Chord Hugo TT Interconnects

I had very good results between a Core and and both Rega and 2Qute DACs with a Belden 4794R from Blue Jeans cables for < £40 deliverd tax paid to the UK, It livened up the Rega and the the Chord was able to convey some emotion compared to the Chord digital cables up to £200.

I have used an RCA Hiline on a Hugo portable DAC and think it works really well. You may manage to find a secondhand one for close to your budget.

Thanks Yeti42, I hadn’t really thought about straying from Chord but that sounds interesting, I’m always open to peoples thoughts ????

Hi Richard, thanks for that, am I correct on the types of leads I need ie Bnc to Bnc digital coax and a set of Rca’s and I assume I also need to remove my existing lead from my CD player to the pre-amp

regards

Stimmy

Stimmy, yes, you want a BNC-BNC 75ohm Coaxial digital interconnect, and an RCA-DIN interconnect to go from the Hugo TT to your Naim pre-amp.  You should also disconnect the i/c between the CD5xs and pre-amp if you are choosing to use the CD player's digital output. 

Many thanks as ever Richard, i’ll have a search for a used HiLine to see whether these are in budget, I would probably have to drop lucky though!

regards

Stimmy

You can use both RCA >>RCA and RCA >>5 Pin Din  to connect the Chord to your Nac 152XS. I would go with either a used  Naim Grey, Lavender or Black or an entry level Chord Co. a Chrysalis, Crimson, Cobra or the Shawline which is around £200 new for RCA or RCA - Din.                                                                                               

Whatever you do, I would certainly try to ensure you go RCA-DIN with the interconnect - it makes a difference.

????

Cheers Bob the Builder

Did I read somewhere that Chord Chrysalis was the same cable that Naim used for their lavendar and Naim bought up all the stock when it went out of production? I have Chrysalis RCA to RCA and a Chord Crimson RCA to DIN and the Chrysalis beats the Crimson between my NAD 4020A and 552 despite the DIN plug on the latter. If I right in the above and you can't source a Hiline, a Lavendar RCA to DIN ordered from Naim should do nicely if it hasn't been discontinued, it sems to have vanished from the web site.

Cher Yeti

Richard Dane posted:

Whatever you do, I would certainly try to ensure you go RCA-DIN with the interconnect - it makes a difference.

Richard 

Would an rca to din into SN2 be better for a Philips CD 960 ? I use Kimber hero wbt rca-rca presently. 

Stimmy - sorry but I hope this question will be relevant for you maybe not now but in future. 

Regards 

No worries bud ????

@ Richard, sorry Richard just a thought, because my 152/155xs is being powered by a flatcap, will there be a 5pin din socket left for me to attach the rca to din lead too or will I need to remove the flatcap?

regards

Stimmy

Stimmy, no it's completely unrelated - you will be using on of the source input DINs.

mpw posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Whatever you do, I would certainly try to ensure you go RCA-DIN with the interconnect - it makes a difference.

Richard 

Would an rca to din into SN2 be better for a Philips CD 960 ? I use Kimber hero wbt rca-rca presently. 

Stimmy - sorry but I hope this question will be relevant for you maybe not now but in future. 

Regards 

All else being equal, into a Naim pre-amp, I would always choose DIN over RCA phono because it tends to sound better, even when using RCA Phonos at the source end.

Hi Richard, I'm confused (doesn't take a lot I know), I'm assuming that the RCA's come out from the Hugo TT and connects to the 152xs via 5 pin din but from memory when I used a flatcap to power the A+B sockets I used din socket snaic leads but i'm not sure whether these were 4 or 5 pin, so my concern was by powering the 152xs via a flatcap it might have used up available din sockets, then I used a second flatcap to power the CD5xs - as you can see I struggle with all this connectivity so please bear with me - it's complicated stuff!!

regards

Stimmy 

Stimmy, 180 degree DIN5s are inputs or input/outputs for connecting sources.  240 degree DINs (either DIN4 or DIN5) are for connecting 24V DC power and/or pre-amp signal. 

If we look at the NAC-152xs from behind, we can see that on the left hand side are all the inputs on either RCA Phono or DIN5.  The only odd one is on the far right of the left hand bank of sockets, the powered AUX2 input which is on a 240 degree DIN5 as it carries both 24v DC power as well as taking in signal, which is handy for a Naim phono stage.  On the right hand side are all the others sockets - mainly for connecting to a power amp or connecting up power supply options.  There's a also a sub out and a line out on RCA phonos.

Thanks Richard, that helps explain things, I always get confused with the power side of things especially when some connections need blocking off!

I assume that it won't make any difference which 5 pin din I use (cd in, tuner in, hdd in or av in) so long as I select that one on the front of the panel

Sorry for being so useless!!

regards

Stimmy 

No problem Stimmy, I still remember the days when was trying to get my head around DIN sockets and connections.

You can  use any of the DIN inputs, just so long as it's not already taken up by something else on RCA phono.  On the AV input be sure that Unity Gain is not engaged (Unity Gain bypasses the volume control).

Richard

one last question..

My Philips CD960 has a 2 pin power cord... and i see the Naim SN2 DIN input is a 5 pin

like this..

ch1

ch2

-ve

nc

nc

Since my CDP does not have the 3rd pin - Earth - will the RCA to DIN experiment be a likely success ? 

what does nc stand for ?

since i dont have a earth from my CDP - to what shall the connection of -ve go to ?

regards

thank you

nc stands for ‘not connected’

The RCA plugs also contain a  ground (earth) connction, only at the DIN side they are combined ????

Yes agree with Richard always RCA - Din from Dacs, Phono stages and all sources that don't have Din out even if you have to use a Din adapter to connect RCA - RCA cables the Mayware ones are very cheap and do make a difference. 

Cheers Bob the builder, I’ll order one tomorrow so appreciate everyone’s advice ????