Hi caps and their sound

Hi-Fi Corner
1

I have a very old chrome bumper, red bulb hicap here with 1 year old new large caps and a hicap 2 with less than 200 hours on it since new and I find the old red led cap has a rounder sweeter sound than the newer one, has anybody else compared and noticed the differences?

2

Was the CB Hicap fully serviced by Naim or Class A, or just had the caps changed by someone else?

1 Like
3

So what sounds “sweeter” to you - the device being powered by the HiCap, or the whole system?

Have you discounted the possibility of wish fulfilment?

4

no, I changed the caps myself, it was a ten minute job.

5

its not that, I always have my pre with a hicap on it, its the difference between the two hi caps that’s interesting.

6

I once tried a SNAPS that I had dual-railed myself successfully on my SuperNait, whose sound with a HiCap was very familiar to me.
I immediately noticed a difference between the SN’s sound with the SNAPS; the amp sounded less ‘forward’ and more nuanced, I’d say more ‘analogue’ if it were not absurd.
I remember that impression very well. The SNAPS sported the same transformer as a NAP110 - it was labelled very clearly ‘NAP 110’.
Just my experience.

7

An old CB HICAP and a more recent Classic HICAP can easily sound slightly different. The CB HICAPs were more variable and age will only have exacerbated that. They also used a Holden & Fisher transformer whereas later ones used a Nuvotem transformer. Also, post-2005/6 everything went ROHS compliant.

Without wishing to breach forum rules re. DIY discussion, did you replace the caps with Felsics as used by Naim? And did you also replace the Tants? I fairly certain that Naim change these at the same time as part of a service and they can have quite an impact on overall sound performance.

8

the large caps that were in the unit were SLCE, these were switched over to Kendeil, nothing else was done apart from contacts being cleaned etc.

9

Of the all the Hicaps I have had CB and Olive has always sounded better than Hicap 2 and Hicap DR.
The same goes with Nap 250 CB and Nap 250 Olive they were much better than Nap 250.2.

2 Likes
10

Opinion alert. :grinning:

3 Likes
11

You didn’t do it properly then, the tants should have been replaced.
I had an opportunity to compare caps and the Kendeils were poor quality and sounded crap. The K’s had different weights between what should have been identical caps!
I put them in the wheely bin.

12

Your original question - “HiCaps and their sound.”
Hope this info’ also helps…

Best wishes
R