slapup
Your local friendly bobby
My recently finally completed Naim DIY Integrated Amp! Hope my findings will be encouragement for anyone else who wants to give it a go.
Take A Look!
It is the culmination of many months of ingenuity, stupidity, pink fish idea pilfering, and several bodged attempts along the way, that have finally come to fruition.
The idea behind it was to reduce as much superfluous circuitry and cabling in my SNAPS+32.5+160 system, whilst adding certain no-cost tweaks. The idea was not to have to spend a lot money on esoteric capacitor and resistor replacements, and after hearing the finished result Im glad I dont have to. I have achieved, taking away the cost of a few frazzled(!) buffer and amp boards in the process, a truly no-cost (and in-fact money saving) STONKING improvement in sound quality.
The journey was thus:
Using Neil McBrides site I first of all did all his well-known tweaks to the 32.5 namely a lot of board pulling. Out went the MC boards, buffer input and output boards, relay board, balance knob, mono/stereo switch. This left only the 321 line level gain boards. All these mods resulted in a much cleaner sound.
Next came my SNAPS 2. Dual regd that and completed the DIN mod which takes the output from the pre-amp directly to the power amp thereby bypassing the SNAPS and doing away with a length of cable in the signal path. Again using Neils site, read about him recommending mounting the regs inside the pre-amp box getting them as close as possible to the 321 boards. A thought thus occurred as I was only using the 32.5 as a volume control with a bit of gain, why did I need it?
Hey this is easy! Why dont I add a passive volume control to my NAP 160 (thankfully already serviced!), thus bypassing the need for a 32.5 and SNAPs and all that circuitry! Bonus! Ordered the vishay/dale stepped attenuator off Ebay for a bargain £35 delivered. Removed the front on/off switch from the 160, re-wired this. Flipped the front fascia around so that the resulting hole was the other side getting me nearer to the signal input and reducing the wiring need. Replaced the 4-pin DIN on the 160 with a 5-pin to accept an input, and fitted the attenuator through the front hole, wiring it up to the 160 boards.
Voila! Absolutely bloody awful! Loss of top end detail, dynamics, involvement totally flat, dull and uninteresting. After some Pink Fish questioning, surmised it was the passive pre idea at fault just doesnt work the Naim power amps (despite what some people say!)
Was coming around to this idea of a 1 box solution though very neat I thought. What if I could mount the 321 boards and SNAPS inside the 160 box! Plenty of room in there. A bit of internal re-jigging meant that where the capacitors were I had a bolt hole to secure the SNAPS transformer. This all seemed perfect could mount the SNAPS regs directly to the 321 boards, and minimise all the cabling no SNAICs even.
The result is the picture you can see. In the end, I had to use of set of buffer boards instead of the 321 boards as they produced too much gain. The remaining tweaks involved the removal of the 27R resistor on the buffer boards on Neils site to improve timing and the fitting of a couple of Elna Stargets to bypass the big electros. Ooo, and not forgetting the final touch of a bit of a spray paint!
The result is a one-input integrated, which isnt as debilitating as it sounds. I now use a tuner and my laptop occasional for internet radio and simply plug in their DIN in place of the CD one when required.
The resulting improvement in sound quality is simply phenomenal from my 3 box original set-up. Timing and detail retrieval is now simply amazing, bass is firm and bouncy. Everything sounds so natural.
When i was doing them the mods were a lot of time and effort, but this was because I was making a lot of it up as i went along, and Ive learnt a lot. When listed now the mods dont seem that many at all, and i'm sure i could do it all again in a day or two. What amazes me though is how easy it is and cheap to achieve tremendous improvements.
For instance, my younger brother was looking at an old 32.5,140 set-up. Could have done with a black SNAIC obviously. Again a CD user. My plan now is to simply obtain a 140, another attenuator and a pair of buffer boards. Much cheaper and with a bit of work much much better!
I realise I could go further with component changes, but as I said earlier this was a value for money modding exercise first and foremost. If it hadnt brought the improvements in sound quality it had I might have considered going further as it is though, I can honestly say that I am truly truly happy with the results and dont feel the need to. Liberated at last!
Take A Look!
Take A Look!
It is the culmination of many months of ingenuity, stupidity, pink fish idea pilfering, and several bodged attempts along the way, that have finally come to fruition.
The idea behind it was to reduce as much superfluous circuitry and cabling in my SNAPS+32.5+160 system, whilst adding certain no-cost tweaks. The idea was not to have to spend a lot money on esoteric capacitor and resistor replacements, and after hearing the finished result Im glad I dont have to. I have achieved, taking away the cost of a few frazzled(!) buffer and amp boards in the process, a truly no-cost (and in-fact money saving) STONKING improvement in sound quality.
The journey was thus:
Using Neil McBrides site I first of all did all his well-known tweaks to the 32.5 namely a lot of board pulling. Out went the MC boards, buffer input and output boards, relay board, balance knob, mono/stereo switch. This left only the 321 line level gain boards. All these mods resulted in a much cleaner sound.
Next came my SNAPS 2. Dual regd that and completed the DIN mod which takes the output from the pre-amp directly to the power amp thereby bypassing the SNAPS and doing away with a length of cable in the signal path. Again using Neils site, read about him recommending mounting the regs inside the pre-amp box getting them as close as possible to the 321 boards. A thought thus occurred as I was only using the 32.5 as a volume control with a bit of gain, why did I need it?
Hey this is easy! Why dont I add a passive volume control to my NAP 160 (thankfully already serviced!), thus bypassing the need for a 32.5 and SNAPs and all that circuitry! Bonus! Ordered the vishay/dale stepped attenuator off Ebay for a bargain £35 delivered. Removed the front on/off switch from the 160, re-wired this. Flipped the front fascia around so that the resulting hole was the other side getting me nearer to the signal input and reducing the wiring need. Replaced the 4-pin DIN on the 160 with a 5-pin to accept an input, and fitted the attenuator through the front hole, wiring it up to the 160 boards.
Voila! Absolutely bloody awful! Loss of top end detail, dynamics, involvement totally flat, dull and uninteresting. After some Pink Fish questioning, surmised it was the passive pre idea at fault just doesnt work the Naim power amps (despite what some people say!)
Was coming around to this idea of a 1 box solution though very neat I thought. What if I could mount the 321 boards and SNAPS inside the 160 box! Plenty of room in there. A bit of internal re-jigging meant that where the capacitors were I had a bolt hole to secure the SNAPS transformer. This all seemed perfect could mount the SNAPS regs directly to the 321 boards, and minimise all the cabling no SNAICs even.
The result is the picture you can see. In the end, I had to use of set of buffer boards instead of the 321 boards as they produced too much gain. The remaining tweaks involved the removal of the 27R resistor on the buffer boards on Neils site to improve timing and the fitting of a couple of Elna Stargets to bypass the big electros. Ooo, and not forgetting the final touch of a bit of a spray paint!
The result is a one-input integrated, which isnt as debilitating as it sounds. I now use a tuner and my laptop occasional for internet radio and simply plug in their DIN in place of the CD one when required.
The resulting improvement in sound quality is simply phenomenal from my 3 box original set-up. Timing and detail retrieval is now simply amazing, bass is firm and bouncy. Everything sounds so natural.
When i was doing them the mods were a lot of time and effort, but this was because I was making a lot of it up as i went along, and Ive learnt a lot. When listed now the mods dont seem that many at all, and i'm sure i could do it all again in a day or two. What amazes me though is how easy it is and cheap to achieve tremendous improvements.
For instance, my younger brother was looking at an old 32.5,140 set-up. Could have done with a black SNAIC obviously. Again a CD user. My plan now is to simply obtain a 140, another attenuator and a pair of buffer boards. Much cheaper and with a bit of work much much better!
I realise I could go further with component changes, but as I said earlier this was a value for money modding exercise first and foremost. If it hadnt brought the improvements in sound quality it had I might have considered going further as it is though, I can honestly say that I am truly truly happy with the results and dont feel the need to. Liberated at last!
Take A Look!
