According to Roy, if you put the innards of the Flatcap in a smaller box - say half size - it doesn’t sound as good, so spacing things out is good, although I admit it would probably look better that way.
Of course, it does beg the question; what if you put the innards of the Hicap in a big box? In theory it should sound a bit better. How much, I don’t know, and then there’s the extra cost of the big case to consider.
When I was Naim’s export sales manager some years ago I did consult with some distributors and proposed a big box Hicap, perhaps with extra windings to give a double dual rail supply - a bit like a bigger Flatcap2 - to fill the gap in the range between the regular single Hicap and the Supercap. It would have the benefit of a big box which would also be popular in some markets where the odd half width of the regular Hicap was a barrier to sales. Needless to say, it didn’t go any further than that…
Richard, i was only replying to HH, in saying that in terms of amount of parts, there’s not a lot of difference between Flat and Hi. Yes the Hi parts are bigger, and the box is smaller, hence the fresh air in the Flat box. I have no doubt that dropping Flat parts in Hi box would diminish performance, in the same way i have a spare Fraim shelf under my CDS3 and pre amp both.
Just swapped my NAP155XS for a NAP200 (not DR) and hooked it up to my NAC 152XS, but also my Flatcap 2. And although it still has 1 rail 24v and the other 22v it works perfectly. And also a major improvement on the 155XS!
I’d like to hear a NAP200DR with my NAC152XS. My (possibly limited) understanding is that a FC would not be used on upgrade 2 if one was to get the benefit of the DR tech in the NAP200DR.
Correct, you would use the DR preamp power supply in the 200 to power the 152. With the Flatcap in place, the 200 is just powering itself, which does not use DR regulators.
Hi again, I am currently using the 2 rails of my FC2 for my NAC 152XS and this is working perfectly. Now I have the opportunity to buy a NAC 202 but am wondering if I can use this without a NAPSC but with the 2 rails of my FC2? I can’t find the answering the Naim connections guide, so I am turning to you. Second question is whether changing the 152 for the 202 will improve my sound further and whether it will change the character of my sound or just the quality. Thanks again, best regards, Robert
The 202 would be an upgrade over the 152XS. You could power it from either a NAP, or from one of the outputs from a FC2. You cannot however use both outputs from the FC2.
You could add a NAPSC to the 202 in addition to the NAP and (FC2 if used) which would then power the control circuitry leaving the NAP (and FC2?) for rest of the pre-amp functionality.
Thanks Svetty and mr. Dane for your replies. I have a NAP200 (not DR), so I could power the NAC 202 from that and use 1 of the rails for the NAC 202 as well. Would my sound change or would it definitely improve the quality with this set-up?
No, either power the 202 from the NAP 200 or the FC2. In my experience when I had the 202 there was little benefit in using the FC2 as a power supply over using the 200.
Best plan would be to sell the FC2 and get a (s/h?) HC. A NAPSC would also help…
@rjcbz I am prepared to believe that NAC152XS with Output A of FC2 on Upgrade 1 and your NAP200 could be very fine. My experience is that the preamp power supply in the NAP200 is preferable to either of the FC2’s outputs.
Such an arrangement would leave you a spare FC2 output which could go a Stageline for instance, for a killer set which included a turntable.
I wouldn’t consider a NAC202 without a CDX2, NDX or better.
What you are up against here is that the quality of the NAC152XS is largely unknown on the forum.
