HELP: Prefix-HiCAP-Preamp Connection

Posted by: FangfossFlyer on 11 July 2003

Can you help me?

I recently moved some of my kit around and now I am unsure of how to connect my HiCAP that feeds my Prefix to my PreAmp.

Looking at the back of the HiCap there are 4 sockets 1,2,3,4 from left to right.

Socket 4 is a 5 pin din that connects to the Prefix (OK - no problems).

But which of sockets 1,2,3 (all 4 pins) do I connect to the PreAmp?

I daren't do a trial and error test!

By the way I moved the gear to try feeding the Prefix from my PreAmp rather than from the HiCap which was surprisingly good if not better! But now I can't reconnect via the HiCap to do a comparison!

Richard
Posted on: 11 July 2003 by Richard Dane
Richard,

as long as your Hi-Cap is a later model with no power on socket 3 then you should use socket 3 to connect to the pre-amp using a 4-5 pin DIN cable. This keeps signal paths inside the Hi-Cap as short as possible.

I notice in your profile you're using a NAC 552. I'm not surprised that you say it was "surprisingly good if not better" when connected directly to the powered socket in the pre-amp - certainly our findings have been that this is the preferred way to connect the Prefix compared to a dedicated Hi-Cap and some even prefer it to a dedicated Supercap!

Richard
Posted on: 11 July 2003 by FangfossFlyer
Richard,

Thanks for the answer and direct from 'The Man From Naim'!

Well I will try the HiCap back powering the Prefix to check but I think you are right that the powering from the 552 is better.

So this could be good news....I may have a HiCap for sale in the near future which means....I wonder if the new SNAXO will make any difference?

And by the way, Richard, we met at a recent musical evening at the SORG (York) and I was the guy sat in the middle who felt the new Naim systems sounded different and had some doubts. But these were blown away once I had a loan of a 552 in my system at home and the rest is history!

Thanks,

Richard
Posted on: 11 July 2003 by Richard Dane
quote:
Originally posted by Richard Olsen:
Richard,

Thanks for the answer and direct from 'The Man From Naim'!

Well I will try the HiCap back powering the Prefix to check but I think you are right that the powering from the 552 is better.

So this could be good news....I may have a HiCap for sale in the near future which means....I wonder if the new SNAXO will make any difference?

And by the way, Richard, we met at a recent musical evening at the SORG (York) and I was the guy sat in the middle who felt the new Naim systems sounded different and had some doubts. But these were blown away once I had a loan of a 552 in my system at home and the rest is history!

Thanks,

Richard


Hi Richard,

It can't have been me as I wasn't there but probably either Paul Darwin, or Doug Graham. Glad to hear that your experience of the new kit has confounded any doubts you may have had initially.

Let's face it, we're all music lovers here at Naim and if anything we are our own toughest critics when it comes to the performance of our equipment. If we didn't all believe 100% that the new range built substantially on the strengths of the the old kit then we would never have released it. Performance will always be our number one priority.

Richard