@Richard.Dane. Is there a grounding issue with supercap and degradation of sound quality versus 2 HICAPS as far as Naim engineers and industry representatives know?
I may have missed a post from you whilst reviewing this thread and the other “does a power supply really make a difference”, thread…is there any evidence based on actual DATA that this supercap ground loop issue in reference is a concern or issue?
I am in the process of waiting for delivery of a supercap to test, and am just inquiring. I find it hard to believe that naim would design and release a product for so many years that has a grounding issue.
And yes, to all the Naimers out there, I already know, “only your ears can discern the difference”. Given that, I am referring to data that says yes or no as far as testing is concerned.
AFAIK, the dual Hicap on a NAC82 or 28 is a slight fudge as signal only goes through one unit - no way around that. Supercap should be fine though as specifically designed for purpose.
I’m probably not the right person to explain it in greater detail. Better someone with more technical knowledge here. However my understanding is that it’s not absolutely ideal from a system ground perspective as the signal (and hence signal earth) only runs through the one Hicap.
The reason is that the absolute earth reference for the system is the reference for the pre-amp, which is the SUPER-CAP, HI-CAP or FLAT-CAP earth. The signal is routed from the pre-amp to the power supply using the same interconnect that takes the power feed from the power supply to the pre-amp. It also connects the two earths together. This minimises differential voltages caused by interfering electric or magnetic fields being generated between the power feed, signal and earth, so maintaining the correct relationship between signal and earth inside the power supply. The power amp is connected to the properly referenced signal at the power supply output.
With two Hicaps, the 2nd Hicap isn’t directly connected to the common ground point (for the pre-amp, hicap 1 and the power amp) that exists inside Hicap 1. Instead, the connection is there, but via Snaic connection to the 282 and then the Snaic connection to Hicap 1. The resistances and additional cabling involved in this indirect connection means the minimising of differential voltages (described above) related specifically to Hicap 2 is less effective.
Note, this doesn’t mean there is a ground loop when using two Hicaps, it just means the star earthing benefits are reduced for Hicap 2
Haha, true. Waiting for delivery of a Olive SC to go with my Olive 82, which is currently attached to a HiCap-DR. Next step will be a Olive 52 (the temptation).
So classic series is a big jump. Olive series less so. I am contemplating keeping my temporary 82 and thinking of adding another hicap ( the current second one is a cb and has to go back in to the cb system). I could instead, sell the hicap and put the money to an olive sc.
There is some method to Naim’s madness of what comes with what.
Typically the pre amps come with nothing. ( apart from blanking and link plugs) . Noting the 252 above.
The HCs come with the 5 pin snaic
The power amp the 4 pin snaic.
Sources come with their connection to the pre.
Xps comes with its burndy, 555psu no leads. I think the burndy comes with the source ( having no fancy 555 series stuff I’ve never seen what comes with what).
No idea what a SC comes with, but we know it’s not even one snaic.
I stand corrected. Interestingly, when I recently part-exchanged my 282 for a 252 I returned, to the dealer, the 2 SNAICs I was using to power the 282 from my SCDR. One of those was the one I was using with my original HCDR which I part-ex’d for the SCDR a few years back.
It seems I should have purchased two SNAICs with the SCDR, and returned the original with the HCDR.
Neither dealer corrected my error’s.
Anywho, apologies for peddling incorrect information.
