tightening the screws......
Posted by: GC on 20 December 2002
basically my system has been sounding shite....some things have been ok but as soon as anything with any wallop is played, the whole thing just falls to bits.
anyhow, to cut a long story short, i went to press play on the cdx and nothing was happening, the puck had flown inside the box so i duly took it apart and retrieved it, and when putting it back together, i noticed that the screws holding the spacer bars holding the circuit board (sorry dont know the tech terms for any of these bits....) were very loose, one was just about to drop out. These were tightened and the box put back together and lo and behold - it started singing again, lots of tracks, especially dance music sounds great once more. its all sounded pretty bad since i moved about 8 months ago and ive always put it down to the room, or the fact that its a suspended floor but i think that when i last moved, the vibrations in the car from driving around for a fair few miles has worked the probably already loose screws a lot looser! a incoherant post i know, but if i think about it too much i wont bother! has anybody else had similar experiences?? - im thinking about taking everything else to bits to make sure all internal boards are secured properly.
Posted on: 20 December 2002 by dave simpson
yep... a little known tweak though. My 102 really showed a big difference after tightening it's board stand-offs down.
regards,
dave
Posted on: 20 December 2002 by Manu
Conclusion:
The CDX is not a car Cd player.
Emmanuel
All opinions are my own, and reflect those of the organisation i work for, even if not stipulated.
Posted on: 21 December 2002 by GC
hello manu - yes, but it has implications, after servicing, can you be sure nothing has wobbled loose?
Posted on: 21 December 2002 by NB
Everything tends to wobble lose over a period of time!!
Have you tried tightening the bolts on your speakers?? I do mine perhaps once a year and it makes a difference. Just be careful you don't overtighten them.
Regards
NB
Posted on: 21 December 2002 by Flex
It is this sort of feedback from other users that this forum is intended for.
Thanks for taking the trouble.
Flex
Posted on: 05 January 2003 by GC
hello nb, i cant with my current speakers (compass) as the units are glued in, however there was a bit of a difference with my old epos 14's, need to remember that one!
cheers flex! many thanks ; )
ive taken every other box apart, a few screws on the 52 and in the supercap were a bit loose, but in the 180 and xps, nothing budged at all, so no real sonic benefit from the other units.......i bought the cdx second hand last year - i guess if i had bought from a dealer then this might not have happened, however, i still stand by my initial reaction, which is that this has made a larger difference than adding both a 52 and a fraim to my system, i think im just getting all the upgrades ive done all in one go!
anyhow, i now think that if your system doesnt sound too hot for some reason when it obviously should do, then there is something fundamentally wrong with it and no amount of black box upgrades will sort it out......the biggest upgrades of last year were certainly the cheapest, tightening those boards and buying the fraim chips, if there is any vibration at all in the equipment then music just goes........
Posted on: 05 January 2003 by dave simpson
quote:
I thought that the srews holding the boards have a specific -not so tight- torque set at the facory.
Many of us have beaten the odds then Richard- it was A HUGE improvement in my cds transport and still a large improvement in my 102. Bigger in my cds than any stand ever made...
Until Salisbury speaks...I simply did mine up snug using gentle pressure with the screwdriver--no vein-popping ;-)
regards,
dave
Posted on: 05 January 2003 by Manu
My experience, and i have seen quite a few black boxes, is the screws are generaly not loose on amps and preamps when they have never been serviced or serviced by Naim trained techs.
When it is obvious they have been serviced by unqualified people (wrong components values or non approved replacement parts) screws are almost always loose.
Yes, Naim gives guidance on how screws must be tightened.
So if your box has never been serviced, don't touch it, it should be Ok.
If you buy SH, you should ask a service center to check the unit, this can be combine with a refurb (recap+ ).
This doesn't apply to loudspeakers, they all become loose, they have to be retightened once a year.
Hope this helps.
Emmanuel
All opinions are my own, and reflect those of the organisation i work for, even if not stipulated.
Posted on: 05 January 2003 by GC
hi richard, in all the other boxes, hardly any pressure was applied, but believe me, in the cdx the ciruit above the case moved to an almost trapezoid shape when i applied lateral forces to it, there is no doubt that it had almost worked free of any screws holding it in....it wasnt a small quarter turn or anything......i bet out there there must be a small percentage of people with loose boards in the cd player who will find this of some use, if not now then sometime in the future!
Posted on: 05 January 2003 by dave simpson
"My experience, and i have seen quite a few black boxes, is the screws are generaly not loose on amps and preamps when they have never been serviced or serviced by Naim trained techs."
Agreed Emmanuel..except in the case of my one-owner cds and 102 (neither had been opened by anyone since they were made). I assume the loose screws (two maybe in each box) were due to temp changes over the years? FWIW, my cdps, hicap, and 250s' screws required no tightening.
Thanks for the heads-up about specific torques required by Naim... I *really* feel lucky now ;-)
regards,
dave
Posted on: 06 January 2003 by Jason Gould
Hi every one reading this thread,
with the exception of the Nac102,none of the screws are torque set into position.
If as some of you have mentioned in your postings find that the screws have become loose,it is ok to tighten them down,however DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN THESE SCREWS, gentley "pinch" them tight!
Now then the Nac 102,this unit has three essential screws which are located close to the din sockets.
These three are torqued and locked with Locktight liquid.
This procedure creates a decoupled mount for the din sockets.The additional screws to the pcb are "pinch" tight.
Regards
Jason Gould
Naim UK Sales.
Posted on: 06 January 2003 by GC
im surprised you can type living where you live!
; )
Posted on: 07 January 2003 by Jorg
Hi Gus,
while retrieving the puck from the innards of our newly-bought run-in-for-two-month CDX, I had the same experience: 2 of the screws holding the spacers to the chassis were close to falling out and 4 others were loose, making the board wobble. To me, it did not look like something that just loosened a little during transport and everything else seemed ok. When I tightened those screws carefully, the sound improved by quite a bit. The dealer and the distributor were very helpful and thought that I did this right. Since I was a little unsure about my 'fixing it', they offered a comparison to a unit from a dealer nearby. Within 10 sec of listening, it was obvious to everybody present that our CDX still sounded rather thin and grainy. We exchanged the unit to the one we heard it against and were happy ever since.
I don't know what else was wrong with the first CDX and only much later I heard that there might have been another suspension problem. So, from my experience I guess I have to encourage you to have a listening test if you are still unsure. This kit is not cheap and it is supposed to (and can!) sound incredible.
Jo
Posted on: 07 January 2003 by GC
cheers jorg - im going into the local dealers on thursday so he can have a listen, if he says it sounds a bit off colour im just going to get the cds2 he has in there......so you know what the dealer will say!
hi richard, same here, one majr reason i went for naim is that i thought you would be able to just connect the lot together and forget about it....i dont think that the perfect hifi that needs no maintenance will ever exist.....
Posted on: 08 January 2003 by Jorg
Well Gus, here is another experience from my life in hifi: comparing a CDX with a CDS when you already invested in a XPS is a sure recipe for disaster. Enjoy, anyway!
To Naim's benefit: the people at the dealer and distributor sounded honestly surprised about a CDX not up to the standard. Everybody's first words were exactly: "Oh, we have never heard of this before..." I thought that was funny and liked to believe them.
Joerg
Posted on: 09 January 2003 by Martin Payne
Posted on: 09 January 2003 by dave simpson
Nice one Martin ;-)
Did you ever get a chance to compare a centered hicap vs. right-hand postioning? If so which way sounded best?
regards,
dave
Posted on: 09 January 2003 by Martin Payne
quote:
Originally posted by dave simpson:
Nice one Martin ;-)
Hey, thank Mike, not me. I just remembered it was there.
quote:
Did you ever get a chance to compare a centered hicap vs. right-hand postioning? If so which way sounded best?
Not yet. I will, though - it's on the list of things to do. Might wait for the next time I have a gang of mates over and maybe we can come to a concensus.
cheers, Martin
Posted on: 09 January 2003 by dave simpson
quote:
Hey, thank Mike, not me. I just remembered it was there.
Yer right!....thanks Mike ;-)
quote:
Might wait for the next time I have a gang of mates over and maybe we can come to a concensus.
Cool...makes quite an audible improvement if it was situated wrong to begin with.
regards,
dave
