I wonder if I could pick the brains of my fellow forumites.
I have a 282 & NAPSC & two spare shelves of Fraim (one on the brawn side and one on the brain side) I obviously understand that should I choose to use one of these for the NAPSC it will need to be the brawn stack.
But what I really wanted to know was should I put the NAPSC on the fraim shelf or leave it on the floor as far away from the rest of the system as physically possible? The stacking order in the brawn side is 250dr on the bottom shelf followed by XPSdr, space & SuperCap on the top shelf.
Your thoughts are very much appreciated.
There is no ‘should’ here. Why not just try both and decide. I doubt you’ll hear a difference. Putting the question in the Music Room may not be the best place though…
There are dozens of threads on the old forum about this. I must admit that I am slightly cynical that the NAPSC is as toxic as forum mythology maintains however this orthodoxy has been propagated so many times as to have achieved ‘article of faith’ status.
When I had a 282 I initially followed what was then conventional wisdom on here about the NAPSC. That was plug it into a socket separate from the rest of the system and site it off the rack and on the floor. Later following experimentation I came to a different solution. First, on the advice of my dealer, I tried using a Powerline on the NAPSC. That made a surprising and obvious improvement in performance. I then plugged it into the system’s dedicated rings-main. That made another albeit smaller improvement. Finally I sited it on the rack. That too resulted in another small improvement.
The NAPSC has a bigger impact on system performance than is sometimes realised as it controls the relays within the 282. Obviously, putting a Powerline on the NAPSC is costly but the other two options are completely free and I would encourage you to try them.
I have a 282 and did not know there are “issues” on where to put the NAPSC. I have mine on bottom shelf of fraim sitting with the hicap. I must admit it has always been there so no idea if it will sound better elsewhere, I always assumed as it was small and did not have a big transformer in it, it would not interfere too much with the amps. It does have a powerline going to it. I will move it around and see if I can hear any difference in the sound quality. Ignorance is bliss sometimes!
A much maligned little box. It’s effectively a smaller version of the older LM317 regulated PSUs so position it as you would any other Naim PSU. When used to power the logic and control circuitry in the 202 and 282, orientation of the connecting cable makes a difference (not surprisingly) and keeping it on the the same set of power sockets as the rest of the kit. There was a thread recently which made a recommendation (@Mr.Tibbs ) about running the NAPSC cable close to the SNAIC connecting to the pre-amp which echoes the recommendation on the 252 and 552 (where the NAPSC supply function is built into the Supercap / 552 PS) albeit in these cases, the SNAIC is now a Burndy.
Not wishing to offend Bragi, and not wanting to go against ancient Naim lore, mine is also on the floor as far away from the rest of the system as the cables will allow.
As a new owner o was shocked by how much difference it made moving it away from the stack and the rest of my kit, it was not subtle. Mine e remains on the floor and at a distance
Thanks for all the feedback. Taking HH’s advice, this Saturday morning I listened to the NAPSC on the floor and on a separate shelf on the Fraim. Conclusion, to my ears it sounds better on the Fraim.
Can someone help me with the Brains/Brawn definition??? I presume source and pre are brains, power amp and PSUs brawn??? Could make for a very lopsided rack if I have two stacks…???
@Hamiltonnz I am glad you said that. I had a play the weekend and moved my NAPSC about and tried it in quite a few different places, but in the end I think it sounded best on the bottom of the Fraim, a bit away from the Hicap. I must say it was very very marginal though. Just shows everybodies ears/rooms are different as has been stated many times.
