Powerline for the NAPSC

Hi Richard,

I have an amplification system very similar to yours. (282+NAPSC+SCRD+250DR) My boxes are fully powerlined (incl. NAPSC, too) and fed via Wireworld Matrix Gen 2.  mains block. Once  I changed back NAPSC's  powerline cable to the stock one for extended testing purpose. To be frank I did not hear any difference. No sound 'degradation' to these ears.

Regards,

PZ, thanks for the input!

and I did, I think it's system dependent. Mine at the time was Elite Rock/Aro/17D3/superline from a supercapped 282 powered aux2/250-2/NBLs, CDX2/555ps as a second source. I tried the 555ps powerline on the napsc and liked it enough I had to buy another one for the 555ps.

I would suggest testing. It is a divisive topic. Many think it is the best place to stick a PL for a good 282 upgrade and others (myself included) found it made no difference on the NAPSC at all. I've even heard mixed signals from Naim themselves with some members claiming Naim told them it was very worthwhile while others (again, myself included) had no such advice from Naim. I really agree with PZ's findings (we have idential amplification chains) - it makes no difference at all.

But soon will come updates from other members assuring you otherwise. One way to test is to put the stock lead back in for everything and then add the PL just to the NAPSC.

I'm one of those who found a PL on a Naspc on the 282 to give a very noticeable performance lift. I was expecting to hear none. That was the first Power Line I had tried in my system, too. 

I can't say I wasn't expecting diverse views.

FZ's suggestion seems exactly right. £550 is an awful lot to spend on a Powerline if you can't hear any difference. Try the 282 with two standard leads for a few days, then put the Powerline on the napsc for a few days. Then take it off and see if you miss it, and whether the music is more or less enjoyable. A quick flick back and forth is unlikely to tell you very much. 

Personally, if several quick swaps did not tell much £550 is not worth it IMO. I did quite a bit of comparison between few boutique power cords costing up to £300 and to my ears the differences were rather minute to the point of indistinguishable. Sometimes I wonder if I am hearing any difference with these cords, whether it's placebo effect.

The only appreciable or tangible differences I heard was the switching between the NAC 202 and NAC 282 (NAP 200 and NAP 250 DR to a lesser degree). The change in sound quality when the NAC 202 was swapped out for the NAC 282 was clear and apparent. Some might say it's a huge night and day difference though I would choose to say an appreciable difference.

Hungryhalibut posted:

FZ's suggestion seems exactly right. £550 is an awful lot to spend on a Powerline if you can't hear any difference. Try the 282 with two standard leads for a few days, then put the Powerline on the napsc for a few days. Then take it off and see if you miss it, and whether the music is more or less enjoyable. A quick flick back and forth is unlikely to tell you very much. 

I very much agree with that advice. In my case the benefit of putting the PL on the Napsc was very obvious within a few seconds of the first song played. Two of us heard it and we were both pretty stunned. On the face of it, spending £500+ for a PL and putting it on a Napsc that costs less seems a bit mad. OTOH spending circa £500 to significantly improve the performance of a pre-amp that costs over £4k seems much more reasonable.

Of course, if you can't hear the benefit it would be silly to spend the £500.       

I've not used PLs, but as chronicled elsewhere I have had signal (!) success with RA powerkords.