spur, ideally from its own consumer unit. For under £200 it's one of the best VFM upgrades you will ever make. And I know a great electrician...

Nigel

Well its basically the same as my standard setup but with different cable and IEC plugs. I understand the variables involved but thought it was worth an hour of my time to give it a go.

Nigel - Yep two is all i need for the Naim items so it works quite nicely. I've got an electrician in to do some cable chasing for my plasma so will get a quote for a spur. Seems a sensible step after reading some of the posts on here.

James.

PS - Nigel - n-Sats and n-Sub running in nicely. Quite suprising the difference setting the spikes right down to a minimum into the floor chips and making sure they hang properly.

quote:

two is all i need for the Naim items

You need to put the sub on it as well. So that's three. If you are passing, feel free to pop in and see what a decent spur looks like.

Nigel

Forgot about the Sub - that lives about 5m away from the main rack and sits on the same ring. Looks like it could be a long mains lead on the sub and a 3 way hydra if i get the spur done.

James

The mains cables and the connections (eg. soldering) make a difference.
So you could make two things that appear remarkably similar and one would sound better than the other.
You can get expensive cable (shielded too), and it will sound rubbish.
I spent a while experimenting with making cables & plugboards, and was taken aback at the variability.
I now run off a home-brew hydra, which I struck lucky with.
(But as per the above, your two wires into one plug is a hydra.)

In my experience mains leads and their configuration do make a large difference, but what looks logically to be the best arrangement may not always be. Many years ago I tried Kimber mains leads on my Naim amps (at this time, it wasn't quite the punishable-by-death offence that it is now). These were thick chunky cables, and would, I thought, surely sound considerably better than the puny standard cables. Wrong! The result was worse in every way, ie. both sound-wise and musically. Since then I've stuck firstly to the supplied cables with a decent quality mains block, and afterwards with a Grahams hydra, which was a noticeable improvement. I've now changed back to a mains block, albeit a modified one with proper Crabtree unswitched 13A sockets, in order to accommodate the Powerline when it finally arrives (I only have 1 13A wall outlet available). A Naim dealer once told me that a seperate spur sounds worse than a ring main! At least the sound is better, but it is less musical he said.

Peter

quote:

Originally posted by prowla:
The mains cables and the connections (eg. soldering) make a difference.
So you could make two things that appear remarkably similar and one would sound better than the other.

Quite true. Make sure you don't have any cold joints, etc. You may also want to check impedances with a decent multimeter.

I probably had the fuse the wrong way round

James

quote:

Originally posted by james n:
I probably had the fuse the wrong way round

James

Shhhh - don't mention fuses!

Doh !

Nigel - as we cant PM on here, could you drop me the name of your electrician please to

j.northam@sstl.co.uk

TIA

James

Has anyone done a direct comparison between a Maplins Multi-Way mains plug, which takes up to 4 cables, and other solutions like the Hydra?

If you do a search there is just such a comparison, as well as others. The Hydra came off best. I used a Grahams one, I've heard vague suggestions that there are others, but never seen one. Having got a Powerline on order, it would be interesting to know how 1 Powerline + standard leads compares to a Powerigel. Anyone been able to do the comparison yet?

Peter

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the less solder encountered by the mains, the better.

Bob

Hmm - having done a bit of searching at lunchtime (including some emails from Forum members) i could install two seperate spurs (one for amp and sub, other for n-Vi and future switch mode Naim bits). Run 2.5 or 6mm twin & earth back to the garage in conduit (it'll be on the outside wall). A 2 way consumer unit to the meter and the install checked and final connection done by an electrician. Pricing up the actual parts its not very expensive at all. Got an electrician over tonight so i'll run it past him.

Cheers

James

10mm2 twin & earth. Don't waste your time on anything else.

Reports suggest the IEC plugs on standard Naim mains leads are 'welded', as are connections in the Powerigel. Anyone know what this actually means and whether its possible to replicate it throughout a mains installation.

Certainly appears a better bet than soldering or silver soldering.

quote:

Originally posted by zarniwoop:
Has anyone done a direct comparison between a Maplins Multi-Way mains plug, which takes up to 4 cables, and other solutions like the Hydra?

I used to have 4 naim cables in one of those maplin plugs and this was better than a simple 4-way mains block. Then I bought a Hydra. The hydra is better in a low key way. Smoother and perhaps a lower noise floor. Worth the cost in my book.

Ian

quote:

Originally posted by Ian G.:
The hydra is better in a low key way...

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback. I can't see that there is any difference electrically, but I suppose the quality of terminations and pins could make a difference.

Bonus - Electrician sorted out my Plasma wiring tonight and took a look at my electrics and what i wanted to do with a spur. If i install the cabling and sockets then he'll come and inspect the work, do the final connection into the consumer unit and certify it for a very reasonable £50. Sounds good to me so looks like a spur is the next project

James

i have a dedicated spur. highly recomended. but i dont get why all fuss about mains cables from the socket to the boxes when its only twin and earth coming for 10s of meters for the CU?

no, but its can only deal with whats going into it in the first place. no matter what the cable is made of.

I've been in this position a year ago. I decided to put in a seperate ring and two spurs. I tried every permutation and combination but putting all the Naim kit on the Ring sounded best in my case - more solid bass and low-level detail/timing. I use the spur for my noisy Linn Lingo.
I have a naim active system and can certainly agree you should run your Naim equipment on its own dedicated mains circuit - the lowest cost upgrade I've maid to the system yet

I don't envy you guys in the UK with all those fused sockets etc. They are a nightmare for sound quality. Not even 100mm² dedicated spurs can compensate that...

I'm getting a power strip made to my own spec. My 4mm² solid core spur will run directly into the alloy casing (no IEC connector) splitting up with a soldered connection star-wise in 3 x 6 solid core 2,5mm² conductors of the same make as the spur. The internal wiring of the 6 Furutech (Shuko)sockets will be of exact equal length. As simple and straight forward as possible.

Should be ready in a week or two.

Richard.

One option to avoid excess switches is to get your electrician run armored cable from the mains to your listening room and install a second consumer unit there with appropriately RCB's you can then go straight into that. This is allowed as the switch on the consumer unit means that it fulfills the regs that you can locally isolate the feed to your equipment (Ie turn it off).

This can also work out cheaper than running multiple spurs.