Could someone tell what possible consequenses the connection of socket 3 Hicap to a 200 amp has?
I read in this forum that the configuration of the hicap changed mid nineties. Especially socket 3, It does not have a 24V dc output since. And all the manuals advise to use the socket 3 for 200 amp and socket 4 for 202.
But what if by accident an older hicap is used? There is no warning for that in tje manuals.
What would happen?!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
The connection to a power amp should be via a 4 pin snaic / din socket that by its nature does not carry voltage, only left right and negative (and one not connected).
The 5 pin sockets / snaic is the one carrying power and connects to the preamp.
As Robert says, the standard Naim SNAIC4 will carry a 24v rail if it’s available.
As you say, Hicaps of a certain vintage may have a 24v rail on socket 3 which should not be used with a power amp such as the 200, which can provide a 24v preamp supply via its DIN4 socket.
A quick check of the Hicap rear panel should confirm, but if in doubt, use socket 2 for the connection to the power amp.
While you can run the output of two LM317 regulators in parallel to boost the output current, they need to be the same package, the output voltage closely matched & balancing resistors on each output.
In this scenario, none of this criteria would be met. You may end up with the weaker package (in the 200) falling into a protection cycle & ultimately failing.
Certainly not recommended & wouldn’t do you any favours in the sound quality department.
Regards
Neil.
Well, to be honest: I did.
Did not know there was this difference on vintage Hicaps.
Yes, change to number 2 instead of 3 improved sq right away.
But … this was not my question.
This is: What is the consequence - apart of sq?
Want to know why i asked? There is this enormous inexplicable power consumption at home: 10 kWh a day!
Then i found out that the only times power consumption dropped was during periods Naim gear was off (holidays).
A friend said: it’s line your power amp is working full out all day (24 hours at 430W).
Then i found a thread with the socket 3 warning and I changed to socket 2.
Tomorrow I will know about power consumption.
You’re stressing the regulators in both Hicap and 200. It’ll probably do no long term harm, but as you’ve found, will sound better when connected correctly,
Did the amp get warm?
If the amp was consuming 430w for the whole 24 hours in a day that would indeed be a total consumption of around 10kWh but this energy does not just disappear and something in the amp should be getting hot as a consequence.
It’s very likely to be something different which consumes so much energy.
Electric heaters, tumble driers, stuff which generates heat. A plasma screen is bad as well and old computers can melt an iceberg.
A hicap typically consumes only 24 watt. The only Naim devices which consume much more are the digital devices.
When the 200 is connected to socket 3, there will be 2 voltage regulator output connected together. This will cause the regulator that is outputting the lower voltage to shut down. This is because it will sense that there is a voltage at its output, high than the output it is trying to achieve.
So, if the regulator in the hicap is shutting down, one rail of the pre amp will be powered from the hicap, the other rail from the 200.
Ofcourse that is very likely. So That’s what i am trying to find out for a long long time.
Now for the second time i experience a 10kwh correlation between Naim gear on & of. I said ‘correlation’ and not ‘logical explanation’ because it doesn’t make sense.
Unless there is some weird consequense of using socket 3 of a vintage hicap.
Positive: i finally found the power consumption
Negative: i ruined the 200.
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