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Connecting Naim Nac 82 to Naim Nap 300

Chris1234

pfm Member
Hi. I currently run a Nac 82 connected to a Nap 300 through, I assume, a Y cable (I am assuming that as my dealer installed it for me). My question is, is it possible to upgrade this cable as it seems to me to be an important connection in my system

thanks
 
The NAIM connections guide show two 4>3 SNAICs connecting the preamp power supply (pre-amp output signal) to the NAP300. A "Y" connector should work, but its not shown that way in the connection guide. The NAP300 should have come with the necessary cables - was it new or used?
 
Hi. I currently run a Nac 82 connected to a Nap 300 through, I assume, a Y cable (I am assuming that as my dealer installed it for me). My question is, is it possible to upgrade this cable as it seems to me to be an important connection in my system

thanks
The 300 connects to the preamp power supply using a pair of mono 4 pin DIN to XLR leads. They don’t use a Y cable. Just have a look at the back of your boxes and you’ll see them. The standard leads are perfectly fine, although Naim can also supply a Super Lumina variant for the best part of £4,000. Whether these would make sense depends very much on the rest of your system, but I very much doubt they would. You’d almost certainly be better spending the money on improving other parts of your system. Or just be happy with the standard leads, which is probably the best advice I could give.
 
Thanks folks for your replies. Yes, I have a hicap powering the 82, a future upgrade to the supercap is on the list. The 82 only has a single output to the power amp whereas the 282 has 2, hence the Y cable. I guess I will stick with the existing cable for now and look for a used supercap or 282.
 
The 82 power amp connection is to enable, say, a 180 to power the 82 - it's not for anything else. You can use this for audio output, in fact some prefer it this way, but Naim convention is to reference everything to the power supply and get the audio out from there. Hence the Hicap has the requisite number of sockets to connect to the power amp(s). Naim cables seem to either be ridiculously cheap (the standard XLR cable made of of mains flex) or stupidly expensive (Super Lumina). I can thoroughly recommend the Witch Hat Morgana cables as replacements.
 
Thanks folks for your replies. Yes, I have a hicap powering the 82, a future upgrade to the supercap is on the list. The 82 only has a single output to the power amp whereas the 282 has 2, hence the Y cable. I guess I will stick with the existing cable for now and look for a used supercap or 282.

I had a NAC82, HiCap with a NAP300 years ago with the base cables. Jumped up to a NAC552 with all the fancier leads a few months on, the 82 held its own in my opinion.
 
Thanks folks for your replies. Yes, I have a hicap powering the 82, a future upgrade to the supercap is on the list. The 82 only has a single output to the power amp whereas the 282 has 2, hence the Y cable. I guess I will stick with the existing cable for now and look for a used supercap or 282.

I had an 82 for many years - it is a great preamp. Opinions differ about adding a second Hicap and/ or moving on to a Supercap. I did both and felt they were each small upgrades (not everyone agrees with that). The great plus for me in getting the Supercap was that it permitted me to swap 82 for 52 when I found one on eBay. Going from 82 to 52 was a much bigger step - same character but better at just about everything.

To my ears (and this is far from a consensus view), the 82 was more musical overall than a 282, so I didn't get a 282. I have heard 252s several times - much more detail than from the 82 but not to me equal to a 52 in enjoyment - a 552 is a different story imho - and I would not change my 52 for a 252 even if there no cost difference. The 52 makes a good deal more of the 300's strengths than an 82 (or 282) can imho, though some on the Naim site favour 252 over 52 .

All of that upgrading was with a serviced olive 250. I now have a 300DR - I expected to get a pair of 135s to go with the 52, but the 300DR was better and works brilliantly with the 52. I use WH Morgana Mono XLRs, but the standard Naim Mono XLRs that came in the box with the 300DR are pretty good.

Other ears may disagree, but given the costs of 282 and 252 (and the limitations of the 282) you may want to think about a 52 when thinking about bringing your preamp up to the level of your power amp.
 
Thanks again folks. This just proves what a total novice/idiot I am when it comes the set up of my system because I did not know that the nap 300 was connected to the hicap rather than the 82. Thanks for clarifying. Same question though, would it make sense to upgrade these cables? WH Morgana seem to get good reviews and is recommended in this thread
 
Another thought, in order to upgrade to a 52 or 252 I would need a supercap in any case. Or am I being an idiot again?
 
And if you get a Supercap you can actually get the 82 (reversibly) modified to use more of it than a 52 would. That gets you right into 52 territory and can be a planned upgraded. The Superlink mod is entirely backwards compatible so you wouldn't need a Supercap straight away. https://witchhatservicing.co.uk/82-superlink-mod/
If you're wondering, that's me on that page, and I designed the Superlink mod so happy to answer any questions.
 
Thanks again folks. This just proves what a total novice/idiot I am when it comes the set up of my system because I did not know that the nap 300 was connected to the hicap rather than the 82. Thanks for clarifying. Same question though, would it make sense to upgrade these cables? WH Morgana seem to get good reviews and is recommended in this thread

Yes. If you want to stick to Naim, then getting a Supercap is modestly helpful (imho) for the 82 but necessary for 52 or 252.

If you are happy to explore other options, the WH teams mods make a lot of sense, but I have not heard them. You may want others here to comment on how their changes to an 82 compare to an actual 52.

I am a happy user of Morgana cables. However, unless cable-dressing/ knitting is an issue for you (e.g. does careless cable positioning lead to a hum or other bad effects), those cables are not vastly better than the good basic Naim cables. It's an upgrade, but probably not your first priority.
 
I can’t blame my dealer, he’s a great bloke and it was me not listening. Lesson learnt. Thanks for all of the ideas, they really are a great help
 
And if you get a Supercap you can actually get the 82 (reversibly) modified to use more of it than a 52 would. That gets you right into 52 territory and can be a planned upgraded. The Superlink mod is entirely backwards compatible so you wouldn't need a Supercap straight away. https://witchhatservicing.co.uk/82-superlink-mod/
If you're wondering, that's me on that page, and I designed the Superlink mod so happy to answer any questions.
Many thanks. Just so that I understand you correctly, are you saying that if I get the mod to my 82 I could still use it with my hicap or would I still need to upgrade to a supercap?
 
Whilst I’m on about my 82, am I the only one who is frustrated by its volume dial. It seems to me that it only requires micro adjustments to turn the volume up or down. Once a sweet spot is hit it sounds good but is very different in operation from my old 272. Also, I can never turn the volume dial above its 9 o’clock position because it becomes unbearably loud. So what is the point of having a dial that can turn further than this level? Rant over
 
Many thanks. Just so that I understand you correctly, are you saying that if I get the mod to my 82 I could still use it with my hicap or would I still need to upgrade to a supercap?

I am not @MJS, but yes, the mod is completely backward compatible so you can use it with a hi cap in the meantime.
 
Yes, that was the aim. We wanted to make it fully backwards compatible with every way of powering the NAC82 like it was from the factory. For that reason we left the NAPSC as it was - every NAC82 was sold with one. It also means that it's fully reversible should anyone want to go back to factory spec, but no-one has yet. It uses 10 rails of the Supercap, much like the NAC252 does because we added rails to specific circuit areas.

For the record, you don't need a Supercap straight away with this mod, we supply a cable and a set of link plugs which together with Naim's own mean you can power the NAC82 from:
  • One rail from a power-amp like the NAP180 or 200
  • Two rails from a single Hicap
  • Four rails from 2 Hicaps, or one supercap
  • Ten rails from a Supercap
How's that for versatile?

if you search for superlink in thread titles, there are a few threads that discuss the mod. The above post gives some more detail on your question.
 


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