Upgrading my Naim system

The contemporary flatcap to your system is the flatcap 2 which had one 24-0-24V output for the Nait 5 or 112 and if I remember correctly a 22-0-22V for the CD5 not the 2x which came with the x suffix amps and CD5x which had 2 of 24-0-24V outputs. There was an earlier olive flatcap, the one you want is the first of the black ones. There is a review on TNT audio of the CD5x  which compares it to. CD5 with a flatcap 2 and there is a link at the end to a review of the 2x. Copy this into your browser without the quotes.

"http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/naim_cd5x_e.html"

What weight you give the review is up to you.

There is no commerse on this forum and any advert or hint of one gets removed. Naim have some care for their dealer network. Have a look at the forum rules.

thanks for sharing this link.

I guess I should look for the first generation FlatCap2 for my system.

Later generation FlatCap 2X and FC - XS are maybe not suitable for my NAC112/NAP150 HiFi?

Thanks

The flatcap 2x would be my suggestion. I'd also try to swap the 112 for a 122x, which is much better yet should not cost very much. 

Hi

I don't think I want to swap to a newer pre-amp  as I won't get any money for my old NAC112.

I will stick with what I already have and add a FlatCap if I can find one???

If there is no buy/sell section on this forum.

Where in UK can I find a used FlatCap for my HiFi?

Are there any good webshops?

I know about Tom-Tom Audio, they never have any FC's

Any dealer, ask them, or to mention a few (not sure its allowed)

Ebay

Pink fish or wigwam

Audiomarkt

I would always seek the advice of a Naim dealer when using 3rd party wires.  Chord are universally recognised for being compatible with Naim and some of the guys do really well with Tellaqurium. I know guys who swear by Supra with other gear but I'd take advice. 

Welcome to the Forum. 

Regards,

Lindsay

There are various used hifi dealers around, if you read the forum rules you'll see why we're not sending you directly to them but Google will find a lot of them and even a metasite or two. Search for what you're after.

yeti42 posted:

There are various used hifi dealers around, if you read the forum rules you'll see why we're not sending you directly to them but Google will find a lot of them and even a metasite or two. Search for what you're after.

hifi shops are in business with naim company sellling their products.

is that an offense for forum members recommending links for good webshops selling used naim stuff?

It will be hard finding an FC2, don't want to buy one from ebay as i don't know what i'm buying?

Just heard the drums emanating from St Albans. No Flatcaps but they do have a very reasonable 122x listed. I my experience, you can always rely on the drums. 

The Strat (Fender) posted:

I would always seek the advice of a Naim dealer when using 3rd party wires.  Chord are universally recognised for being compatible with Naim and some of the guys do really well with Tellaqurium. I know guys who swear by Supra with other gear but I'd take advice. 

Welcome to the Forum. 

Regards,

Lindsay

thanx for your warm welcome

my buddy who's the no.1 geek for hifi used to have a chord hifi many years ago.

i asked him recently about chord company cables if they are the one and same company for chord electronics?

they are not he replied, they are 2 different companies

I was thinking of getting a better mains lead from chord company.

my buddy told me i was buying snake oil if i wasted hundreds of pounds on a chord cable!

it got me confused about chord so i didn't buy any cable from this company.

so i stick with my supra lorad cables.

don't know what is good or bad mains lead for naim???

All you need is the mains lead that comes with the Naim equipment. You say you don't want a 122x, which is fine, but the money you'd seemingly happily spend on mains leads you don't need could actually be put towards something that would make a real difference. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

All you need is the mains lead that comes with the Naim equipment. You say you don't want a 122x, which is fine, but the money you'd seemingly happily spend on mains leads you don't need could actually be put towards something that would make a real difference. 

if i buy a 122x what to do with 112?

who's going to buy it as it's very old?

i won't get anything  for nac112???

Stick it on eBay. 

I bought a 112 in 2011 from my Naim dealer.  A year later, he graciously gave me 80% of what I paid when I traded up.

Nothing wrong with a 112 -- still desirable and marketable.  I used a FC2X with mine.  I kept the FC2X and now use it with a HeadLine.

Nick

if it were me, i'd get a s/h Hicap to power the preamp, which in turn will improve the power supplied to the Stageline. also, as Nigel says, if you can upgrade the preamp for relatively little dough, then that's a much better option than faffing about with cables. also also, if there's power filtering/surge protection/what-have-you on the mains block you're using, the standard advice on here is to remove it and plug your equipment directly into the wall sockets. also also also, what cartridge are you using with your record player? do you listen mostly to CDs or to vinyl?

joe9407 posted:

if it were me, i'd get a s/h Hicap to power the preamp, which in turn will improve the power supplied to the Stageline. also, as Nigel says, if you can upgrade the preamp for relatively little dough, then that's a much better option than faffing about with cables. also also, if there's power filtering/surge protection/what-have-you on the mains block you're using, the standard advice on here is to remove it and plug your equipment directly into the wall sockets. also also also, what cartridge are you using with your record player? do you listen mostly to CDs or to vinyl?

I still use the factory supplied ProJect 1.2 cartridge, I still haven't had it replaced after maybe 13 - 14 years.

I haven't used the record player very much over the years.

I recently had the drive belt replaced to a new ProJect belt and lubricated centre hole  with ProJect's own LubeIt  oil which holds the centre plate in place with metal rod tap.

Most of the times I listen to cd's, i'ts not that very often I listen to vinyl.

I have the custom order Supra mains block  with 6x sockets.

MD06 has surge protection against lightning and NIF = non intrusive filtering on sockets 3 - 6

Here is the swedish link from manufacturer MD06-EU/SP MK3.

http://www.jenving.com/product...eu-sp-mk3-3024000030

my custom order mains block has socket 1 and 2 custom made as NON filtered which is mainly used for amplifier and my future purchase of a Naim PSU.

sockets 3-6 are (NIF) non intrusive filtered, I have connected my  dvd player, 2x vhs players,  vinyl record player and my Naim CD5.

The text below is a copy and paste from manufacturers site.

" The mains block may optionally be custom taylored. Standard, the blocks are configured with one (1) unfiltered socket (the first from mains in connector) and the remaining with NIF-filter for the models MD02-EU mkIII up to MD06-EU Switch mkIII. The longer mains blocks, MD08-EU and up, offer as standard the two (2) first unfiltered and remaining NIF-filtering."

thanks

NickSeattle posted:

I bought a 112 in 2011 from my Naim dealer.  A year later, he graciously gave me 80% of what I paid when I traded up.

Nothing wrong with a 112 -- still desirable and marketable.  I used a FC2X with mine.  I kept the FC2X and now use it with a HeadLine.

Nick

in my country HiFi shops lowballs their customers when they trade in HiFi gear.

they are not very generous on value for used stuff.

I bet there are special trade ins offered by Naim dealers in UK?

Unfortunately we don't have these generous special trade in's for Naim in my country

kowalski posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

I would always seek the advice of a Naim dealer when using 3rd party wires.  Chord are universally recognised for being compatible with Naim and some of the guys do really well with Tellaqurium. I know guys who swear by Supra with other gear but I'd take advice. 

Welcome to the Forum. 

Regards,

Lindsay

thanx for your warm welcome

my buddy who's the no.1 geek for hifi used to have a chord hifi many years ago.

i asked him recently about chord company cables if they are the one and same company for chord electronics?

they are not he replied, they are 2 different companies

I was thinking of getting a better mains lead from chord company.

my buddy told me i was buying snake oil if i wasted hundreds of pounds on a chord cable!

it got me confused about chord so i didn't buy any cable from this company.

so i stick with my supra lorad cables.

don't know what is good or bad mains lead for naim???

Okay if you're mate says Chord stuff is snake oil and you agree with him then okay.  Of course with any cable change the crucial thing is whether it's an improvement and as HH says you get a fit for purpose lead with Naim equipment as standard. 

Regards,

Lindsay

The Strat (Fender) posted:

kowalski posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

I would always seek the advice of a Naim dealer when using 3rd party wires.  Chord are universally recognised for being compatible with Naim and some of the guys do really well with Tellaqurium. I know guys who swear by Supra with other gear but I'd take advice. 

Welcome to the Forum. 

Regards,

Lindsay

thanx for your warm welcome

my buddy who's the no.1 geek for hifi used to have a chord hifi many years ago.

i asked him recently about chord company cables if they are the one and same company for chord electronics?

they are not he replied, they are 2 different companies

I was thinking of getting a better mains lead from chord company.

my buddy told me i was buying snake oil if i wasted hundreds of pounds on a chord cable!

it got me confused about chord so i didn't buy any cable from this company.

so i stick with my supra lorad cables.

don't know what is good or bad mains lead for naim???

Okay if you're mate says Chord stuff is snake oil and you agree with him then okay.  Of course with any cable change the crucial thing is whether it's an improvement and as HH says you get a fit for purpose lead with Naim equipment as standard. 

Regards,

Lindsay

my buddy is very know-how when it comes to hifi.

he has his own hifi shop,  i think i should trust him when he tells me what's good and what's not good.

my buddy doesn't sell supra or carry supra in his shop so he is not affiliated to supra cables.

after what he told me about Chord cables not to waste money on them, i don't want to fork out several hundred pounds on a cable just for lab testing if i get the sound improved or not?

maybe supra isn't the proper and  fun cable to use as mains lead for Naim, I don't know???

I'm sure Supra would be okay providing the fuse rating was correct - Richard apologies if I need to be moderated  - but the question is would it be an improvement.  And on that point there's only one way to find out.  Home demo essential. 

Regards,

Lindsay

The Strat (Fender) posted:

I'm sure Supra would be okay providing the fuse rating was correct - Richard apologies if I need to be moderated  - but the question is would it be an improvement.  And on that point there's only one way to find out.  Home demo essential. 

Regards,

Lindsay

fuse rating is this on Supra cable.

plug with 10A fuse -------> 16A fuse schuko plug

plug with 10A fuse goes from Naim source like cd-player or NAP150 amp ---------------> Schuko plug 16A fuse which plugs into wall socket.

Supra also have a 16A plug, this plug don't fit Naim coz corners are not shaved like the 10A plug.

Chord make very good cables that usually go very well with Naim electronics and I speak from experience. Having said this it would be a waste of money to buy one of their expensive power leads for your system as the stock cable would be fine IMHO. So I suspect the 'snake oil' your mate talks of is more to do with the use of expensive power leads in lower cost systems rather than Chord cables per se. In fact I use Supra LoRad power leads and they are a good low(er) cost option.

Two weeks ago I spoke with a Naim seller.

He has a FlatCap XS for sale.

I told him that I use Supra LoRad mains cables and Supra mains block coz I get them cheap.

Naim seller told me to get rid of that Supra crap and go for Naim mains lead or Chord cables nothing else!!

I told him, I buy my Supra stuff cheap and they are very good for reducing RFI and EMI coz they are shielded.

Sellers reply was, Supra isn't a bad cable but is not any fun listening to music, coz Supra kills most of the details in music??

Sound getting mushed or blurry when using Supra mains lead and mains block.

How can a mains lead kill details in music making it sound mushed or blurry?

Please tell me what should I look for to buy for my HiFi?

The 1st generation of FlatCap-2 or the 2nd generation FlatCap-2x or the 3rd generation FlatCap XS?

Which one of the 3 units is the best for my HiFi?

If you buy a black FC (unless it's a FCXS) it will almost certainly benefit from a service/ recap. Likewise your NAP.

I'd use the Naim wires throughout.

Nice set.

C.