Tuning Tip #1
This series of tuning tips aims to make more music come out of your hi-fi for minimal or no financial investment.
Here’s one idea that works with Naim systems such as the one I’ve owned for the past 20 years or more. Please note that you will only benefit from this ‘tweak’ if the rest of your system is fully up to scratch. If it is sounding ‘off’ then this might or might not rescue it… but it’ll sure help if you start from the basis of a decent sounding system in the first place.
Undo the locking rings on all the DIN plugs used throughout the system and then withdraw the plugs about 1mm to 2mm from the sockets. And that is it. You have disrupted the mechanical connection through which vibration travels into the electronics and messes with the equipment’s performance.
To enhance this effect, check the routing of the ‘loosened’ cables and make sure that none is twisted or being put under any sort of mechanical stress. Ideally they should be hanging loose and free for best performance.
This isn’t as nutty as it perhaps sounds. Look at Naim’s £500+ Hi-Line interconnect in which the conductors are effectively mechanically decoupled to prevent vibration making its way through them into the sensitive electronics in the pre-amplifier, for example. Even so, ‘relaxing’ the connections made with the Hi-Line’s plugs can still make an appreciable difference.
It is not so easy to do the same with connections on the multi-way Burndy leads but you can ensure that they are dressed smoothly, are not being forced into stress – through twisting that re-routing would alleviate – and that they are not in contact with other leads that might be feeding vibration into them.
Always, however, make sure that all electrical connections are fully maintained. That’s why a mm or two is all the mechanical disconnection I would recommend.
