Nap 500 Fraim Stacking pt 2
Posted by: rsch on 04 July 2016
This morning it finally arrived. We installed the 500 head like the 250 before, on the extend level of the far right stack and the 500ps at the bottom of the midlle brawn stack.
The problem occured with the CH1 Din>XLR cable that was too short to reach the Din socket of the 552ps
We had to move Fraims as close as possible turning a bit the right one.
Top to bottom : 555 ps, 552 ps, 500 ps
CH1 Din>XLR too short
DIN>XLR CH1 & 2 into 552 ps.
I already asked at my usual Naim dealer and told me longer cables should be available
Once installation was done, after 10 mins of warm up we played a few tracks and this dealer and his assistant were pretty impressed by the difference with the 250 ( i leaved them about half an hour playing a few cd s of my collection with the 250).
In first instance they, and me included, noticed that all the boldness on the mid bass i was suffering, particulary from the S600s arrival, was pretty much disappeared. Voices like soprano seemed more refined, and at a lesser extent, little impressions of shrillness i suffered before disappeared.. Before leaving home this afternoon, i also played a few tracks of the Fonè Records CD test of Fone' just to be sure that everything was correct. The introducing voice at every track of Giulio Cesare Ricci, which i always found pretty cavernous, was much clear and also noticed a presence of little noises of the recording equipment or ambience not so obvious before.
Being only at the very early stage of use, my impression is very very positive.
Regarrds
Roberto
Posted on: 04 July 2016 by Skip
I set mine up with the amp, preamp and 555 on the left and the power supplies on the right. It fits that way but not the reverse.
Posted on: 04 July 2016 by Bodger
I set mine up with the amp, preamp and 555 on the left and the power supplies on the right. It fits that way but not the reverse.
Skip,
I have things set up that way too. Probably for the same reason. It seems that the interconnects (including burndies, xlrs) are too long with Brains on the left and Brawn on the right. Leads trail on the floor and make cable dressing a challenge. Switching Brains and Brawn over, the interconnects are not long enough to reach. Annoying.
Dave
Posted on: 05 July 2016 by hungryhalibut
If the Burndy leads are at full stretch, the system won't sound as good as it should. I'd be inclined to put the 500 below the 552 in an intermediate level, then have an empty shelf below the 552.
Posted on: 05 July 2016 by Christopher_M
Hi Roberto,
I can't help with Burndys but is this speaker wire the wrong way up?
Best, C.
Posted on: 07 July 2016 by Christopher_M
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by rsch
Mooornig Chris ! I see a degree of eagerness with you,
Ok, Naca wiring is correct, i have them firing upside. I' m living with 500 from 3/4 days now and it's truly truly mesmerizing experience ! the biggest leap forward in performance and overall musicality i experienced, not even the 555 nor 552 brought to the party at such degree.
Later i 'll eleborate more specifically
Regards
Roberto
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by Christopher_M
Morning,
Quite right I'm eager, eager that you sound is as good as possible :-) I favour the idea of the Naca wires hanging down from the NAP. My O level physics (basic school grade in the UK) says this put less torsional strain on the connectors, thus getting the best signal into the speakers.
It would be no different with a CD5i and Nait 5i.
Very glad the NAP500 is sounding so good for you. I worried.
Best, Chris
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by Dev B
Hi there, if you invert the 500 rack the cables should fit (i.e turn the rack around back to front) and put it slightly in front of the other one. Best regards
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by hungryhalibut
It would be best to get the speaker plug rewired correctly, then it won't need to be upside down. While Dev's suggestion about turning the rack round will of course work, it looks really weird. I still think putting the 500 to the left of its power supply is the way to go. It also gets the noisy transformer further from the head unit's sensitive bits.
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by rsch
I already turned a bit reward the outer corner of the far right Fraim, however my dealer already found me a couple of slightly loneger Din/XLR cables.
Regards
Roberto
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by Dev B
I'm not sure slightly longer cables is a good idea; but things may be different with Super Lumina
regards
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by rsch
I don' t see the point why Naim didn't provide a slightly longer cable, the only alternative are
1 move the 500 head under the source stack (555 & 552 head) not ideal imho.
2 Moving CD555 and 552 on the far right stack with brawn stack in the midlle but doing so. i' m not sure that 555 Burndies can be routed from source to psu with right to left orientation
Regards
Roberto
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by dave marshall
I don' t see the point why Naim didn't provide a slightly longer cable
Have to agree there.
My Super Lumina Din / XLR for the left channel is tauter than I would like, even though the system is arranged on two stacks of Fraim, brawn on the right, and brain on the left. The various boxes are also stacked according to recommended practice.
I do find this slightly odd, since I would assume that during development, Naim would have noticed this issue, and made these cables just that wee bit longer? 
I've chosen to keep things as they are, rather than start shuffling boxes away from the accepted best stacking order.
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by rsch
Standard XLR/Din is 100 cm long, is your S.Lumina the same lenght ?
Regards
Roberto
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by dave marshall
I think the SL cables must be slightly longer than the stock cable, as the latter was certainly tighter than the SL, but still not ideal.
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by rsch
Thanks, for the info
Regards
Roberto
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by hungryhalibut
My SL din to xlr is only a metre long, which is what I wanted as my 272 sits above the 250. But as I understand it, 1.5m lengths are also available.
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by Graham Russell
There's no need to rewire the speaker plugs. To get them hanging down just swap left and right cables. The speaker outputs on the back of the amp are not symmetrical, the positive and negative pins are opposite. Handy to allow tests to compare cable up or cable down out the amp.
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by hungryhalibut
That won't work if they are both wired the same. One cable needs to have the pins swapped round.
Posted on: 08 July 2016 by Christopher_M
Well I'm just relieved that at least three of us consider having the wires hanging vertically from sockets is worth doing. I mean, why would anyone want to compromise in their Naim system? (rhetorical).
C.
Posted on: 12 July 2016 by Naimiac
That won't work if they are both wired the same. One cable needs to have the pins swapped round.
Dear Mr. Halibut,
as you can see - because you can see, can't you? – Graham Russell is perfectly right, the cables need not being re-soldered as the sockets at the back of the 500 are mirror-like: why should the cables be wired the same? It will be enough – provided Roberto feels the need to observe this specific commandment – to swap left and right cable to have them hanging down.
Best,
N.
Posted on: 12 July 2016 by Darke Bear
If you swap L and R speaker leads and then if you also swap L and R Amp input leads you will notice a stunning silence.
Naim have made the L and R inputs to the Amp require a specifically-wired L and R input lead (tagged green and red) that uses different signal pins in the input plugs.
Not sure if that was being referred to here, but useful, perhaps, to know.
DB.
Posted on: 13 July 2016 by Allante93
I'm not sure slightly longer cables is a good idea; but things may be different with Super Lumina
regards
""Super Lumina pre to power interconnects ship as standard with all Statement systems. The rest of the range is scheduled to enter production in February 2015 and will be available from all Naim specialist retailers................
Super Lumina cables are designed to minimise the effect of external and internal interference sources and preserve maximum signal fidelity...........
Each Super Lumina cable is hand-assembled at Naim in Salisbury to the customer’s specification of length and termination. ""
Just Dreaming about SL technologies!
Allante93!
Posted on: 13 July 2016 by hungryhalibut
That won't work if they are both wired the same. One cable needs to have the pins swapped round.
Dear Mr. Halibut,
as you can see - because you can see, can't you? – Graham Russell is perfectly right, the cables need not being re-soldered as the sockets at the back of the 500 are mirror-like: why should the cables be wired the same? It will be enough – provided Roberto feels the need to observe this specific commandment – to swap left and right cable to have them hanging down.
Best,
N.
I was assuming that one wire was up and one down, so if you swap them one would still be up, meaning that one would need resoldering. But if they are both up, swapping them round would indeed result in them both hanging down. I hope that makes sense.
Posted on: 13 July 2016 by rsch
Back to the original business , i installed a pair of slighly longer DIN/XLR cables
For the record i talked about Naca direction with our local service centre and they told me that Naca upward or downward it's the same. However if someone feels better with Nacas downward, i have another pair like this with S400s to try.
Regards
Roberto
