Naim 500 resistor lift

Naps from 2005 are from a fantastic year is all I can say.

Thanks ARDBEG10Y

but that doesn't go anywhere to answering the question 

lyndon

Out of interest, what is resistor lift, and what does it do? I saw an advert for a 500 very recently that mentioned resistor lift and it was the first I'd ever heard of it. Is it only the 500 that has it?

Good topic of Lyndon. I'm not after a 500 but would love to understand which Naim supported tweaks (therefore within forum rules) are around - like pots 8 upgrade, modified to transport only CDX2.

Looks like it could be something to do with reducing hum from amplifiers etc , but there are likely safety implications. Hopefully someone can clarify for all of us.

Richard Dane wrote this in the forum on 08.05.12

"Try to find out whether the NAP500 is one built post resistor lift, or whether it was ever serviced (would have had this done as part of the factory service). The lifted resistors were a discovery made during early production and it gave a significant performance lift. The resistors in question were found to perform much better when formed and suspended off the PCB - probably due to reduced microphonic effects. Most will therefore have this and many of the very early units had it done subsequently......"

So there are a couple of clues there as to what resistor lift is about!

best

David

Thanks David

Ah, so it's a bit like the way the resistors in the 272 have bendy legs to decouple them from the board. I like Richard's rather tautological explanation - the lifted resistors give a significant performance lift. 

It's the big resistors on the amp boards.  During development of the NAP300 and NAP250.2, Naim found that these resistors were possibly quite microphonic so developed a way to greatly reduce this by forming the legs on the resistors to lift and suspend them off the board.  This was then also applied to the NAP500.  Of course, early NAP500s that pre-dated this change didn't have "lifted" resistors unless they had been sent in for a full service or a repair, in which case this was usually done.

Here's a picture of the inside of a NAP300 - you can see the group of four lifted resistors (large green ones) with their formed legs on each amp channel.

so looking at this then, the cost of doing this alongside a service / DR upgrade should be negligible if anything at all.

Lyndon

It very much reads as if they'd do it anyway. Go for it. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

It very much reads as if they'd do it anyway. Go for it. 

My recollection is that - it was SO difficult to get to them that a one-off mod was not considered economical. However, if a full service was being undertaken, it would be the (in)action of a berk not to carry it out.

Little details like this add up. https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...77#15504822877278877

So it's the blackcurrent (sic) wine gums that give the inky blackness I enjoy so much. Today has been a great learning opportunity. 

Is this common practice for the range now?  Internal photos of the SN2 and XS2, for example, seem to show hovering components.

Yes, lessons learned like this are always applied if possible across the range where it makes a positive difference to performance.

Can't help feeling that the marketing department aren't pulling their weight here, and could make a lot more of this sort of thing:

"Incorporating Component Levitation Technology (c)".

So my NAP 300 was a 2010 model and has subsequently been serviced and DR'd in 2016 so I would assume it has the lifted resistors?

Tim

I'd be surprised if anyone here knew, Tim. But Naim would if you emailed them with a serial number.

Tim, yes.  AFAIK every NAP300 has lifted resistors.  Of the contemporary amps it's only the early examples of the NAP500 that missed out.

Adam Meredith posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

It very much reads as if they'd do it anyway. Go for it. 

My recollection is that - it was SO difficult to get to them that a one-off mod was not considered economical. However, if a full service was being undertaken, it would be the (in)action of a berk not to carry it out.

Little details like this add up. https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...77#15504822877278877

I heard on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme many years ago that 'berk' was the abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang for 'Berkeley hunt'. 

Clive B posted:

Adam Meredith posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

It very much reads as if they'd do it anyway. Go for it. 

My recollection is that - it was SO difficult to get to them that a one-off mod was not considered economical. However, if a full service was being undertaken, it would be the (in)action of a berk not to carry it out.

Little details like this add up. https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...77#15504822877278877

I heard on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme many years ago that 'berk' was the abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang for 'Berkeley hunt'. 

Surely that would be a Bark?

Thanks Richard!

Cloud Sauce posted:

Can't help feeling that the marketing department aren't pulling their weight here, and could make a lot more of this sort of thing:

"Incorporating Component Levitation Technology (c)".

Or, 'Component Raised Assisted Performance'.

Possibly the marketing department could do without my help!