The Supernait 3 with SuperCap DR, that is …
From a little search here I could find some good varied views and not too much actual experience so after having lived with these two for a little while, I thought I’d put this down in a separate thread.
Just to be clear upfront - I’ve settled on the Supernait 3 as a solution for my main system, I like it a lot, it drives my speakers in my room with ease and even pleasure, I am impressed how its well integrated phono works with my Planar 8, it’s a gem really. I am not looking to go separates (been there), so for me this is not really about rationalising options, costs, pros and cons of Naim separates upgrade path algorithms etc. but just exploring to see (and not miss) the best of my current setup.
Not every PSU upgrade has also worked the same for me in the past, e.g. the XPS DR on the NDX2 was slightly underwhelming to justify it. The HiCap DR with the SN3 did help organise music a bit better and added some depth for a relatively reasonable price. Then however, if one is to add an additional PSU and another black box, how about a more … ultimate one, the SuperCap DR? I know many might say it’s not wise, not exactly designed for it and probably not worth it? May be all true. And it might not work out the same in each setup depending on the rest of the system and if the speakers would be capable to translate all the extra goodness into better music? But then not so many have tried?
So I did. But did it improve sound, how and, more importantly, by how much?
Technically, to describe the addition of the SCDR to the SN3, one can use the whole superlative audiophile vocabulary and it would probably be all about right. But for me, more than that, adding the SCDR brought a whole different overall feeling about the music after the bare SN3 or with the HCDR. I was planning and sat tight to capture all things hifi, dissect and be critical (VFM, it blxxdy costs!) etc. but was so completely taken by the first notes that all of this hifi analytics felt silly. What the SCDR really did was make music so much more natural, so full of life and energy and just beautiful. Very beautiful. Very disarming. I thought may be something in the combination with the immediacy and groove (a bit Nait2-like) coming from the Atom HE? I then played some records on my Planar 8 … hm, same!
I am impressed both with the SCDR and, at the same time, with the SN3’s potential, perhaps something for Naim to consider if the SN4 could make even more use of the SCDR? Personally, now that I know how the SuperSuperNait 3 sounds like, I will be treating these 2 boxes as one organic whole thing.
