N-Sub Maintenance and connection to SN2

Posted by: Mulberry on 22 June 2018

Hi,

I have a chance to pick up a N-Sub at a reasonable price. As it’s obviously a used one, I wonder if the amplifier inside needs the usual recapping or other types of maintenance. Is Naim still able to repair possible defects? The Sub available is perfectly fine, but I wonder nonetheless.

According to the N-Sub manual, the preferred connection is either speaker-level or DIN to Cinch. How to implement the former is clear to me, the latter not. A 4-Pin DIN to Cinch cable comes with the Sub, but my SN2 only has the 5-Pin Bi-Amp and dual Cinch outputs. The latter seem like the logical choice, had Richard Dane not mentioned a resistor inside the DIN-cable in one of the current Subwoofer threads. The cables would have a max. length of 4m. Is a low capacitance cable sufficient or should a resistor be included? If so, which value and where?

Posted on: 22 June 2018 by Richard Dane

Mulberry, IIRC, the sub out on your SN2 may be OK without slugging - the slugged cable was really for the regular pre-amps which couldn't drive long cables particularly well.

As for servicing, you'd need to check with Naim. At the same time its probably worth checking on the cable loading..

Posted on: 22 June 2018 by Mulberry

Hi Richard,

many thanks! I’ll give Music Line a call on Monday.

Posted on: 22 June 2018 by ChrisSU

When I called Naim last year to ask if I should ever consider getting my N-Sub serviced, they told me not to bother.

Posted on: 03 July 2018 by Mulberry

While the price for the N-Sub on the world famous auction site ended up higher than what I wanted to spend, I did phone Music Line, the Naim distributor in Germany.

According to the friendly person on the phone, a SN2 should be able to drive a Cinch-terminated cable, no slugging needed. They could and would service defective units, but told me not to bother when I asked about recapping.