This is my second superline i have owned over the years, the first was a 2012 model that i sold about 2 years ago, so probably getting close to needing a service i guess, but this was also being powered by a non dr supercap, but i did have zfoil loading plugs and hiline at the time.
This was used with a few different turntables and carts, from rega p6, p8, p10, until i sold for the rega aura.
Skip forward a few years and here i am back once again with a brand new superline and 5 day old supercap dr, this time i have a morgana cable, powerline and zfoil and the turntable is my thales/simplicity/exquisite ST.
Now running this through my tron seven gt phono stage, just didn’t quite do it, as i couldn’t get the exquisite cartridge to load correctly with the tron. This stopped my cartridge from giving me all it could offer and in reality just couldn’t cope with it, so it was sell the cartridge or phono stage, yes the phono stage went.
I then tried quite a few very expensive phono stages over £10000 and yes they sounded better than the tron combo, these were the rcm theriaa and the emt 128, the emt best suited my cartridge and this sounded fantastic, but it cost a lot and didn’t fit on the fraim, unless it sat on top, so it was going to be difficult to use this.
This brings me to the superline, i chose to try it again because i can load it very easily with just about any load i want, as i can make my own up, plus it still is today one off the best stages, especially when powered by a supercap dr. Yes its expensive doing it this way, but its still far cheaper than the emt i really wanted to pair with my deck and after now trying both, i dont feel the superline is far behind at all, if it is at all.
With the supercap dr, the superline certainly goes up quite a few levels of performance, i can’t remember my older one sounding this good, but then I also didn’t feed it with this quality a deck and cartridge, but what i am trying to say i guess is, the superline with a supercap dr can still keep up and with its loading plugs, its very versatile, ok not the easiest to scroll through as some, but at the same time your not limited.
Its always going to be what phono stage works best with your cartridge that comes out best, but in my merry go round i find it funny that i have come back to the superline and for me both my deck/cartridge and phono stage won’t be changed any time soon.
Just need to buy more vinyl now as its sounding so good
Hi Dunc,
I’ve been following your journey with great interest.
With regards the loads you can make yourself for the superline are these normal resistors you plug in at the rear?
Regards.
Yes you can just take a standard naim plug, un solder the resistor and put a different value one back in.
Right now i am using a zfoil 453, but i also have a zfoil 576 from when i had my last superline.
But i have also made up a 700 as well, but with normal resistor, but right now enjoying the 453, but will also give the 576 ago now that i have the supercap
Have had the Whest ps.30rdt special Edition for a couple of weeks. Running a Dynavector20x2L. Very happy. Significantly more musical and detailed than the Aura. Virtually silent even at wife bothering volumes.
No longer a current model, but I feel no need to look further up the range or elsewhere. Which is a first.
Also spent some time resetting my Tecnoarm VTA, cartidge alignment and tracking force. This was not enjoyable, but after much worry and self doubt I hit a sweet spot. This had more benefit than anything. I shouldn’t be surprised, but it was a valuable lesson.
Have you tried to compare hcdr with scdr for the superline? I auditioned only the supercap dr powered version but I would like to compare it with the cheapest HCDR
There are lots of posts on the forum about SuperLine powered by the pre, by HCDR, and SCDR. The search function will help. It’s one of the few topics where a general agreement seems to emerge. Powered by the 252 or 552 is most often considered more musically coherent than the HCDR, but there’s said to be more detail with the HCDR. People prefer one or the other. The SCDR is nearly always considered a big step from either option and combining the best parts of both.
I run it from the 252 and it’s completely amazing, but haven’t tried the others, so can’t help there
I just did a search on Internet, i couldn’t find all the ones i wanted but you can easily find them too and then just solder them into the original plugs, or you can buy both off them already to go in the air plugs
I have a connected question. My Superline has a 560R and 470pF plugs with my Krystal - I never got a 576R as an option in the bag. This seems to mix well with system (olive 250, 52 and Supercap) and room, though I am aware that it may not be perfect.
I have seen suggestions that 576R is likely to be noticeable better? Any views?
More important perhaps, I have seen comment about Z-foil and Air plugs. What are they and would most people recommend them?
The standard naim plugs that vome with the superline are just standard din plugs with cheap normal resistors in them, they are nothing very special at all and if you look inside one you will just see a cheap resistor soldered between 2 pins.
The zfoil plugs use a much better quality resistor and plug
Hi @Dunc that’s helpful. Do you have a view on whether swapping to zfoils and/ or just getting 576R plug in place of 560 sounds better than where I am now?
I can’t comment on the loading difference on your cartridge, but the higher the resistor the more high end frequency will be allowed through, it could make it slightly more lively and detailed or push things to far only you can decide.
But for sure before splashing out £160 for a zfoil plug, it might be worthwhile spending just a few pence and 5 minutes to solder in a different resistor to a plug you won’t use to try it out.
I found the zfoil plugs to give a slightly better detail over the standard plugs, but it is very slight and really only needed if you are looking for the maximum return and if you are already at the maximum point with the rest off your vinyl kit, if not then i probably wouldn’t bother as the £160 would be better spent on music
Perfect. I won’t try soldering due to the likely consequences, but will certainly try getting a standard 576R to see if I can get the extra brightness, and won’t rush to buy zfoils.
Given my imminent 30-day trial on wiring and what LPs cost, a reason not to spend is appreciated.
16 ohms are a very small difference indeed, but it might make a worthwhile one for you, who knows, and best to try.
However, here you can find very good explanations and some calculators that can show you how much the difference in frequency response would be: http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html
What do you find from unplugging the 470pF plug? That should increase HF a little but with a bit of a phase shift that a resistance increase won’t have.
I’ve found a little added capacitance beneficial to some cartridges/resistive loading combinations but not others and changing the arm and cable effected this preference, presumably because the cable capacitance in parallel changed. The effect was in how the music swung so pick something that can when trying it.
If it’s any help I use a 576R Z foiled air plug on my Krystal. Compared to the standard 560R it’s quite an improvement. The Z foil and air plug just removes a level of hash that you didn’t know even existed and the 576R loading adds another level of delicacy to top end notes. You’ll think the 560R sounds a bit crude by comparison.