My CDX2 is sounding sooo good today..

Oh dear, SuperClamp is not a kind of DC blocker? Have to admit this "mains business" is very confusing to me as a social scientist... 

indeed not sorry - the superclamp is a mains spike filter - and the purifier is a broadband common and differential mode filter - i.e. it reduces noise on the mains.

Timo,  Russ Andrews does not have anything that fixes DC Offset (asymmetrical AC wave distortion).  All his clamps & silencers shunt across L&N (& E) to quieten various forms of EMI, RFI noise & voltage spikes & surges.   I use a 'Silencer' on my SMPS power strip,  in the hope that it will reduce the typical 50kHz – 1MHz switching noise that may (or may not) affect SQ.

Thanks Simon -- "mains conditioning" seems like a terribly broad concept... Is there a substantial difference between a "purifierer" and a "silencer"? Confused.com...  Cheers!!

Thanks Mike-B -- I think I remember a posting with a picture your DIY power strip. Very impressing! If I started such a project, the wife would increase the life insurance...

Timo posted:

Thanks Mike-B -- I think I remember a posting with a picture your DIY power strip. Very impressing! If I started such a project, the wife would increase the life insurance...

Maybe your wife is more 'grounded' than many of us audio(phool)philes on the forum.  

Timo posted:

Thanks Simon -- "mains conditioning" seems like a terribly broad concept... Is there a substantial difference between a "purifierer" and a "silencer"? Confused.com...  Cheers!!

Timo, I don't know, they are product marketing terms that seem to blur into each other... there probably is a difference, but it will specific to RA I suspect. Even the term mains conditioning is a vague term. I suspect there are three main areas that could be relevant to us. 

• filtering... taking high frequency noise out of the mains
• re construction... regenerating the mains to improve the shape of the mains cycle, maintain voltage and frequency.
• DC offset removal / isolation transformer... removal off DC in the mains or asymmetrical mains

I only bother with filtering...

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

• DC offset removal / isolation transformer... removal off DC in the mains or asymmetrical mains

I only bother with filtering... 

 DC offset (asymmetric waveform distortion) correction - its a corrective filter  .........  

Indeed, in the limit most adjustments of a shape are done through a filtering function, but I tried to keep it simple for Timo

Massimo Bertola posted:

CDX2 Club Member here. Mine is my fourth, and sounding great.

Humm! Massimo, I don't know how to interprete this: do you own four CDX2s? Either you really like them or you had one of them replaced three times. 

Either way, enjoy it(them)!

Simon,

The past year I've been stifling the impulse to blind buy a used CDX2 (none of the dealers in my area stock CDPs anymore). As a rock listener your post has pushed me over the edge. Tomorrow I'm going out and buying a Christmas tree.

joerand posted:

Simon,

The past year I've been stifling the impulse to blind buy a used CDX2 (none of the dealers in my area stock CDPs anymore). As a rock listener your post has pushed me over the edge. Tomorrow I'm going out and buying a Christmas tree.

joerand posted:

Simon,

The past year I've been stifling the impulse to blind buy a used CDX2 (none of the dealers in my area stock CDPs anymore). As a rock listener your post has pushed me over the edge. Tomorrow I'm going out and buying a Christmas tree.

Oh no... what have I done... 

Tony2011 posted:

Massimo Bertola posted:

CDX2 Club Member here. Mine is my fourth, and sounding great.

Humm! Massimo, I don't know how to interprete this: do you own four CDX2s? Either you really like them or you had one of them replaced three times. 

Either way, enjoy it(them)!

Tony,

no, four CDX2s at the same time would be too much even for me.. I have had four of them, separately; three with the older VAM1250 (puck with rubber thingies), one with the newer one (puck with magnetic ring). And I have enjoyed all.

M.

In retrospect should we go for the SuperClamp, the MegaClamp or all the way to the PowerPurifier?

How would these products compare to the similar but much more expensive Nordost QRT range?

Chag -

No idea I am afraid... RA offer a trial period with theirs

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

No idea I am afraid... RA offer a trial period with theirs

Yes, I seem to recall that RA's excellent customer service includes a 30 day money back period if you're disappointed by their products.  I think you just have to cover the postal, not unreasonably. So it is pretty risk free to try these things.   

I think it may be 60 days. Might be wrong. I've not tried any of their mains products or cables. Tried their attenuators which didn't work for me. I too found their customer service excellent. 

Mine sounds great when it's not skipping!

Repaired the Snaic, as Richard suggested

 Ruled out Speakers etc MM Airport

Cleaned out optical lens, and got the Ok to use Philips SVC2330/27 CD lens cleaner.

 I guess I have to bite the bullet!

AVoptions in the $700 USD ballpark

 Naim Audio Plus $600 USD ballpark

2008 1202 VAM MK1, just when I was about to pull the trigger on a SCDR!

Just picked up a brand new 5 pin Snaic for that purpose!

I guess cleaning, updated firmware, and new optical lens will be my Christmas gift to myself!

So annoying to be enjoyed your Music, then skipping, not often, maybe 3-4 skips per CD!

MM/Airport Extreme/Express/282 ain't bad, but I miss my Cdx2, and it haven't been shipped out!

Such is life, Merry Christmas to all!

BTW Simon, no one has answer my question, was the optical laser lens in the Cdx2, manufactured by Philips?

Allante93!

Allan, yes the laser and transport mechanism are made by Philips, in both the mk1 and mk2 versions. I don't know who physically makes the actual optical lens, but it is part of the Philips unit.

Going back to the earlier part of this thread, out of curiosity I've just dug out my old RA "The Purifier' and done a couple of A/B tests on my system using Melody Gardot's Currency Of Man album.  I played It Gonna Come without it, plugged The Purifier' into the second (empty) socket on my RA distribution block and played the same song again, then removed the thing again and played the song for a third time.

My verdict is: the difference, if there at all, is small.  And if it is there, I preferred the system without The Purifier in place as I thought the system sounded a freer, with a tad more 'swing' on the first and third plays .  

All that said, I know I have a good mains-set up with the system on a dedicated rings-main. I've been fortunate to enjoy a consistently noise-free supply for some years now.  So I suppose one of these things might be of benefit on a noisier supply.

Hi Mike - I guess the difference is very much going to depend on your environment as you say. If you have good mains to start with you probably won't hear any difference. I am afraid I have a scratchy rural feed.

S

Yes, Simon. I'm sure you're right. I live in a London Borough which has some downsides but an upside is robustness of utilities (hope I'm not tempting fate!).

Mike 

Allante93 posted:

Mine sounds great when it's not skipping!

Repaired the Snaic, as Richard suggested

 Ruled out Speakers etc MM Airport

Cleaned out optical lens, and got the Ok to use Philips SVC2330/27 CD lens cleaner.

 I guess I have to bite the bullet!

AVoptions in the $700 USD ballpark

 Naim Audio Plus $600 USD ballpark

2008 1202 VAM MK1, just when I was about to pull the trigger on a SCDR!

Just picked up a brand new 5 pin Snaic for that purpose!

I guess cleaning, updated firmware, and new optical lens will be my Christmas gift to myself!

So annoying to be enjoyed your Music, then skipping, not often, maybe 3-4 skips per CD!

MM/Airport Extreme/Express/282 ain't bad, but I miss my Cdx2, and it haven't been shipped out!

Such is life, Merry Christmas to all!

BTW Simon, no one has answer my question, was the optical laser lens in the Cdx2, manufactured by Philips?

Allante93!

 

 

I bought a used CDX2 few months ago (2004 model) but found it was skipping, on average once a disk. The player sounds "dak" for everytime it reads the disk and stop playing. Later I bought a brand new original laser head (I believe) and replaced myself, the problem has gone! As I had no experience of fixing Naim products, I took 3 hours to finish but i believe I could repair another one within an hour now. Please let me know if you decided to replace it yourself, I can give you some tips to save your time.

Going back to the topic. I love my CDX2 very much, it sounds great and gets more musical after pairing with an XPS-DR. These are the equipment I will not sell anyway.

Latte posted:

Allante93 posted:

Mine sounds great when it's not skipping!

Repaired the Snaic, as Richard suggested...........

 

Allante93!

I bought a used CDX2 few months ago (2004 model) but found it was skipping, on average once a disk. The player sounds "dak" for everytime it reads the disk and stop playing. Later I bought a brand new original laser head (I believe) and replaced myself, the problem has gone! As I had no experience of fixing Naim products, I took 3 hours to finish but i believe I could repair another one within an hour now. Please let me know if you decided to replace it yourself, I can give you some tips to save your time.

Going back to the topic. I love my CDX2 very much, it sounds great and gets more musical after pairing with an XPS-DR. These are the equipment I will not sell anyway.

I might just take you up on that, AVoptions just informed me that it would take 2 months for them to get to mine, the cost would be $735 USD.

Just curious, was your 2004 the VAM 1250, for some reason the 1250's are more to service.

In any case I will check and see what they are going for.

Thanks for the gracious offer, it's individuals, like yourself that add value to the Forum.

 Thanks Latte!