Choice of DIN or RCA

Posted by: fernar on 18 January 2016

HI everyone - I am new to the forum - after just purchasing a new N272...

After purchasing a cast-away from a friend (ND5 XS) from a friend to replace a Marantz NA7004 streamer, I wondered how much a SQ improvement I could get with a N272 - after a visit to my friendly dealer and a home trial over a few days before X-Max, I place an order for a N272....

This is now taken over stereo pre-amp duties from my trusty Tag McLaren AV23R which has been with me for many many years from new...!

The analogue sources I have are a Linn LP12, Stereo output from my Marantz SACD player and the AV pass-through from my AV32R for front speaker duties....

The N272 has three analogue input (two on RCA and one on DIN) - so the question is which input should I use for each of the Analogue sources?

My thinking is:

DIN = AV Pass through (on advice from my dealer that it's best not to mix PHONE and DIN if at all possible as it leads to a reduction in SQ)

PHONO = LINN LP12

PHONO = SACD Player

But reading some of the input in the forums here - I get the impression that it may be better to put the LP 12 on the DIN and the remaining two sources via RCA.... (on the basis that the LP12 is the source that will make the most of the better quality DIN input)

Any views/thoughts?

Also - the N272 is now coming up to 96 hours of being switched on from new.... and the SQ has improved from day 1, hour 1.... how much longer before it's fully run in?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on: 18 January 2016 by David Hendon

Naim reckon the DIN sound better than phono, but personally I think this is at the extreme edges of reality and if it were me I would use whichever arrangement is most convenient. I expect there will now be some forum members who will contradict me, but anyway the bottom line is that you can try each and choose.

i think you will find your N272 improves slowly for weeks.  I have also heard that it can get worse again before it gets better.  How much this is actually the equipment changing and how much is the listener adapting to the sound is unclear.  But at least I can believe that electronics will sound different after running for hundreds of hours, whereas the notion of running-in a mains lead or even an interconnect strikes me as an engineer as unlikely, to say the least.

Enjoy anyway. The N272 is magic.

best

David

Posted on: 20 January 2016 by fernar

Thankyou for your comments... I got the RCA to DIN cable and tried it both as a AV pass though and connected to SACD player... there was a slight difference in sound - although I could not say one was better than the other - just different...

In the end decided to use it with SACD player...