Top 10 tweaks for near to no money

Posted by: Steve Hall on 29 July 2001

With the impending arrival of the first born, money to upgrade will now be limited. So, what are your top 10 system tweeks to gain the most out of your Naim kit.

My current setup, and its likely to be like this for a while wink is:

CDX/102/napsc/Hi/Naxo/Hi/2x180's/SBL's on Ash Design, and on dedicated mains

but I wouldnt want your tips to be limited to this setup so that we can have a repository for all the best tweaking tips under one thread.

Posted on: 29 July 2001 by ken c
steve:

not in any particular order, here goes...

1/ din plug centering, or to achieve the same thing, leaving the collar loose

2/ if you have an 82 or 52, if you are not recording, muting out the record circuit by pressing Mute/Aux

3/ try to ensure that naca5 doesnt touch speaker any part of speaker other than at connection point. ensure naca5 is not coiled. people have suggested decoupling naca5 from wall/floor using bubble wrap.

4/ adjusting the puck in case naim cd player cant read a cd

5/ when playing records on lp12, remove lid. some folk have even suggested removing the base board. a bit dangerous.

6/ every year or so, redo your mains plugs thus exposing and using new clean copper in the plug

7/ every 6 months or so (?) disconnect and connect all conections a few times in order to induce self cleaning

8/ mains spur and earth spike


thats all i can think of for now. a lot of the others i can think of are not really tweaks but just good system installation.

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 29 July 2001 by Mike Hanson
Sell the NAXO, Hi-Cap and second 180, and buy a used CDPS for your CDX.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

Posted on: 30 July 2001 by Andrew L. Weekes
quote:
Clean all the mains fuses and plug pins with Duraglit silver polish. The first time, keep rubbing until the fuse's tinning is removed - it won't take long

Be careful - on some sockets (MK, crabtree) the 'tinning' is actually silver plating and will sound best just left alone.

My top tip is to buy a bottle of 'Kontak' cleaner, despite the warnings from Naim this stuff really does work and doesn't leave a residue.

It's the only such cleaner I'd ever use. A good scrub every 3-6 months or so works wonders, and makes much more difference than subtle cable dressing.

Andy.

Posted on: 30 July 2001 by Steve Hall
My system is connected to a dedicated mains spur, which has 6 switched outlets.

Now, I have picked up in the past that:


    They should be unswitched
    Having one unswitched socked and a mains block is better

Also, if the mains block is better, having the following is good?


    Maplins is cheap and good, anyone got a Catalogue number
    If its a standard trailing one with a neon indicator, remove it?
    Are the 'Audio' trailing blocks worth their money, if so which ones?

Thanks for all the replys so far, but one extra point needs clarafication:

In the Hall of the mountain king, is the 9 o'clock position to loud for 2am? big grin

Posted on: 30 July 2001 by Steve Hall
Thx Wai-lon

Any comments on my mains? Is one socket and a distribution board such as the Maplin better than my hardwired three lots of double sockets?