Hello all, I have the opportunity to purchase a hicap olive serviced at a great price. I am wondering from you guys experiences who have tried hicap dr and non dr on the supernait 3 on the differences.
Is it a huge jump going to the dr hicap for this particular amplifier?
Also would the olive hicap improve upon the sound of the supernait 3?
By using a non dr hicap you are bypassing the dr module in your amp with a lower spec regulator that will be more noisy, but the advantage of powering the preamp side is still there. The non dr will sound good but not as clean and open as a dr one… I suspect sideways step rather than upgrade
Go for a HiCap DR, it will remove any doubt as to which one you should’ve gone for. FWIW - i added a HiCap DR to my SN3 and it’s a wonderful upgrade. Also you will have to factor in an additional SNAIC 4 to be up and running.
I run an SN2 with a Hicap DR and would never even think about running it with a non DR supply.
Even if you can get a serviced non DR at a good price, you can easily pick up a late DR for between £800/£900. Why would you have £3000 amp and then cheap out on the power supply, it makes no sense to me.
Try to keep an open mind. Not everybody likes what a Hicap does to a Supernait, so while most prefer it, you may find that it doesn’t make it more enjoyable for you.
An olive Hicap may not be as good as the DR version, but remember that unlike the Supernait built in power supply, it’s still a big fat dual rail supply in a separate box, as opposed to the single rail supply squeezed into the same box as an integrated amp. I suspect that will easily trump any benefit of the DR regulator.
I compared a Hicap and Hicap DR on a Supernait, not a day and night, if buying for myself I would just get the olive
I have a SN3 with a Hicap DR, it sounds fantastic. Got it second hand for £900 with a shortened guarantee from Naim dealer.
It was a major uplift in sound quality.
I’ve not ever used a non-DR so can’t comment.
From what others have said and the availability of second hand DR units at reasonable prices and my own experience, I wouldn’t hesitate to get a DR unit.
Don’t forget to factor in the cost of the snaic. The hicap would normally come with a snaic 5, you need a second one, a snaic 4.
Quick look online, £189 each, so £380 for the pair if one is not included with the hicap.
That was exactly my experience when I ran 152XS/200DR, after adding a FlatCap XS the improvement was easily discernible over the internal DR in the 200. A beefier, dual rail PSU is a more substantial upgrade than going fully discrete. Besides, not all op-amps are evil.
I ran a bare SN3 and and dont feel to add anything.
I believe the Flatcap is still a single rail supply, but still, decoupling it by putting it in a separate box, and freeing the power amp of that burden, is perhaps why there is still an improvement to be had.
FlatCap 2X/FlatCap XS is dual rail without doubt.
Sorry, you are right! They are dual rail.
Thanks guys for your replies. I have decided not to go with it. I did also demo the hicap with the supernait. It definitely decreased the sharpness up top that made the supernait 3 sound less clean. Not much difference in my opinion to the bass department.