East Coast Nak CA-5 trials

MillerLiteScott

I had yet another great meeting with Mark this afternoon and received his minty Nakamichi CA-5 preamplifier. It is certainly a beautiful piece in its simplicity. Brought it home and pop the hood at Marks suggestion and snapped a couple of pictures.

I hooked it up to my brothers free for caulking CD player which certainly leaves something to be desired. Connected it to my ASL mono blocks and Monitor 5's with RTi10's for speaker stands.

First impression. This is the best configuration I have had to date with my 2 channel adventure. I am not experiencing any brightness and the bass is very powerful as powerful can be with a pair of Monitor 5's. I have only listened for a few songs and however I am very pleased. I will spend a little more time latter tonight and in the next few days and give a review after some extended listening.

It should be noted that I am still using Monster wire and IC's that I have had in my cable collection. I plan to purchase some better quality cables and wire.

I would like to thank Mark again for my 2 channel rig. I am really pleased with the results.

Scott

RuSsMaN

I almost bagged that one, just for the phono section alone.

MillerLiteScott

I will try the phono stage out this weekend.

dorokusai

Ahhh, another satisfied customer. I feel like Hannibal from the A-Team right now.

I'm telling you man, that rig is making me love this hobby again.

MillerLiteScott

I can't wait to spend a little time with it. I need to make it more accessible in my room. I think I will try a new location for it this weekend in my entertainment center.

heiney9

:cool: . That pre is just killer......I'm telling you. I will probably keep mine forever unless I can ever afford something that can best it. Glad you are enjoying it as well as your 2-ch rig. I bet it is better sounding than a great majority of some of these other rigs on CP and you've been able to assemble it for less than $1K.

H9

shawn474

"I love it when a plan comes together." Definitely the most underrated 80's primetime show.

Shawn

MillerLiteScott

I am listening to the rig right now and all I can say is Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet. It is like butter.

My wife is probably going to yell at me in about 5 minutes. Dinner time.

MillerLiteScott

Sounds Awesome.

MillerLiteScott

Sorry for the triple post but:

This little system sounds

F*&^ing incredible.

reeltrouble1

Cool, its always great to see a member get one that just does it for them. Enjoy, nice rig.

RT1

MillerLiteScott

Mark also included a Nakamichi power strip (System Power Control Strip SPC-1) It is a nice metal case power strip with a heavy gage power cable and and a control cable that plugs into the back of the CA-5. When you turn on the CA-5 it turns the power strip on along with all of the components plugged into the strip. A very nice feature.

I know I have said this several times but the CA-5 is an excellent sounding piece of equipment.

DarqueKnight

I formerly used a Nak CA-5 as a phono preamp in conjuction with an Adcom GFP-750 preamp. I still use a Nak CA-5AII preamp in my rig at work. They are both excellent pieces.

Systems

That looks like a nicely put together pre.From the pics it appears like Nak used discrete transistors (wisely)for the gain stages instead of IC op-amps.They also have included a S@#t load of power supply capacitance.

Ricardo

Congrats! when you sit back to listen and everything sounds just right, it's when you can say you've reached Nirvana. Who cares how much you paid for it.

I would strongly recommend you do the coupling caps upgrade, and also change 3 resistors in the signal path. Not sure how different the schematics of the A25 and A20 are; if you can take a picture (they should be in the manual) and post it or send it I can see if it's the same and tell you what to change...or you can always log on divertech.com and send an email; they were very helpful when I did mine.

Enjoy!!!

MillerLiteScott

I will take the bottom off one off the amps and post it. I will definitely do the same mods you did. I am still in the building stage. I am thinking about rolling some tubes for a quick and easy mod.

Thanks you for offering your help. I am looking forward to making the mods.

Ricardo

Just by looking at a picture of the circuit board from the bottom won't do it. There could be differences between the 20 & the 25 and it would be impossible to see them from that side. If you don't have the schematics (last page of the manual in the AV-20's), I think you'll better contact Tash Goka at divertech and explain what you want to do. He is very helpful and will tell you exactly which are the resistors and caps you need to change.

MillerLiteScott

I will check my manual tonight. My scanner is S.O.L though.