NAC 52 vs NAC 82 (supercapped)

Talking to --- myself...

naheed

Mine took about 6 months to fuly burn in. Use this time to evaluate your setup. You are looking through a much bigger window with the 52 and setup issues become more apparent and setup changes are less subjective.

John

Naheed,

If it's a brand new 52, then out of the box it will sound better than the 82. However, for me the it just didn't sound completely right for a period of about 5 weeks where the performance seemed to go from bright, to muddy, to transparent. This happened about 3 times, each time getting you to a new level of performance.

David

The 52 is s/h, but from stone-cold the improvement was awesome, its been warming up since thursday, but i've switched it off a few times (removing boards, snaxo connections, tinkering).

It already seems to be going through its bright, to muddy, to transparent phases as David describes... which can be worrying at the lows.

The bandwidth, PRat, Bass, everything is sublime, the cds/52 truly have a synergy thats so right, i think (i hope) this is the balance i have been rapidly upgrading to, and really think this is something i can live with and appreciate long-term.

All i can say to non-52 owners, believe the hype

552/500 - i don't think so, or care so, frankly i have the cash for one of these at the moment, but i don't care, i really think where i am now is my balance (only the dedicated spurs left to do).

I talked at length with the diamond geezer, Steve who parted with the 52 about justifying such systems in terms of price/listening time/etc...

Suffice to say, i have a spare CDi (its for sale as well as the 82) plugged into a very mediocre AV System, which i can listen to with great pleasure, yes my System 1 is better in every respect no doubt, but it just goes to show you don't have to have a cds3/552/500/DBL system to enjoy your tunes, its all about the music guys and don't forget that

Boo-yakka-sha

Its frightening when i think the 52 is still warming up and has not come on full-song

naheed

Congratulations, Naheed. You must really be enjoying the music now.

Better, is the word I use.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

Naheed,

if a CDSii/52 system is powered up from cold something seems to happen at around two weeks where it is just somehow better.

The NAPs (except NAP500, apparently) only seem to take a few days, so I presume it's CD and/or NAC and/or SNAXO.

It's worth bearing in mind if you're moving things around that some reckon that cables need a day or two to settle back down again every time they're moved. This is somewhat supported by Naim's cable-shaker machine which removes physical stresses from the cables for sound quality reasons. My dealer reckons there is benefit (especially with LP12s) in just letting stuff physically settle without fiddling with it.

Still, you've got to get the new stuff installed properly.

cheers, Martin

Diamond Geezer?

Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, we spoke a lot about having time to listen to these things, upgraditis, value-for-money etc. I’ve really enjoyed my flirt with the high-end over the last year but 72/Hi/250 really does all I want and, most importantly, I’m comfortable with it. I always felt a little guilty using the CDS/Super/52 as glorified background music – work pressure means I so rarely get time to sit down and listen properly; my hi-fi is in my ‘study’ and when I’m in there the lure of the computer is too strong. However, posts such as Naheed’s do make me wonder if I’ve done the right thing! Sob sob (Now, who has a 72/hi they want to offload). Anyway, for me the hugest, most significant, gargantuan, massive, cetecian upgrade was my change from SBLs to Shahinian ARCs (something I’ll never sell – unless getting obelisks). Once that was done all the fooling around with various Naim pre/psu/CD combinations was less important – the system was now fundamentally right whatever.

More relevant to the thread, my general opinion after living with 72/82/52 over the last year is that the 82 is a bit ‘between the planes’. It does the hi-fi thing really, really well but I was never sure it communicated emotional subtlety much better than the 72. The 52 clearly does so but at a very hefty price incremental. If listening to hi-fi is your number one recreation (or you’re riddled with wonga) then the 52 is hard to beat in both hi-fi and musical arenas and will be much easier to justify than it was for me. The CDS vs CDI was much the same.

Steve

Well a few weeks settle-in and the 52 is really showing what it can do - its truly awesome, in every respect it has excelled versus my 82/Supercap combo.

I'm normally a habitual remote channel hopper/track changer/skipper, but I find myself leaving the remote and just pressing play then settling in for 2hr daily listening sessions (I used to average 2hrs a week !!!).

naheed
And yes I have heard naim have a 'better' preamp (552)