Naim Supernait 3 review

I suspect some fishy influence here :joy:

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Back door salesman appreciation society. :roll_eyes: :wink: :joy:

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[quote=“Skeptikal, post:85, topic:21969”]
The SN3 on its own was way more musical and with the Hi cap was more hi fi he sold it[/quote]

wouldn’t that be great?:slight_smile:

Indeed, without the HCDR the SN is very definitely less hifi, but unfortunately also so much less musical too. In fact the latter is where it struggles more

SN2 owner here w/o a HC feeding my ProAc’s and there is definitely music in abundance. Never heard it with external PSU, but I would not say it is not musical, as a matter of fact, it is the first time I read such a comment regarding the SuperNait.

Strange usage of the term HIFI, I thought that even the 500 is not considered much of a HIFI…

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Definitely some sort of adjective snobbery going on:

‘musical’ good
‘hi-fi’ bad

Often also used in conjunction with nostalgia e.g. ‘Nait 2 is the most ‘musical’ piece Naim ever made’…

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Then it must have been that the new brand SN3 that I had 3 weeks connected to the K6 had some manufacturing defect; although, after returning it, it sold well and no one ever complained about anything with it.

SN2 and SN3 are both gorgeous integrated amplifiers capable of almost everything except controlling big low-impedance speakers in high volume mode.

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oops, sorry!! I might have at least whispered it to myself? but in all honesty it’s probably just good old hifi :sunglasses:

Without the HiCap the notes just get played. With the HiCap one can picture the person’s fingers playing the notes. More structure and coherence.

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Absolute!

I added a HiCap DR to my SN3 and it really enhances the decay of notes

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I agree as well. Adding a Powerline helps even more IMHO

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Each time I added a separate ps, be it flatcap, Hicap, XPS or 555 dr, on pre, phono stage, CD player and streamer, it enhanced the sound quality.
The sound was more organic, softer, nicer, more open, with more substance.
I can’t imagine that the SN will not benefit from it. External ps are the spirit of Naim.

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Echo @frenchrooster’s comments, added the Hicap DR to my then XS2 and added a sense of ease and effortlessness to proceedings.

When trading XS2 against SN3 kept the Hicap on advice of dealer and its been a permanent fixture since, had same effect when comparing with and without in my opinion. Vanilla SN3 is definitely no slouch however.

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This sort of comment always makes me think of Jonathan Richman’s wonderful song, ‘I Was Dancing at the Lesbian Bar’.

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Great track. Thanks :blush:

This hyperbole always makes me laugh! You don’t need a toroidal transformer to picture a musician! I can picture Dave Grohl hitting a snare drum without an external power supply; I can picture it with some EarPods. If it helps get you there then fair enough…but it sure as s**t isn’t necessary.

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Oh come on, everything is hyperbole to a certain degree. It’s only an analogy. That’s why it’s called a HiFi. :grinning:

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Yeah, fair enough, it’s just the cheesiness. Like @frenchrooster I’ve yet to hear a Naim PSU make anything sound worse, and the words he used make sense.

But it’s the ‘it’s like the musician is the room’ and ‘the veil is lifted’ kind of stuff 🤦🏽

But you’re right in that a lot of hifi is hyperbole

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Yeah. I’m only sharing my opinion here, and that’s all it is. If you’re allowed to express yours well then so am i, cheesy or not. It’s all good fun.

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I found the HCDR added to the SN2 was not to my liking. I tried it twice, thinking it must be me - given all the positive views. It lost some fluidity and balance - most noticeable on removing it after a month or so.

G

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There was a member here who added a XPS DR to their NDX 2 and could hear no difference. That’s fair enough and probably a good thing financially on their part, but that listener must also realise that they are in the minority camp, including being at odds with Naim themselves…

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