I am considering upgrading from a 155 XS power amp to a NAP 200 DR. As I understand things, this will provide an improved power supply for my 202 pre-amp. But I recall that there are two power supplies that can be upgraded by adding external PSUS - one for the digital circuitry and one for the analog circuitry.
Would the 200 DR negate the need for any external PSUs or or are those still recommend upgrades? Or does the 200 DR only improve the analog circuitry, meaning that adding an external PSU for the digital circuitry cloud be a future upgrade? What PSU would be best for that?
The preamp power supply in the 200DR is effectively the same as the supply in your 155XS, albeit with the later DR regulator rather than the older LM317 based regulator. It supplies both the preamp circuitry and the control and switching (digital) circuitry in the 202.
You can add a NAPSC to the 202. This takes over supplying power to the digital section and frees up the 200DR to just power the preamp circuitry.
With a 200DR (as with the 155XS) you’re only supplying a single 24v rail to the 202. The next step would be to add a Hicap DR to the 202. This provides 2x 24v rails and also removes the need for the 200DR to supply power to the preamp.
I run my 202/200DR combo with both a HiCap DR for the Analogue Side and a NAPSC for the Control Circuits.
With both of these in the system the sound is excellent. However, I have always had mine setup this way and am therefore unable to give any statements about the sound without them in place.
So the only gain from the upgrade would be a more up to date power amp that I assume would out-perform the 155? I think the 155 is over ten years old and I don’t think it has ever been serviced.
The 200 DR is brand new and has been reduced by £1k by the dealer.
The preamp power supply using the DR regulator is better than the older LM317 based supply in the 155, so if you’re going to use the 200DR to power the preamp (rather than a Hicap) then you’ll get the benefit of this better supply. The 200DR is also a better power amp, especially if your 155 is overdue a service.
The latest price list from Naim no longer has the 200, 202, NAPSC or HiCap listed. There may well be some good alternatives out there, and you might find dealers selling ex-dem stock.
Naim do not recommend unNaimed power supplies, and they void any warranty.
Just to add further support to the NAP 200DR being an excellent product, I had a home demo of a variety of products recently including the New Classic NSC222. We dropped it in in place of the NAC 202 through my NAP 200DR and my Dynaudio Evoke 50’s and it sounded really really good.
Of course the new NAP250 sounded better, but the 200DR was quite up to the job and I would be quite happy keeping it in place with the 222 whilst running the upgrade gauntlet.
That probably explains the £1k saving on the 200DR I guess. I also managed to get the open box 202 with a big saving.
I am aware of one brand of unaimed PSUs, and there’s a 202 with one for sale on eBay at the moment. Brand new there’s a small saving from the Naim PSUs and its one less box also.
Definitely. You are getting some oh so precious DR tech into the preamp. And Naim is all about getting the preamp as good as possible. (Sure a HCDR would do an even better job…if you don’t mind eating bread and scrape for the next six months.)
