component placement+mains connection

Posted by: dektop100 on 19 December 2016

Recently I discovered that my 82 preamp was not performing at it's best - sitting as it was ontop of it's Supercap PSU. I could hear no hum through the MC input even at full gain so assumed there was no problem. Being aware of the 'Brain and Brawn' approach to equipment racks but also mindful of the effort reconfiguring things, I took an easy approch to seperating the pre' from it's PSU - simply inserting an unused and unconnected Naim 180 power amp between them. This made a big difference - the sound almost blossoming, especially in the bass notes. With extended listening it was easy to believe that the PSU was 'sitting' on the sound and almost causing it to 'drag'.

Further reconfiguring more along traditional lines of 'BnB' thinking did not bring benefits - but lost those that had been gained - so I have returned to my 'Naim 180 sandwich' arrangement as being the best I can do for now.

Interestingly though, during reconnecting I found that the Supercap doesn not like to share a wall plug: the high frquencies become dulled and transients lose their crispness and there's a lack of dimesionality. So, my connections to two double wall sockets about 8 ft apart are: Supercap+unused socket then (in the other wall socket): Lingo and HiCap/PSC - the latter 2 with an adaptor block. I'm suprised at how big a difference this makes.

Rest of system is LP12/Ekos/Keel/DV xx2 on Audiotech wall frame, Naim headphone amp and Sennheiser 650's.

Posted on: 20 December 2016 by yeti42

Is there a rack involved or are you just stacking the boxes and comparing that to siting then adjacent on the same shelf?

It may well be the Lingo that the SC objects to but so will the Hicap and PSC to a lesser extent. How does it sound with SC(82?),Hicap(Headline?), PSC on the power block in that order from the lead and the Lingo as far away electrically as you can manage?

I assume there is no unmentined power amp involved.

Posted on: 20 December 2016 by dektop100

In answer to your last statement, there is an unconnected/unused 180 power amp - currently being used as a 'seperator'

There is a stack under the wall mounted LP 12 comprising, an 82 pre amp (topmost), an unconnected 180 power amp (middle) and the Supercap on the bottom. There is a 'rack' to the right of this - actually an Audiotech table - supporting: Headphone amp top left, PSC top right and on the lower shelf, Lingo on left and HiCap to the right side of this.

My initial experiment in component relocation was to move the Supercap from immediately below the 82 - placing the unused 180 there instead -  with the Supercap now at the bottom of this stack (as in first paragraph).  I concluded the the substantial gain in SQ was due to the increased separation of PSU and PRE and possibly that the unused, 'sandwiched' 180 may be providing some shielding from magnetic fields from the Supercap.

The effect of running the Supercap from it's own, un-shared, double socket was quite striking - I'd not heard the 82 sound like this before. It was as though a whole load of 'mush' had been removed from the music - very noticeable in the high frequencies. On a more subtle level, it's more coherent musically too. SQ worsened sharing the socket with the PSC - but I don't think I got around to trying a 'HiCap' share. At this point, when the system was really 'singing', I just started to play loads of LP's. 

I think the 82/Supercap are just more sensitive than the other components because they are further up the chain of reproduction - and of course rely on a high-gain mc stage. The post is intended as a 'heads-up' for user's with similar, or most likely better, installations - or where limited attention was paid to component positioning at installation.

 

 

Posted on: 20 December 2016 by yeti42

You'd mentioned the 180.

When I had a 282 I found it beneficial to have all the Naim boxes on the same block and I had that on a dedicated spur with anything with a smps (I assume the lingo has one) on the ring-main. Keeping the Naim earths close seemed to be beneficial. Not sure where the signal earth is in your system maybe someone who knows the Olive series can chime in. 

Posted on: 20 December 2016 by james n
yeti42 posted:

When I had a 282 I found it beneficial to have all the Naim boxes on the same block 

Yep - best thing.