Lingo 401/E paranoia...

Posted by: bob atherton on 26 April 2001

First off I apologize for the length of this query, as I fear it may go on a bit.

Yesterday my dealer fitted my long awaited CONN 401/E cable to my Lingo. I brought the deck home & tried it out.... WOW, an instant improvement over the previous lead. Much more dynamic, inner detail & surface noise has all but disappeared. At this stage I was a very happy bunny.

I then tried a CD to see if I could hear any improvement there. This did not sound quite as good as I remembered, this I put down to the spectacular improvement in the LP12.

I had a niggling doubt about whether the earth from the arm lead should be connected to the pre amp so I phoned my dealer. As the guy who fitted it was at lunch I thought that I would get a definitive ruling from Linn. This is where the paranoia starts....

They asked if I had a 401 or a 401/E I said a 401/E, but I would just check. On my cable it says REV 7 - CONN 401, not 401/E. The guy at Linn said that I have the wrong cable fitted & that I should contact my dealer. The dealer, having now lunched, said that he had ordered in 3 cables for Naim users & would check the others. He assures me that the other 2 cables are identical to mine but are marked up as 401/E's.

From what I can gather the 401/E has a separate earth wire. Mine indeed has this wire, but I had the impression from Linn that it should be attached to the pre amp & not the chassis of the deck as done by my dealer.

The weird thing is that although the LP12 is unquestionably better sounding, the CD player seems exceedingly sensitive to where the Lingo is plugged in & whether or not the earth from my arm cable is connected or not ( this last bit has me very confused ).

Is there anyone out there who has a CONN 401/E fitted and can confirm that my set up is correct or otherwise. Thank you in anticipation.

Bob.

Posted on: 26 April 2001 by Tony L
Bob, enough of this Lingo nonsense, you are needed on the Kan wall mount thread!

Tony.

Posted on: 11 May 2001 by Ron The Mon
Bob,
Did you ever get this sorted out?

Just Curious,
Ron The Mon

Posted on: 12 May 2001 by Ade Archer
Bob,
I,ve just found this thread due to the recent post. I had a Naim compatible Lingo lead fitted to my LP12 a couple of months ago when it was being serviced. The new lead appears to look exactly like the old one, and the label does say 'Conn 401'(no 'e'). Due to your post, I'm now not sure I've got the correct one, if its supposed to look different. The only earth lead connected to the 82 is the one running alongside the signal leads. I do still have the Lingo as far as physically possible from everything else, with noticeable benefits.
To be honest, I had it replaced because the old plug got damaged, and I currently don't have any problems with the sound quality of LP12 or CDX, but if anyone can help with identifying whether we have the right lead I'd be grateful, otherwise I think I will have to make some phone enquiries with Linn after the weekend to check. After paying £70 for the new lead I would like to make sure I've got what I thought I'd paid for.

Cheers
Ade

Posted on: 12 May 2001 by Paul B
quote:
I have the earth lead connected to the pre-amp.

I am somewhat confused. If the Conn 401/E has an earth lead, how can it be attached to the preamp when the Conn cable would go between the LP12 and Lingo?

I would like to get some clarity on this issue of the Conn 401/E as I have one on order to replace my present conector.

Paul

Posted on: 12 May 2001 by Top Cat
Interesting to read about the different lead. Since going MC on my LP12 a year back, I'd often noticed a variable hum through the phono stage - this varied with volume setting, and was a sort of 50Hz style hum. I had put it down to other factors - RF noise, proximity to PSUs, etc., but after fitting a dedicated spur a few weeks back I noticed it had largely gone (or so much so that the ambient noise of the phono stage masks it).

I also noticed that the Lingo was still plugged into my (non-dedicated) wall socket...

Can someone describe in what way the Lingo's interference manifests itself, and do you think that this is what was causing the (now gone) hum?

John

Posted on: 12 May 2001 by bob atherton
Ade,

AFAIK the CONN 401E comes with a separate earth lead manifesting itself at the LP12 end. One can only see this earth lead if the baseboard is removed.
The earth from the lead connects at the P clip, this will make the arm cable a little bit lower when exiting the plinth. This is no problem normally, but as I use the little Mana 3M feet clearance is a bit of an issue.

The P clip is attached to the earth strap/member in the sub chassis. This member also receives an earth tag from the arm cable, so.....the CONN 401E is effectively earthed back to the pre amp though I don't think this is really star earthing.

The CONN 401 E is a more robust cable than the standard ( I guess because it contains the extra earth wire ).

In my system the new cable made a big difference to the performance of the LP12. Think back to when you got the Lingo & add about another 30% of that improvement.

I'm still not entirely sure that the CD player has not suffered in some way, though I'm having difficulty in identifying the problem.

Bob. confused

Posted on: 12 May 2001 by Martin Payne
quote:
the Lingo's interference ... do you think that this is what was causing the (now gone) hum?

No.