Yes, when the NAT101 appeared the reg boards on the SNAPS had adjustable voltage pots fitted, that way the SNAPS voltage could be “tuned” to the NAT101 head unit for best accuracy. It also mean’t you could drop the voltage right down to provide power to the Walkman WM-D6 Pro.
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I picked up a mint Quadraspire for $125 if you can believe it, and a mint CB hicap. Also finally found a mint boxed 72. The 72/hc/135 is now complete. I hope you don’t mind an olive interloper.
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For the avoidance of doubt, it sounds stunning 
How’s the 72 compare? Was it a 32.5 before?
Way back in the day I swapped a 12N/160 bolt down for a 32/Snaps/Naxo/3 x250 bolt down. I had a pair of BC1s with the 12N/160 combo, and naturally tried out my new 32/Snaps/250 with them.
This was a long long time ago, but I do remember being very impressed with the uplift.
My journey with BC1s was
LP12/Grace707/Supex SD900/Supex MC transformer - Kenwood KA6400, (in Blighty you called them Trio).
Then the Kenwood was changed to a Spendor D40, my first decent amp.
The Spendor amp
gave way to a 22/120 combo, giving a huge lift. But the bug had bit and the 12N/160 rapidly took residence. I stopped there for a while.
The opportunity for the active briks came along, so I went for it. But being in the trade I had many opportunities to compare the 12N/160 against the 32/250 boltdown. If my memory serves, the 250 was more solid, dynamic and tuneful.
Some incidentals though really stick in my mind, particularly with the benefit of hindsight.
Firstly I never considered trying the Snaps with the 12/160. Remarkably I had the esteemed Mr JV in my lounge looking at my active system, and he espied my 12/160 moldering in the corner. He opened it up to declare his girlfriend had done the pcb soldering, suggested I clean the pots, change my snaic, and hold onto the 160, but no mention of pre amp power supply importance. He did tell me a lot about how the regulated power supply of the 250 was light years ahead of the unregulated 160 though.
I also compared the MM and MC inputs on the 32. By this stage I had a lovely Ortofon T30 step up. The MM boards with the Ortofon was so much clearer, quieter, and extended than the MC boards with the Supex. So my comparison between the 160/250 was always in the context of 12N/160 versus 32/Snaps/250. I simply never thought to mix and match. It was one “amplifier” against another.
I did try the two combos driving Gale GS401S and Spendor BC3s. The 250 always sounded better, not just because of fantastic grip and wellie, but finesse and emotion. We didn’t use the acronym PRaT, we just ran around commenting that we could “feel the beat”, often in a very bad Scottish accent. Bloody Ivor!
I did also hear the 12/Naps/250 combo a few times, but not in my lounge for extended listening. Honestly, we weren’t tuned into pre amp power supplies back then.
When the CB range came out I got to compare bolt down to CB many times as I diligently went about upgrading my clients. There was a stack of bolt down in Sunny Perth, so many hours spent to and frowing. The CB 160 and 250 were in my opinion so much better than the bolt down versions. The bolt down just sounded “slow”.
It was also at this time I sold my monument to music and slipped down to a 42/100. And finally got into trying power supplies as the HiCap appeared. Even on my lowly Kans the HiCap brought more to the music than a Snaps. And my 42 wasn’t even dual rail.
I know there is a lot of love for the mellow bolt down sound, but IMHO they were great in their time but very much outclassed by the CB range.
Having heard a good condition CB 32.5/HiCap/250 against my 202/200 classic recently, (only with an NDX) at home on my S400s I now feel simularly about CB. Lovely but…
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Thanks for taking us back through your journey - really enjoyed reading that.
Do you recall what he recommended ref the SNAIC?
TBH I think it was to just get a new one. My active system was the first in Australia, and I acquired it when it was 18 months old, my boss traded it in. When JV came out to my home everything was about 4 years old, (the 12/160 maybe had 6 months less on the clock). They were not the locking ring snaics.
I still have that snaic! I just remembered! It’s in the loft. I will dig it out and take a photo. Not now though. I am sadly laid low with Covid.
GRRR
Thanks Steve - hope you get well soon. Seems a lot of it around (the UK) at the moment.
I use 12/BD160/Briks in my office. It’s a strange relationship which I don’t fully understand. I keep trying a CB and Olive HI-CAP with it, and I also keep trying the 32.5/HC/CB160, as I initially get a kick out of the added control / clarity and you’re right that the boltdown amps are a bit slow. However, once I get used to the improvement, I start getting a bit bored of the music. When I finish an LP side, I’m sometimes happy to remain in silence, whereas, with the old amps (as with Nait), I’m always ready for another side. Different strokes I guess.
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Yes, I get that. When I listen to music that’s a bit frenetic, like RATM or some good old Clash, a bit of “mellow” would come in handy. Which is counter-intuitive because music like that should be in your face!
But you have to take the long view. Over a period of time the option which works best reveals it worth to you.
I have only just dropped the 202 into the mix, and it’s only a stopgap. I had expected to get a 282, but alas, the deal fell through. I suspect the 202 is a bit raucous. I have decided to bypass the 282 and go with a 252, (although a big class A Luxman was fantastic, and is still in my thoughs), so there’s a silver lining.
Every time I hear good live, (small club, great band, respectful audience), I think of how “soggy” my sound is. Yet really at home it’s pretty immediate.
So maybe by Christmas I will have a system finally tipping into music territory rather than hifi showcase.
That looks great @snarfy. I have 2 x 135s CB in my system. What do you make of them compared to the 250CB?
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It might be that the perception of sweetness in some pieces is the same as what you refer to as slow. I have not found any of my pieces “soggy” but it might be due to good servicing and modern daughter cards. I found that using an external phono stage and link wires in the phono input improved things dramatically and that using a H/C as the power supply in a 12S (single rail)/160 made a dramatic improvement.
The comparison of Bolt Down and normal CB is very interesting, I must get my bolt down 250 in the same location as the normal 250 and try it.
There is still life in the CB units.
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Yes it was a 32.5 before. It has been reunited with its hicap and 250.
The 72 is slightly more sophisticated. Where the difference stands out (to me at least) is coherence in the bass lines. It’s more articulate in the lower registers.
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Hi Dan, the 250 was rebuilt a couple years ago whereas the 135s have never been recapped, but keeping that in mind one thing that does stand out is how effortless the 135s make the music sound.
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I’m not sure if the 32.5 is less sophisticated than a 72 if everything was made equal? All of the pre-amps are based on a mother board plus daughter boards and it is the daughter boards that differ. Various series boards have been used over time e.g. phone boards from Series 1 to 5 and are the ones that are re-capped during a service. The 72 does have 729 timing boards and these can be fitted to the 32.5 and 32 and possibly the 12 during a service? I must try that!
I think that it was Richard who posted that component variations accounted for differences of SQ in older pre-amps and so using current series boards should improve older pre-amps and reduce the variation. I must put the latest boards in my 12 to check this out as I do think that the bolt down case has advantages because it doesn’t ring,
One other positive is that all of the bolt down tops that I have seen have some damping material on the underside that gently presses on the daughter boards and keeps them in place. This is very effective as the boards are orientated left to right rather than from to back. Often draught excluder is used so I assume this was not factory original. The overall effect is to provide a relatively quiet, vibration free zone for the sensitive components, now where have we heard of that?
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I have seen something similar on much more recent pre’s, where there was a plastic push on strip on the top of the daughter boards.
Yes, I have seen that on boards from a 72
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That matches my experience. I really liked 72/HC/160 in the Kan system but post service, the 72 sounded very HiFi although I expect burn in would have helped. I think it’s the only time I felt a service wasn’t an improvement straight off the bat.
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The original soft/airy foam in my 12 had begun to disintegrate so when Naim took it in for a service they replaced it, but used 3 layers of much denser foam. This put a lot of pressure on the cards once the screws were in but the result of the service was very positive so I didn’t question it. Several months later I listened with the lid off for some reason and it clearly sounded more musical. I was able to gently remove 1 of the 3 foam layers and this now puts the cards under little or no pressure and defo sounds better to my ears. There was a tense strain to the music before and so it now flows more naturally and makes more sense too.
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