52 tweaks

Both Don Braid and myself feel that the Burndy connections sound slightly better when not fully locked.Jawed however is unconvinced. But beware.... these are FAR more prone to being pulled loose when unlocked than Snaics or source interconnects and can result in speaker slaying voltage thumps, and in the case of the CDS1, having it loose at the head unit end results in no sound at all. Attention to equipment siting and support as well as cable dressing will have a far greater and less risky effect.

Ninety nine plus percent of the vast superiority of the 52 over the 102 will be heard regardless of what 'tweaks' are done or not. And at this phase you probably would not be able to tune into them as a suboptimally installed 52 would absolutely slay a perfectly set up, manaed-to-the-attic 102. Later (much later) on, if you must you can try the 52 using only a single input connected (into input 3), with slackened locking collars, having the rec out muted and so on.

The best way to tweak the 52 is to simply listen to it.

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo

http://homepages.go.com/~rontoolsie/index1.html

Hi Paul,

1) If input 1 is unused take out the straight through boards (i,e have nothing in input 1)

2) Like Ron my Burndies are not done up so they are locked (likewise on my CDS2)

3) Put the record mute on.

4) Make sure the 52 is decoupled from its support (an isolation table or dedicated table of some sort) - I use a custom modified Projekt support.

5) Try damping the case with a aluminium weight (i have used a aluminium cat in the past). This gives varying results based on the application. I don't use anything now but it's worth experimenting.

6) Keep the 52 as far as humanly possible from powersupplies.

Hope this helps,

Dev

Paul,

Congratulations on your 52. I also made the step from 102 to 52 and the difference was mind boggling. I still rate it as the highest naim upgrade I made (Albion/ACt 2 upgrade not included), closley followed by CDX/XPS to CDS2 and 102 no cap to 102 supercap. The vibrancy, life and clarity of the 52 is astounding. Suddenly so much made sense in the music. I did find that the 52 prefered being on the stiffest support possible as opposed to supports on the more squishy side. This meant replacing the rubber feet in my WB Asside with ball bearings. This move, however, had the opposite effect on items with power supplies. But I made this change a good 9 months after owning the 52. The 52 seems to make all sources sound better and took even a modest rega radio to electrifying heights.

dave

Put your 52 on Nordost Titanium Pulsar Points. You will be shocked by the improvement.

52 tweaks indeed!

You mean tweaks for a 52.

To add to the above list:

1. Make sure that it's 100% level

2. Try it on a good support (I use Mana)

John

Why is levelling so critical for pre-amp?

Is it worth the effort for a CD player ?

Peter

I have receive very significant gains from leveling the CD player. My guess it has to do with the transport and the efficiency of the motor that spins the CD. It might seem like a small issue but consider the requirement of the XPS and the gains you receive with it. I have a CDS1 and it sounds a little hard when it's not balanced. My previous CDX responded the same way and a friend made the same comment on his CDS2. I have no explanation for the preamp but being off balance might put some strain on some of the internal components??? Maybe someone at Naim can comment.

John