General Hookup Questions

Posted by: Florestan on 11 December 2016

Before the flood / renovations in the spring, life was good and there was music through my main system everyday. Then to make way for some painters one morning, I had to disassemble my system quickly without being able to note how everything was plugged in. Mainly by process of elimination, I have stacked the Fraims and plugged everything in and hope it will do but I do wonder if I managed to put everything back together at least the way it was meant to be?

So at risk of asking some of the most embarrassingly basic questions and showing my total incompetence I am coming to the experts here and seeking your advice. I will limit this to four main questions. I would appreciate any help on this you can give me. Thanks !

Question 1: NAP 300 (Input Ch 1 | Input Ch 2) => NAC 552 PS (Signal Out 1, 2, or 3)

Just need to confirm where Input Ch 1 and Input Ch 2 should go? I have guessed that Input Ch 1 goes to Signal Out 2 and Input Ch 2 goes to Signal Out 3? Alternatively, I wonder if Input Ch 1 should go to Signal Out 1 and then 2 to 2?

Question 2: NAC 552 (Input 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Input 1: CDX3

Input 2: NAT05

Input 3: Headline

Input 6: SuperCap (Turntable)

Question 3: I have an 8 plug power bar. From the end that the cable enters is there a preferred order in plugging in 7 power supplies? Any logic involved? Suggestions to what I did here...

Question 4: I have three Power Lines. Which boxes should I use them on in the above mix?

Posted on: 11 December 2016 by yeti42

With the power supplies take the signal from the output closest to where it goes in, it shows this in the manual and I have exprianced the performance loss of getting wrong.

My preferred plug order at the moment is 555ps to give the signal earth the easiest route followed by sc(superline), 552ps ,power amp then the rest followed by the turntable. This is however an extrapolation from when I ran a 282/hi/250 when it gave the most coherent result if not the fullest bass. I'm pretty sure DB disagrees with this however so with luck he'll be along presently to give you another scheme to try.

Posted on: 11 December 2016 by Richard Dane

Q1: the signal OUTs on the 552PS are all stereo and all alike, so it doesn't matter which one, although to keep signal paths as short as possible, connecting to the sockets closest to the input is generally preferred.

Q2: On a 552 it shouldn't real matter which input you use, although DIN is preferable to RCA and single input preferable to an input/output. Note that if you aren't using the rec out facility then muting it shuts it down on the 552 and you get slightly better performance.

Q3: Best done by listening for yourself. However, p;personally I prefer a Hydra to a power bar or else enough dedicated wall sockets.

Q4: See above. Definitely source, definitely pre-amp.