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Bloody XLR Connectors

M

Mick P

Retired and content
Chaps

I use NACA5 which is a bulky cable and need to solder a XLR connector onto to it for the Isobarik speakers.

My problem is that neither I, my son who is an ex TV engineer nor my dealer can successfully solder the bloody things on.

Mine has snapped yet again for about the 10th time.

My dealer has suggested a thinner cable which he claims is as good as the NACA, but I do not want to use non standard cable unless as a last resort.

The terminals on the end of the XLR connector are small and it is all but impossible to get a good hard soldered joint.

Can anyone think of a solution. Are there adaptors for banana plugs / XLR for instance.

Any ideas would be welcome.

Regards

Mick
 
Any ideas would be welcome.
Click to expand...

My guess is that you are not using a hot enough iron - the joint should not give way if made correctly.

There are many here who could do this right for you if you were to send the cable over, i.e. me, Ed, Les, Andy W etc.

Tony.
 
Mick,
Are you persevering with the XLR connection on your Briks just for originality sake, after 10 previous failed connections, you couldn't possibly be doing it for reliability and quality of connection ?
I think i would have been inclined to change the connectors on the speakers way before now. Although you amp will have protection circuits i reckon a straight short circuit with the volume turned up a little would sound a bit ugly.
Is there any way that you can get decent Binding posts fitted to your Briks, maybe fitted in a fully reversable manner in case you wish to sell in the future ?
For good contact surface area and security of attachment Binding posts and spade/ring terminals are always my prefered option.
 
Strip out a bit more than necessary of the sheath. Take one third of the strands and cut them back by one third, take another third of the strands and cut them back by two thirds. Twirl all this together and you should have a tapered wire. Tin the whole length of the exposed wire. The tapered end should now solder easily into the xlr. Just need to make sure it's well heatshrinked after.
 
Hi Mick,

As Tony says, you may not be using a hot enough iron, but I would also sugest you use a silver loaded, low melting point solder.

Not only does this melt at 176 degrees instead of 224 for standard 60/40 solder, but it also flows and adhears to the wire and connector far better and is less likely to turn dry under stress.

If you e-mail me you're address, I will send you some. Alternatively it can be purchaced from Farnell.

Regards,

Colin
 
Chaps

Woe is me.

I had another go at soldering with my little vice etc and I really applied the heat. I had a good joint and duly connected everything up. The LH speaker was still silent as before.

Out of curiosity, I swithed the speaker leads from one 135 to the other and the LHS came alive whilst the RH one went dead. I therfore know that the speakers and joints etc are fine.

I have checked all the connections into the 135's, supercaps and 52 and everythings seems in order.

The balance knob works so I am confused.

Any idea whats gone wrong ?

The dealer is shut tomorrow so I am stuck.

Regards

Mick
 
oh dear Mick,

try swapping the interconnects from the 52 to the 135's, if the fault don't move too then it looks like you've got a dead one.

Colin
 
Oh dear:(

From what you describe it sounds as if one of the 135s is dead. Fingers crossed that it is not too serious and the dealer can sort it out quickly.

I was wondering why you hadn't rung this afternoon, obviously you have more pressing matters at hand!

Regards,

Neil
 
Mick,

The 135s have a protection circuit - if one of them suffered a short circuit due to the two strands of the speaker lead touching or something else it doesn't like it will shut down. Try turning it off, leave it for an hour or so and then try again.

Tony.
 
Once again the quality of Naim shines through blah blah blah

Its singing like a lark.

Thanks for all your inputs.

Regards

Mick
 
Once again the quality of Naim shines through blah blah blah
Click to expand...

Glad you've got your system back up and running Mick.

Having a weak link in the system that has let you down so many times in the past ( was the quote of 10 for creative purposes or actual ?). I don't think that having a connection of this nature, that is so bad that you have to rely on your amplifiers protection circuits to do their stuff is any thing to crow about. For me it was bad enough when i used to whince everytime my fridge freezer or GSH kicked into life as it would send a loud crack/spike through my speakers a few fractions of a second later, worrying about whether my speaker wires would break if i cranked the music up too loud or accidentally moved/brushed against them would be too much for me.
A more robust and permanent connection solution is what you need...
 
Mick, it seems you might need a different soldering iron.

I have had no problems with soldering NacA5 to XLR connectors, I think you might be better investing in a higher wattage iron, I use an RS gas iron** which (i think) is equivalent to 80watts, heats up the Nac a treat. (25 watt irons are useless for anything other than soldering components IMHO )

** You can also get different tips for it...
different size soldering tips
hot air tips ,great for heatshrink
"blowlamp" tips for small heating jobs
plastic cutting tips
etc etc

(that reminds me, i need to order some more tips :) )
 
Sid,

I think Mick has had some other event that has caused his 135 to trip and his immediate thought was that the cable had failed.

The regulated PSU in the NAP250 and NAP135 shuts down if its current limit is exceeded and then remains shut down until powered off and on. It might be possible to do this with the right piece of music at a high volume, or more likely by dropping the stylus or as a result of a cat being stupid.

Paul
 
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