Naim Supernait vs XS vs Exposure 2010s

The only Shunyata PC I have is a Black Mamba which I use in a digital piece, so I don't have enough experience with Shunyata upper level products to compare. When it comes to losing musicality, at first I thought I did lose some because with the Valhalla PC the detail gets ramped up quite a bit, on just about anything, including the XS. So you start to concentrate on all that detail... After getting used to it, I don't feel it loses musicality. Comparing the effect of the Flatcap vs. the Valhalla, hmmm, I would say the Flatcap may have the bigger impact, but it is very close in my opinion. That may change as the Flatcap is quite new and breaking in. I can say they both have a pretty big impact for sure. I have the Valhalla on my XS, and a Synergistic Master Coupler on my Flatcap. Fun stuff!

Like I said, I am not all that familiar
with Naim and I was thinking that the
flatcap would power the XS and not just
the preamp. Thanks for clearing that up.

Sounds like you have really good synergy.
I always felt the Supernait was lacking in
detail although still very satisfying.

I bet you must be curious how much better
performance the Hicap would bring to the table.

Has anyone compared the two?

"Even with these minor criticisms the DeVores being fed
by Naim seduced me into listening for hours before
buying the Super 8's. I have been in this hobby for
a long time and have listened to a lot of systems costing
in the 100,000 $ range and this type of seduction has
never happened to me before. Sure these systems sounded
intriguing but I would lose interest after about 20 minutes".

That sounds like a fairly decent endorsement of Naim.
If you think that's good wait till you hear their seperates.

PS. What was the source you were listening to when auditioning the Supernait?

We tried the cdx2,cds2 and the cds3.
The cds2 with its respective separate
power supply really through out the
widest soundstage that seemed to float
out on a plane. It was very organic
in its sound and was the most satisfying
with vocals. However, the sound of a
jazz or blues guitar was just way too soft.

I really liked the cdx2. The cds3 increased
the front to back imaging but did not really
increase width. Not sure if it is worth that
much coin.

I was not aware of flat caps or hi caps at the
time, so I am not sure if one was used.

With my first listening session via the cdx2
I did notice a profound sense of an aura that
seemed to float high above the music. Its hard
to explain because I have never heard anything
like that before but I really liked it. However,
on my second listening session I did not quite
get that same effect as before.

If you could enlighten us on the differences in
sound between the flat cap and high cap it would
be most appreciated.

Hello Scottmac62,

I've just returned from visiting a few dealers and have finally logged some time in front of DeVore Fidelity/Naim systems. Both happened to be Supernait based, one with a pair of The Nines and the other with Silverbacks. I am very impressed. While I certainly don't have enough experience to feel as though I know the amp well, what I heard (including comparisons to several other electronics brands that I do know well) makes me inclined to believe what Dbarger writes is somewhat true, Naim doesn't really sound tube or solid-state-like, just very good. I found myself less tempted to get out of my listening chair and find the best speaker position in the room (one of the things I do when I visit a dealer, of course).

Happy listening,
John DeVore