Credo Tweakery
Posted by: P on 14 October 2000
Can anyone offer any suggestions for optimising the slam and weightiness of my Credos? Speaker placement has been tried but to no avail.
I'm a little curious as to the internal white wool and it's real purpose ( I'm really not one for blind experimentation ). How does the Credo differ from the SBL internally? How loose should those PIPS be?
I would appreciate any suggestions as to what I could do to control things a bit until I can get my new spur/earth sorted and afford to upgrade to an 82/supercap (and pay for the divorce proceedings to boot if that happens too soon I might add!).
Any Credo Swamis or Gurus out there? Anyone?
TIA- Regards P.- CDS2/HI+72/180/XPS in a Base Res Control Cabinet going down from left to right -and no regrets at all!.
Posted on: 14 October 2000 by Mark Dunn
Hi Pierre:
I have Credos with the external cross-overs. As suggested above, you might try unscrewing the the x-overs from the cabinets and letting them hang by their wires BUT makes sure they don't hang against the cabinet. If they do, place a piece of unsued 1" diameter heatshrink as a spacer between x-over and cabinet, - the difference in my system is obvious.
Regarding the PIPs, - I placed a small ball of Blu-Tak by the side of each PIP to stabilize the upper cabinet. This led to a reasonable uncrease in bass definition. Not earth shattering but worth while.
Room placement of the Credo is a perilously tortuous subject. Mine are about 4' from the back wall and 3' from each side wall (my listening room is 26' x 13'). This 'mid-room' placement tidied up the bass a whole bunch in my room.
The biggest changes (not necessarily improvements) I've found with the Credos have been wrought by putting them on various stands/plinths. Some people say M*n* work well but I ended up designing my own as my floor is "difficult". I was very surprised the large differences small changes here can make to the sound of the Credo. This is an area where you need to experiment as your set-up will almost certainly be different to mine as will your taste too (probably).
Best Regards,
Mark Dunn
Posted on: 15 October 2000 by P
To Martin C -Yes my spikes are bout as well set as I can get them. They're going through hessian backed wool then duralay underlay -the green eggboxy stuff- and finally direct onto a concrete screeded floor.
To David Scott- Could you please expand a little on why "things are much better now"? ie What did you do?
To Mark Dunn - I will try what you have suggested as soon as I have completed reterminating all my ends with new Naim plugs today. Have you messed with the white wool or internals at all ?
Thanks for your advice
Regards P.
Posted on: 15 October 2000 by Mark Dunn
Hi Pierre:
Re:
>To Mark Dunn - I will try what you have suggested >as soon as I have completed reterminating all my >ends with new Naim plugs today. Have you messed
>with the white wool or internals at all ?
No. Changing the wool would most probably result in cabinet resonance and unpredictable frequency response anomalies. I'm assuming (there's that word again) that Naim got the best compromise when stuffing the cabinets.
Best Regards,
Mark Dunn
Posted on: 15 October 2000 by P
The soldering job took a lot longer than I was hoping but boy what a difference - should have done it yonks ago- I am now a self taught Naim Plug Soldering Guru and I feel really proud!!!!!! (well actually I did have a few pointers from the head of Naims test dept but that really is another story)
regards P
Posted on: 16 October 2000 by Chris Metcalfe
I recently spoke to a dealer who says they've put sealing gaskets a la SBL in the gap, with the effect of controlling the bass in certain situations. Interesting, but I didn't get more details.
I have some which I shall shortly be upgrading from btw.....
Posted on: 16 October 2000 by Rico
quote:
I am now a self taught Naim Plug Soldering Guru and I feel really proud!!!!!! (well actually I did have a few pointers from the head of Naims test dept but that really is another story)
Share!?
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 16 October 2000 by P
In a perfect world I would.
This aint so I wont
Regards PR - I have my reasons.
Posted on: 16 October 2000 by dave simpson
Hi Rico,
Could we "pry" those Naim soldering tips from you ?
regards,
dave
Posted on: 17 October 2000 by Rico
Dave
I had asked Pierre to Share the info he got - I assume that the limp-dick response confirms he won't. So much for an interchange of ideas.
best I can suggest is the antex website Introduction to soldering. Good luck, and mind yer fingers.
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 18 October 2000 by dave simpson
Sorry Rico and Pierre,
Rico's right Pierre...cough it up, please.
regards,
dave
*I usually don't whine but if someone doesn't fix this software soon I will clone a pair of humans and allow nature to evolve their offspring into computor programmers and fix this problem. Bet you my clones will get the job done quicker.
Posted on: 18 October 2000 by P
I am sworn to secrecy.
Your nearest freindly dealer should have been trained by Naim so they might be able to sort y'all out.
Business IS business after all
Hey Rico - careful with those adjectives old boy. A soul more sensitive might take umbrage.
Message to Chris Metcalfe - Chris I've just read your post again - when you say "upgrading from" do you mean the gaskets or the SBLs themselves?
Just curious?
Regards P.
[This message was edited by Pierre Letroll on THURSDAY 19 October 2000 at 07:34.]
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Chris Metcalfe
"Chris I've just read your post again - when you say "upgrading from" do you mean the gaskets or the SBLs themselves"
Credos.
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Jon Moxon
quote:
Your nearest freindly dealer should have been trained by Naim so they might be able to sort y'all out.Business IS business after all
Just a hunch, but you aren't Paul Stephenson in disguise, are you? For days now every time I read one of your posts I can't help feeling that you are, stirring things up (which I find very amusing BTW) to divert attention from the naff softwear. There was also that comment about selling yer granny to get a cdsII, the folly of buying SH cd palyers etc etc. I know it sounds like something from Foucault's Pendulum, but there you are. I love a good conspiracy theory...
JonM
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Rico
quote:
Hey Rico - careful with those adjectives old boy. A soul more sensitive might take umbrage.
Hmmm. Just as well I didn't call you a Humber then, or use the correct adjective. You might be forgetting that a large proportion of dealers appear averse to grappling with the complexities of a hot soldering iron, let alone A5 and Naim bananna plugs... jeez, some of them even prefer to sell you crimp-on plugs as better! From this angle, any sharing of knowledge/technique which assists punters in avoiding poor system configuration would have to be seen as A Good Thing. Your avoidance of this, and the manner is which you avoided it is limp-dick.
Still, I like Jon's conspiracy theory! However, Paul is particularly polite and helpful, war and friendly, and often on the road, hence this is a little unlikely.
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Rico
quote:
Shotgun under the bed time ?
Cor blimey, no wonder the police spokesman had no comment. Just make sure you don't set fire to the bedding, or smoke yourself out, while you're under there! 
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Martin Payne
A couple of years ago Grahams recommended me to replace my Naim plugs with cramped on things (at a cost of well over £100).
I've recently seen sense and had Naim plugs put back on. Big improvement.
In case you might think this was because of the crimps coming loose, I tried to remove a couple of the plugs and they were still too tight to remove.
cheers, Martin
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by P
Spill the beans then Wreako
Humber? isn't that the place where they've recently endochronologically dated some old Viking boats that turned out to be Egyptian and have hence turned historical theory upside down?
Interesting Hmmmmmmm
Regards p - who am I what am I?
Posted on: 20 October 2000 by Paul Stephenson
P,Humber is a river that runs right into Hull, land of the free, Michael Chapman, Mick Ronson, Wreckless Eric, Red Guitars, Roland Gift FYC, Beautiful south, Nick Barmby, and many more...
P, is it you or is it me?
Posted on: 20 October 2000 by BrianD
This is probably obvious but, in the absence of any informative reply from ‘Pee’, I’ll post this anyway.
For a long time I have attached banana plugs onto cable by ‘twisting’ the bare wires and ‘tinning’ them before soldering them to the plug.
With Naim plugs I have found the best way is to try to ‘flatten’ the bare wire strands as much as possible and to NOT ‘tin’ them prior to soldering into place.
Holding the flattened wire in place at 90 deg’ to the plug simply allow some solder to run down onto the top of the plug, thus filling it. 
I have found this relatively easy to do and I am far from being an expert with a soldering iron.
Sorry if this is ‘old hat’ but at least I’m trying. If there is a ‘secret’ method I don’t see how it could be any easier.
Bri (or Brie)
Posted on: 20 October 2000 by Pete, Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know
Hi,
In theory crimping is better then soldering because solder has a higher resistance than copper so a copper to copper crimp has lower resistance than a copper-solder-copper joint, but one thing solder does is to prevent the joint oxidising, so in the long run its better. But the closer the parts are to each other the less solder between them the lower the resistance is. You should aim to make a good mechanical joint first then solder it to prevent oxidisation.
When I bought my second hand Arcs one started to cut out, it turned out that one connection to the binding posts hadn't been soldered at the factory but the wire was rapped around tight enough to make contact for several years with out causing problems.
pete
Posted on: 20 October 2000 by Paul Stephenson
"'Hull' can be said to be beside the Humber - not astride it as you seem to suggest."
You are absolutely correct, I wondered if I would get away with the vagary of the geography, well spotted.
I used to get mine from BOGUS in the 70's on Spring bank.
[This message was edited by Paul Stephenson on FRIDAY 20 October 2000 at 12:59.]
Posted on: 20 October 2000 by P
I'm working on putting together the complete beginners guide to soldering NAIM plugs and will be offering it for sale on RA's website soon.
Regards P. - Gotta pay for that 52/cap somehow!
Posted on: 21 October 2000 by dave simpson
Mark T. and Paul S.,
You know this would be a good topic to kick-off the VIP forum.
Just post a notice a week in advance informing forum members the date of the forum. I think some type of text prepared by a Naim engineer showing the "ABCs of soldering Naim style" could be posted on day 1.
Day 2 could be the (one) Q & A day with Q's posted in the special forum and answered by the Naim tech (lucky guy/gal) that day only (surely he/she could survive one day with us).
thanks,
dave
