advertisement


WitchhatAudio HatPin Cable

quakee

quakee

Active Member
I ordered HatPin cable for my combo 122x 150x someone has tried?

all the best
Marietto
 
I recently decided to take the plunge and ordered the Witch Hat Hatpin 4 cable to replace my grey snaic between my NAC72 NAP 140 with pleasing results

It does work !
 
Also curious about the Hatpin cables too!

What would I need to connect a Naim UnitiQute2 and NAP200? Assuming RCA to 4 pin DIN? Is this correct?
 
Hi Mark

Can you please explain how Hatpin works, i.e. how do you separate out the signal and power and what is different to Naim Snaics?
 
I ordered a HatPin 4x DIN to XLR and HatPin 5 last year to upgrade the grey stock ones for my 72/HC/CB250.

Initial thoughts (over a couple of listening sessions) were very positive - the sound was definitely clearer and less congested, like that layer of dirt I never knew was there had been removed.

Over a week or so I began to notice more sibilance and a more pronounced/harsh top-end. I wasn't enjoying this upgrade that much anymore, some albums became quite fatiguing (Lust for Life and A Love Supreme in particular). I put the stock cables back on and felt I could relax but at the cost of obvious distortion (perhaps even compression for want of a better word), I saw how good the Witch Hat cables were but thought them not quite right in my system.

Then it hit me! My cart had been in heavy use for 4 years! Perhaps the Witch Hat upgrade was exposing this. I replaced my cart and really enjoyed my system again (with the stock cables). After a few months I had my RB300 rewired and spent a good 6 months enjoying that upgrade. Time for the Witch Hat cables again!

Swapped out the stock snaic+xlr cables for the Witches and immediately noticed the difference - no distortion and instruments were nicely separated and easy to follow. I had some of those "wow, that's what she said" moments! Definitely an improvement for me.

As a bonus they look great, the HatPin is non-directional (I don't know why the originals are) and they don't rob the system of any slam, groove or excitement (isn't there an acronym for what I mean here?).

They're keepers :)
 
I bought the Hatpin for my 52/52Ps plus the XLRs for connecting to my 135s. Plugged both in from box. Initial thoughts, clarity, and sharper sound but bit bright (into SL2s). After few days settling down, brightness went, detail stayed and wider soundstage. Noticed no loss in usual Naim traits and original cables remain in their boxes to this day. Very happy with purchases.
 
I just ordered witch hat burndy for my 52/supercap and ordered a power only snaic 5 pin to connect my 01 tuner to its power supply. Was advised that replacing stock naim snaic with the Hatpin 5 pin snaic would not be worthwhile in the context of a supercap- 52.....maybe I should have ordered it? David
 
David...20 years ago when the black snaics replaced the gray ones, I managed to get my hands on the only sample of the black snaic5 in the US at the time. I tried it out both in the 01 (where it made a significant difference over the gray), but later out of curiosity on the 52 fully expecting it to make zilch difference. But it actually was a bigger improvement in this seemingly non-critical position than it was on the tuner (and subsequently joining up the 52 and the Snaxo supercaps for active use.

I suspect that lesser Snaics act as a portal for noise, which in the 52 then messes up the ground potentials of not one but about 8 different ground references.

The guy I sold my 552 to, ended up with a Signature Tuned Aray Snaic that again feeds only the front panel, and said it was about as big as an improvement as anything else he had ever done.

I urge you that when you do get your WitchHat Snaic 5, that you try it out on the 52 first. I have a strong feeling it will stay there, while you order another one for the tuner.
 
Hi davidf and Ron – have I understood correctly - you are referring to a ‘power only’ SNAIC, for Supercap to 52 (alongside the Burndy) and for NAT01 PS to head unit, where in both instances the signal leads in the generic 5 pin NAIM SNAIC are effectively superfluous?

I looked on the Witchhat website for reference to a Hatpin SNAIC for the power run only (omitting the signal lead runs) but only found the standard Hatpin SNAICs at £120 each. Then did a PFM search and found reference to the Avondale split power/signal wiring (inlcuding cables by Flashback), and some mixed views as to the benefits of this wiring method.

I’m intrigued as to whether there might be benefits of power only with a 252/Supercap SNAIC connection, and, for that matter, a SNAIC connection from Hicap to NAT05XS tuner. However, I’m also doubtful as to why there should be any compared to the generic 5 pin Naim SNAIC. Perhaps the benefits are only to be had when going from an old style Naim SNAIC (which presumably the 52 and NAT01 originally had) to the current (black) version or equivalent?
 
There is a custom power only Snaic 5 that Witch Hat will make upon request...let's see what David has to say about his sample once he has tried it out on the 52 and/or the NAT01.
 
We don't advertise the power only one as it only does what the Naim version does and doesn't have our split signal/power construction, and I do point this out to anyone who wants one where it carries power only. But we use a good quality wire and they seem to do a good job, and no-one has sent one back still so I guess we're doing something right.
 
MJS said:
We don't advertise the power only one as it only does what the Naim version does and doesn't have our split signal/power construction, and I do point this out to anyone who wants one where it carries power only. But we use a good quality wire and they seem to do a good job, and no-one has sent one back still so I guess we're doing something right.
Click to expand...

MJS (?Mark) - I received my power only snaic as well as burndy today.
The snaic connects my 01 to its PS and the burndy is for my 52/supercap.
I did not order a snaic for the 52/super as I was told by one of your staff that since the burndy carries power that replacing the standard naim snaic would not be worthwhile upgrade- is this correct ? Correct me if I am wrong but a power only snaic would not work between 52/super since burndy carries power.
Please clarify this.
Re how it sounds- I literally just hooked up the snaic and burndy (at same time- I have no patience!). Sounds good but I need to let it settle in and do some serious listening later tonite after I take out my wife for a nice Valentine's Day dinner. David
 
The 52s Snaic carries 15V DC to the head unit that does the front panel lights. ..the logic chips and possibly the switching relays too. The 52s Burndy carries multiple 24V DC for all the audio circuitry including buffers and dedicated rails for the powered input and phono cards if present. But for some reason improving the seemingly non critical Snaic has quite a sonic benefit . Maybe because it has lower DCR than the Naim version or maybe better shielding. ..but compared to the gains the reasons are unimportant.

Remember...the POTS8 on the 52/82 sounded much better than previous versions-and that purely involved the front panel circuitry-the reason being the previous POTS versions used noisy IC's while the POTS8 used lower noise discrete devices. So, noise entering from the front panel voltages is obviously intrusive, and it may a be for this reason why the better Snaic5 are....better. Having personally experienced the POTS8 upgrade on the 52, this was a non-trivial improvement too.
 
Ron – in the light of all your experimentation and experience, I’m considering taking a punt on one of these power only SNAICs to try with the connections mentioned in my previous post. I won’t be paying anything like £120 though – it would need to be much less. If I do give it a try, I’ll post results on a new thread. Cheers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top