Superline dead channel

Posted by: asprin on 16 July 2016

Hi all,

i've had a superline/hicap in my system for the last couple of months and really enjoyed it. This morning the left channel appears to have died after i powered down and changed tonearm cables and powered back up again.

After swapping back and moving to the internal phono cards in the preamplifier its clear that it is indeed the Superline that is faulty. Has anyone experience of this issue? Any ideas how i might have damaged it? Any ideas who would br best placed to fix it and at what sort of cost?

Superline is from 2008 and was bought second hand but had been serviced by the factory in April (I confirmed with Naim prior to purchase, not a repair but a few new caps etc). Any help much appreciated, rather sad about the loss of this bit of kit so soon.

Cheers

Jim

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by Mr Happy

There was a problem with sticking relays in the superline. You could try turning on and off a few times to see if it frees up, if indeed it is the relay.

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by Richard Dane

Otherwise, are you connecting via BNC or RCA phono? If the latter, check you are getting a proper contact on the next gen WBT sockets as this can be intermittent if you get it a bit wrong.

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by asprin

Thanks both for your help. Much appreciated.

I tried turning on and off a few times and i am still one channel down. Will try it again later and see if time is going to help.

Richard, the problem occurred when i tried to connect RCA's for the first time (up until now I've used BNC). Returning to BNC the problem remains. The RCAs were a very tight fit, maybe i have damaged something on the socket getting these on....

jim

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by tonym

My first Superline suffered with the same problem, the left channel packed up very shortly after I bought it, & it was exchanged. IIRC this was a problem with early models of Superline.

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by Frank Abela

Very unlikely Jim. Here's what I would test. If your preamp has a powered aux2 (a 270 degree 5-pin DIN socket) switch off the hi cap powering the Superline, and the preamp, unplug the hi-cap and plug the Superline directly into aux2. Switch on the preamp, wait 2 minutes and see if you're still down a channel. If not, it's the hicap. If so, then it's the Superline.

Just in case there's a problem with the load plugs, take out whatever load plugs you have plugged into the back and see if that brings the channel back. Having no load plug will not harm your cartridge but it may sound a bit dry or muted as it finds a 10k ohm load instead of what you had with the plug.

Frank.

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by asprin

Thanks Frank, i've got a NAC72 so no powered AUX but i have swapped about the hicap as i have two. No change unfortunately. I will try swapping out the load plugs though, certainly no harm in trying that. Otherwise seems like its developed a fault

cheers

jim

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by asprin

Nope, seems to be the Superline itself that has developed a fault. Does anyone know who best to take it to to have it looked at and repaired?

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by Frank Abela

darn. Your Naim dealer is likely your first port of call. They should give you a very good idea of likely cost. Alternatively have a word with Darren at Class A in Sheffield.

Frank.

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by asprin

Yes, sadly I guess you are right. Thanks Frank, much appreciated. Feeling like I must have caused this but not sure what I did that wiped out a channel. I love Naim kit but perhaps 'not worthy'(despite expense!)

Jim

Posted on: 16 July 2016 by Frank Abela

In fact, it shouldn't be possible! You can even just disconnect the Superline from its power supply provided there's no signal and there should be no problem. So it IS quite odd this has happened.

Frank.

Posted on: 17 July 2016 by Corry

tonym posted:
My first Superline suffered with the same problem, the left channel packed up very shortly after I bought it, & it was exchanged. IIRC this was a problem with early models of Superline.

Same here. I bought a SuperLine in November 2008, and three weeks later the right channel went out. Naim exchanged it for a new one, which has worked faultlessly ever since.