Hi, I am new to the Naim world so please excuse me if this has been asked before. I recently purchased the above two products (along wit ha NAP155 XS), and am looking to add a power supply to both. The Naim website suggests a Flatcap XS, which seems the natural choice, but online is awash with reviews both ways, with the Hicap being suggested as an alternative. Clearly with these ‘lower end’ Naim products my budget is always going to be a challenge,
In essence, can any power supply be used with any Naim product? Who thought Hifi was easy…
Any help would be much appreciated, and please go easy on me if the questions above are stupid ones!
For your NAC152xs, the Flatcap 2xs is ideal - it allows you to utilise both sides of the supply.
You could use a Hicap, but it’s probably a bit of overkill here. Consider a Hicap when or if you move up the range in future.
Power supplies like the Flatcap and Hicap are designed to be used primarily on the pre-amps but also on phono stages like the Stageline, or the Headline headphone stage, and also on the analogue output stage of some earlier CD players.
The ND5xs can have an external power supply dedicated to it - look at the XP5xs or the XPS2/XPS DR. Yo could even use a 55PS, but again., that may well be overkill here.
I have a FCXS on my NAC152XS. It’s very good with both outputs of the FCXS supplying the preamp when I’m using either the radio or the turntable. So good infact, that I’m not sure that I’d go for Hi Cap, even if I was more flush.
Worth noting is that the FCXS is supplied with one SNAIC5. You will need another one too if you want to use both its outputs.
The XP5XS seems the ideal choice for your streamer.
Have you got a good rack for all these boxes? I’m an Isoblue fan. As well as an XS set fan.
An alternative possibility as a streamer upgrade would be to add a Naim NDAC to it rather than a PSU. There are some good used deals out there if you look around. (Other DACs are also available, of course!)
Many thanks for your replies; most useful. It looks like the Flatcap is the way to go for the NAC152 and I’ve leave the ND5 without it as there appears to be no tangible benefit. I do have a separate Rega DAC which is used for CD’s, but felt the ND5 gave a better response without a separate DAC. It is worth a try or just Ebay it the DAC?