Supercap and 62/72

Can the 62/72, 32.5/42.5 make use of the supercap?

Yes and no.

I know the supercap will run them. The question is whether it will make any difference over a hicap?

Well. My 72 sounded good with a SCDR powering it. It also sounded good with a HCDR.

Personally, id not spend the extra to power a 72/62 with a SC over a HC. I have no doubt others will tell you different.

Thanks. I’m going the other way. I have a spare classic supercap running a 62. Thinking of selling and getting a cb hicap. Just wondering if I would lose much.

Doubt it.

The Supercap can make a surprising difference over a HICAP. On a Prefix, for example, the difference is marked, to the point where, once you hear one powered from a Supercap, it’s hard to go back to a HICAP. @RonToolsie tried a Supercap on a number of pre-amps and also, IIRC a NAIT3, with some surprising (or perhaps not so surprising) results.

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Thanks Richard. Not a lot of monetary difference between a classic supercap and hicap, so probably just stick with it. Just re aaranging kit and wondered.

Just take a look inside a HC and SC. Not much difference. Transformer is the same, caps the same….Now, 2 HCs vs a SC is a different question, but a single HC over a SC …..only benefits if you can use a burndy. But you cant with a 72 or 62.

So whilst it is easy to day a SC makes a difference over a HC ( im this circumstance), id want to understand the engineering behind it.

Isn’t a supercap a lot more than a cb hicap? Like 3x the cost at least.

The two places where the Supercap made the most profound differences were…

  1. The Prefix…..adding a SC to the Prefix made it unrecogizable compared to either a Hicap, or even using the powered input in the 552 -which SHOULD have been at leaast as good as a SC, but in practice was miles behind it.

  2. Surprisingly enough…the CD5. A bare CD5 sounded quite sedate and plump next to the CDS2 that it was compared with. Adding a SC to the CD5 took it much closer to the CDS2 than you would have thought.

Keeping closer to the OP topic, I have also tried a SC with a 42.5, 102, 112, 82 and of course its natural companions the 52 and a SNAXO 362.

Both the 42.5/Hicap and the 102/Hicap were severely outclassed when slotted into a 6-pack DBL, sounding very rolled off at both frequency extremes and lacking in dynamic swing and pitch accuracy. Adding a Supercap took the 102 to a point where it was enjoyable with the DBLs. The 42.5 was much better for it, but still out of place, losing out in dynamics and clarity.

The 112/SC was probably the worst pairing I tried a SC with. Even the SC could not rescue the 112. There is a reason why the 112 is probably Naims least regarded product. And used as its natural pairing of a 112/150 (no external PS), gave what could charitably called an insipid presentation. And this was no fault of the 150 either-because that rocked when I tried it with a 552.

The 82/SC I thought was decent, but at maybe 80% the cost of a 52/SC, it only gave 25% of the 52’s performance, so was far from VFM.

I think one ex-forum member (Kuma) had a thread called ‘Stupid Supercap Tricks’ where her favorite application of the SC was with a Nait 3R. Like the CD5, this was a most unexpected result.

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1000 ish less commission for a sc. 400 plus costs, plus a service for a cb hicap.

Thanks Ron. Yes, silly me, it was @kuma who tried the Supercap with the NAIT 3R.

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Ha! Ricahrd! You have remembered! It was fantastic! :star_struck:

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Will there ever be a Supercap replacement?

For those not lucky to already have one ?

You mean they are going to increase in value? I shall start hoarding now! :grinning_face:

I would doubt it, unless Naim return to the old PS arrangement. As the Supercap can’t be used on any current Naim product, the NPX300 power supply is really its replacement, as well as for the XPS.

Usually plenty of Supercaps available second-hand. I picked one up myself last month for what I felt was a great price, especially as it had recently been properly serviced.

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Like Richard and other participants, I completely agree that Supercap greatly improves sound quality; Prefix and Headline are excellent with SCAP.
I have been using a Scap DR with my 72 for several years, regardless of the price difference. I have owned both the 82 and the 52, both of which are excellent, yet I have returned to the good old 72. With Scap, the music sounds better across the board, with a wider soundstage, greater depth, smoothness and expressiveness… I speak as a convinced user. :grin:
Compared to Hicap or Hicap DR, which are nevertheless interesting,
and proportionally speaking, Hicap plays music more ‘noisily’. Non-DR Supercap is also better than HCDR.
Aware of the price difference, I gave my first Scap to a friend who traded me his Hicap DR + cash. I listened to music less, so I bought a Scap in DR again, and I regained my good mood and appetite for listening.
It seems to me that the differences between Scap and Hicap depend on the size of the cases. The electromagnetic fields are less concentrated in Scap, which benefits the regulations and the grounding.

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Funnily enough, a HICAP placed into a full width case performed better - but the full width case added a fair bit to the cost for only incremental improvement. A Supercap was still much better.

Many years back I advocated for something priced between the HICAP and Supercap - a HICAP in a full-width case that could provide two dual-rail supplies, either to power two items or to fully power a NAC282. A few of the export markets felt this was something they could really sell, especially as it better matched the aesthetics of the other full-width kit. Unfortunately I think the price would have had to have been too close to a Supercap to make sense.

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Yes it makes a big difference to those Pre amps .

The biggest transformation of all the Pre amps I have tried with a Supercap was the Nac 82.

Phonostages Prefix and Superline are also transformed with a Supercap.-

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