There won’t be a Hicap replacement per se. The same PS will power both streamers and preamps. That is the NPX300 that’s already released. We will have to see what dedicated preamps appear, but it would seem logical that to complete the 300 series will need a preamp of at least 252 level in old money.
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Yikes. Exactly what I suspected. Thanks, HH.
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Issue for many will be the 300 is at least 3 times price of the HiCapDR !!
Besides not all will want a full case rather than half case
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I tried the new mojo 2 as a home system dac, sounds good BUT each morning when I went to play Roon it had turned itself off (had to physically turn it in). Have you found a work around to this or just making do?
True but never say never. After all, you could say, “If a 222 was coming, surely the time was when the 272 was discontinued, not several years later after a load of people had shopped elsewhere.”
I’ve given up thinking there is a discernible logical pattern to release timings. I’d not put money on any bet that said there was, or was not, more 200 series, a 100 series or anything else.
I’m sure that Naim have a product roadmap. They just aren’t going to tell anyone outside of HQ.
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how do you mean turned itself off? as soon as the dac/poly is powered up it appears on my phone in roon as an available unit so i just pick that rather than the nova.
It works great but each morning it is powered down and before I can use it I have to press the power button on the mojo and wait a few seconds for volume lights to come on and then it works again just fine. I have it powered via the micro usb. Maybe if I power via usb-c it might not power itself down when inactive?
I am not using it with a poly but with a Bluesound node.
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Yeah that’s probably it then. As mine is not on Roon until on and my qutest would not appear unless Roon sees the node and dac as one endpoint. If the dac is off Roon is looking for an analogue output stage…
Do you actually want it on all the time?
If you don’t require the portability or headphone output a Qutest may be preferable.
Yes obviously that’s the idea, not having to turn it on each time it is to be used would be a big plus. I just wanted to make sure there was no way around this before I discounted the device as viable for my needs. Qutest does not make sense in my situation as happily have an nDac. Mojo was attractive for a secondary system as 1/3rd the price.
Should Naim be allowed to discontinue/replace the HiCap?
It must be, in its various iterations, Naim’s longest standing product by some considerable distance, and has been in the range (almost) from the very beginning in the Salt Lane days.
It’s a good question. But impossible to answer. After all, if they have a more affordable replacement that we haven’t seen yet then, yes. On the other hand, if the 300 power supply is where they start, that would be a dramatic shift in philosophy from, “a quality external power supply always matters” to “a power supply makes no difference unless you spend 5 grand”. And then the answer would be, no.
I don’t think we’ll know the answer to that for a long time.
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I don’t have - and I have never owned - a HiCap, but I feel that it’s part of Naim’s heritage, and should be kept in the product line.
By the same token, I can’t imagine Linn dropping the Keel from their range for their own tonearms (although whether the Keel/A for the ARO can live on much longer is doubtful, if it hasn’t been dropped already, that is).
Honestly it’s one of their best products. It powers just so many things and since 2012 with DR. Sure, the vast majority of what it powers have all been discontinued over the years but it used to be the high performance power supply for all your sub Supercap needs.
You could always be sure if you sold something that used a HC, you’d have something else to use it with soon enough. I stopped using one on my 282… got a HeadLine2. Stopped using a Naim headphone amp… but then needed a StageLine. Where would I be without this little wonder box?
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Might be worth checking with Chord directly, I run mine in a similar context with a Poly connected but I only use mine off its own battery and in Line Out Mode. I think after a period of time it powers itself off to protect the battery, whether it’s being powered over USB or not. I’m not aware of any other specific power modes (like always on) and I’ve had mine for years (Mojo v1). The Mojo can only be powered over the dedicated Micro USB port, once it’s fully charged it goes in to Desktop Mode and bypasses the battery, data input priority being USB Micro → USB C → Coax → Optical. Hope you find a workable solution.
I may yet get a HiCap, to be used in a ‘bedroom. system’ that I’m plotting to put together.
Not true, it arrived in 1984 as an upgrade to the SNAPS.
That still makes it nearly 40!
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At some point there will probably be not a great deal of point in continuing to offer a product that is pretty much useless on its own and cannot be used with any other current product, especially when there must be so many older examples of all ages out there, with many available secondhand at any one time.
FWIW, Naim’s longest running product - at least in name - is the NAP250, which of course continues into the New Classic series.
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I’m fairly certain Naim have already said it’s just the NPX300 now, for streamers and pre-amps (presumably phono stages too) and the 555PS, with the HiCap, SuperCap, FlatCap and XPS discontinued.
Maybe the new pre-amps will also power the phono stages, or have an onboard phono.