No wonder the consolidation to the npx300, makes things a lot simpler - snaps, flatcap, hicap, supercap, xps etc no wonder people are confused what goes with what.
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It’s not difficult to cable up a system like mine. Cable dressing is more difficult than figuring out where everything goes.
On the other hand, my Nova is extremely simple. Plug in the speaker cables and hook it up to the mains. Job done!
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So far… I have managed to connect a SNAPS, a HiCap and and XPS, without problems… 
I still hope to be able to connect a SuperCap, one day…
I think the confusion is when you are browsing ebay or wherever and spot a bargain power supply …… um, is this even compatible with what I have?
The OP found a cdx with hicap. Maybe it wasn’t a cdx. Or a hicap. Or offered as a combo.
Years ago I drove to Chandlers Ford to buy a Cyrus psxr - except it was the original psx and not compatible with my amp. They sold me a psxr with 20% off.
Once again thank you to everyone who responded to my question. I think I will be going sticking with my 3.5 plus the hicap I have picked one up at a good price on the second hand market. Appreciate this is always a risk. However I will still cast out an eye for the CDX and maybe at some point the matching xps.
Thank you all and a happy Christmas
Check the history of the Hicap with Naim, and if it’s not been serviced within its service interval, then get it serviced. A Hicap at the end of its service interval can sound awful. Easily rectified with a service.
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Hi Graeme. Thanks for the heads up on the servicing.
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I lived with a CD3.5 for a decade and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had the opportunity to upgrade to the CDX (no PSU), and I stuck with the CD3.5. Eventually I picked up a CD5X and enjoyed that for several years before going to streaming. I found the CD5X to offer a more balanced presentation than the 3.5. Where the 3.5 was 80% fun and 20% refinement, the 5X was more like 50 / 50.
While the CDX had greater detail, bass weight, clarity, etc… it was so ruthless with the CD’s I had that were not well engineered, that it sort of sucked the joy out of listening to a large part of my CD catalogue (which was nearly 400 deep at the time). In the end, I kept the 3.5 because it made so much music sound good, and gave up relatively little in terms of bass, detail, grip, etc.
I did hear the CD3.5 with and without a flatcap at the dealer in the context of a fully active system, and my recollection is that the addition of the flatcap clearly improved the 3.5 is every way, however, that was some 20 years ago, so caveat emptor!
On a related note, have you thought about getting a streamer instead? A used ND5X should be quite affordable, even compared to the older CD players, and to my ears, the current gen streamers are substantially better than the CD players of 15-20 years ago. I recently compared the Uniti Star playing CDs compared to the ND5XS2 and it was a completely different experience with the new streamer. In fact, compared to my Rega P6 with the Ania cartridge, to my ears the ND5XS has it beat (just don’t tell the hardcore vinyl guys…)
Hello. Thank you for your feedback. Much to think about. We must ask ourselves is it the hardware or the music we wish to hear to, and that obviously is subjective. If there is no joy to be had then what is the point? There needs to be balance. Its a journey of discovery, complete with mistakes. Its been bloody good fun so far!!
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