Burndy Extension

You're almost certainly not the first to wonder about this... but I'm not aware of ever reading on the forum that it's been done.

However, having toured the famous factory and having seen Burndies being made up by those woderful folk down south, I have no doubt that an extended length cable could be fabricated for you.  Two things, then, would influence your decision to order one:  how long do you actually need it to be?  and how big is your bank balance?  I could not imagine a custom length Burndie being anything but hugely expensive.

But if you do decide to go ahead and inquire about the possibility, let us know what the answer is, won't you?  

There's no need to distance head unit and PSU any further apart than the Burndy leads allow.  IIRC, there has been at least one occasion where slightly longer than standard Burndy leads have been made up but only after much arm twisting and persuasion (and money).

As for seeking Burndy leads made by anyone other than Naim, this would constitute an unauthorised modification, may well impair performance or possibly cause damage to associated equipment, and any further discussion falls outside of this forum's AUP.

Consciousmess posted:

There's a house and listening room I have spotted which is very spacious - a prime criterion for its purchase, but its layout has me wondering whether...

A two stacked Naim set up can be distanced further apart than the burndy leads?  Should it?

No doubt a company makes these, but is it advisable?  I note speaker cables are advised to be longer, so don't doubt the strength of electricity.  Cheers for your response.

Don't forget that the strength of the electricity flowing down your speaker cables will be much greater than that flowing down your Burndie, so that comparison is a little flakey. 

And as Richard says above, going to anyone other than those nice folks in Salisbury would be somewhat inadvisable, to say the least.

It seems a far better idea to have all the system together, rather than spread around the room in a bitty way. Just set it up in the usual way and you won't need long burndies. 

Richard's response didn't say inabvisable to space further apart, just no evident (presumably sonic) benefit. However if the room layout would be better (e.g avoiding overpowering with industrial looking rack of powered black boxes, or to maximise use of alcoves etc, then why not - except as already pointed out if elongated burndys are required there could be significant cost. Interestingly one variant is often to put power amps close to speakers, and keep the source and more sensitive electronics as far as possible from the speakers (though presumably not with Naim power amps needing their minimum speaker cable inductance).

IB, IIRC Naim do not recommend Burndy cables any longer than specified - I seem to recall that there is a possible performance penalty.  This is perhaps just one reason why different lengths are not made available.

Thanks for clarification, Richard. So power supplies need keeping close enough to the units they power - that may define the splitting that is practicable, otherwise as many locations as suit practical or domestic desires, though best aim to keep  the most sensitive components in the quietist part(s) of the room as far as possible.

Ok, thanks for the advice.  I know it would probably look imposing, but would vertical stacking work, using spacers to divorce power supplies and their components to the near extent of their burndies?

This would fit well in an alcove and a ceiling is what 8 feet high?

Assuming that the nVi and A&K don't need to be on the rack, you could stack it vertically using a Fraim or suchlike with a base and six levels. I did this at one time as pictured below. But then I split the rack in two and it sounded so much better it was ridiculous. If you do stack it all up, you won't hear anything like the full potential of the system. Think laterally and find a way to accommodate two racks. If as you say, the potential listening room is large, you should have no problem whatsoever. Alternatively, don't choose that house... 

Yeah I think I agree with you when it comes to the splitting of the rack in two.  I have never done that, but was so amazed at the improvement moving the 252 about a foot above the nDAC, I want to utilise the separation even more.  It's weird how much attention to the stand matters - one doesn't realise this until it is done.  Cheers.

The picture above includes a 252 and 250. I then moved to a 552 and 300, again in the same rack. After a while I split the rack in two, and that's when there was the huge jump in performance, with everything sounding much more open and relaxed. Two smaller racks look so much nicer too. You'll see there is a gap above and below the 552, and below the tuner, which again made a big difference. Like this:

One of the biggest improvements you can make position-wise is to put some pace or a spare shelf between the CDS3 head unit and the NAC552 pre-amplifier.  I have found that positioning a CD player just above the pre-amp really affects performance for the worse.  Putting just a bit more space between them makes a big difference.

Absolutely. One sees a lot of systems on here which, with a little more attention to detail, could sound so much better. 

Last year I moved my 2 supercaps in my active setup on to a third rack. At that time I also upgraded my 252/supercap Sarum cable to the latest TA version. this was a massive improvement, but because the third rack is on the other side of one of my speakers the burndy from ndac to ps 555 is to short . If Naim had just put the burndy socket to the left instead of in the middle I would not have had any problems. So the 555 ps is on my rack with the power amps, but I am from time to time wondering what I would gain if I could get a 150 or 160 cm burndy for a resonable price.