I have ordered a SuperNait and I am thinking I should have ordered the High Cap to go with it. Would like opinions from people that have truly spent time with these pieces and could describe the differences.

Thank you in advance for the kind thoughts on this combo..
K

I have both the Supernait and a hicap. The hicap improves the quality of the bass, it lowers the noise floor and opens the space between notes. IMHO it is a very worthwhile upgrade. You might like to listen to just the Supernait, get used to its sound and then have the fun of the upgrade and its improvement. In any case have fun!

Thank you very much for your input, what cd player and speakers a are you using I just sold my Rowland integrated amp that was 10 years old for this one.

Thanks again.
k

I really liked the SuperCap with the SuperNait, felt that it took it way beyond the original sound for all the reasons mentioned here.

Used it with Harbeth Compact 7ES-3's, Martin Logan Summits and Penaudio Serenades

KenSEA, check my profile for my full system. BTW: are we all on the west coast? cheers. If you are in Seattle, you have two wonderful dealers to work with.

quote:

Originally posted by KenSEA:
I just sold my Rowland integrated amp that was 10 years old for this one.

That's a nice change of pace. ( literally )

Everything has its beauty mark, only time will tell, but thanks

I have had the Concentra in the past as well and it was one of the most beautifully made and designed piece of hi-end kit I've ever owned. ( including its remote )

Exactly

I had SN at home demo sometime ago.

Compared to my own 112x/150 combo and SN was better with a clear but not so huge margin. When I added Hicap to the mix it made very significant upgrade in the clarity and definion for the sound of SN. The step from SN to SN + Hicap was even bigger than from 112x/150 to plain SN.

I was actually quite surprised. Now own 202/200 combo and am very happy with it. However, I bet you can guess what is next on my scope..

In my opinion the hicap is a real step forward. Better bass, space and definition. The "slightly veiled presentation" some people describe is blown away, the sound is way more open.

FC on the contrary is not recommendable (for my ears).

Regards
Frank

quote:

FC on the contrary is not recommendable (for my ears).

Hmmm...interesting...why would it not be recommendable????
What did you dislike???
Could you elaborate a bit???

I hooked my SN to my FC2x....and the sound was "better". Better controlled bass, depth and punch....

@luxen:
at first I had the same impression with the FC2X (I owned both PS - HC and FC - at the same time), but listening a bit longer brought me to another perception. It sounded somehow "artificial" to me, hard to describe. HC was a lot more "natural" sounding with deeper and better defined bass.

I think the FC is more suitable for CD5x, which I had before the CDX2. BTW the combo CD5x/FC2x sounded more natural to me than CD5X/HC (but that's another story).

Just goes to show you how we all hear differently.

Actually I prefer the SN with the FC2x over the HC (not heard it with a SC). With the HC2 the presentaion was definitely more forward and had more separation than with the FC2x- no question and very noticeable and initially very enjoyable. However, with the HC2 the more I listened I noticed that the PRAT seemed too slow and I did not like this aspect at all. This was the same and I listened on 3 different SNs. The FC2x struck the right balance and this is the way I chose to go.

This goes against the "upgrade ladder" of power supplies, but for this particular bit of kit (SN) I found the FC2x to be a better fit.

@gary1:
Interesting. Considering my listening experience I can imagine what you mean. So I don't think we hear so differently. To me it seems to be more a matter of taste.

BTW PRAT IMO is depending a lot on speakers and room. So "too slow" for your room and your speakers maybe could be just right for my ambience. Notwithstanding personal taste.

Hallo,
i have used both the HC and the SC with the SN.

Adding a Hicap to the SN is a big step.The bass, the soundstage and the trancperancy will improve dramatically.The HC adds something like 3D-Sound.

Because i hate the look of the HC, i decided to switch to SC,i must say there is an improvement, but not as big as the improvment adding the HC.
So money/sound the HC is worth it, the SC not.

Interesting thing I tried just now:

I just unplugged the SN from my FC2x, since after adding a FRAIM the bass from my Arivas was kinda too "fat"...loss of Prat too...

So away with the FC2x...great again. Bass more defined, less "fatty/boomy".

I think the FC2x was needed before I had no FRAIM. With all on a FRAIM, the sound of the SN with the FC2x was just a bit "too much"...

So the SN is very very good even without a PS....

Will save money for a HC next ....whatever....

That's interesting indeed, Luxen!

So, it seems that some upgrades don't have to cost money at all. (kinda like 'Less is more'

Which makes more difference for the Supernait, a hicap or a powerline? Do they benefit the SN in similar ways (at least sonically)?

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
Just goes to show you how we all hear differently.

Actually I prefer the SN with the FC2x over the HC (not heard it with a SC). With the HC2 the presentaion was definitely more forward and had more separation than with the FC2x- no question and very noticeable and initially very enjoyable. However, with the HC2 the more I listened I noticed that the PRAT seemed too slow and I did not like this aspect at all. This was the same and I listened on 3 different SNs. The FC2x struck the right balance and this is the way I chose to go.

This goes against the "upgrade ladder" of power supplies, but for this particular bit of kit (SN) I found the FC2x to be a better fit.

Dear Gary,

Whilst I have not had the chance of more than a short listen to a very new SuperNait, your observation about separate Power Supplies chimes with my experiences in other circumstances, such as my experiment with putting a Supercap on my 72 in place of my Hi-cap. This Supercap worked wonders on a Superline later on in a friends set, but though clearly better in some respects on my 72, it unhinged the organic unity of the sound, somehow disintegrating the musical aspect so all that was left was a weighty and obviously Hifi style of presentation [eg. precision of stereo increased] with also brought more weight to the bass-line without any additional propulsion to the musical line.


The moral of this - as I see it - is that separate Power Supplies certainly can improve things significantly, but there may be cases where we, as individuals, prefer some lesser option, given personal tastes and singular factors in our own specific sets at home.

Once again this makes pre-purchase auditioning an essential action, IMO.

ATB from George