552 in domestic environment

Dear all,

yesterday evening i got the chance to hear the new
552 at U.Hohn's place.

First, thanks to Stefan Gellrich, owner of SG-Akustik in Karlsruhe (Germany) bringing the
pre. Also to Ruediger Jankowski (sp), who accompanied Stefan.

And last not least to Ulrich, calling me and
fixing the date, so i got the chance to hear
the pre.
The travel was filled with disappointment at
the beginning, cause i had some problems at
the highway with workplaces (???) and traffic jams.
But arriving it was nice to be welcommed by
Ulrich, his wife and son.

It was a nice evening, Mrs. Hohn prepared a lovely
cake for inbetween the listening sessions.
When Stefan and Ruediger arrived they had
packed up the car with to (new design)
naim audio shipping boxes. Weighting each a ton.
(Not realy that much, but i expected one to be
lighter then the other, later more on this topic)
So we stuffed these into the Ulrich's musci room,
and first had a listen to his normal gear.

Main interest, like you all know was the
turntable and what would happen using the
552 in this setup.

First DJ-Ulrich played a collection of
five music peaces, to have a zero level
of knowledge what his gear is able to do.
This alone was jawdropping.

After the first session, Stefan and Ruediger
build up the 552 with PSU and connected it
to the ensemble of naim boxes.
Here the new XXX-Cap was the easiset part ;-).
The new pre and his spring based subchassis
are a hell. We had to lose (sp) 4 screws and
take care of the angle we hold the amp. So
no subchassis could jump out of the holding.
( I would like to have a look inside this
box, maybe naim could be so kind to release
som picutres to that??? )
Nevertheless, ruediger managed this hard part
easily.

After installation we had the first break
to give it a few minutes with a radio signal.
(And well, eating the cake... thanks again baebel.)

Here we discussed a bit about turntables, stands
and other stuff.

Returning to the listening room the first
im pression was, wow. Nice radio station (mono, but very impressiv).

Stefan connected the prefix directly to the
552, so we had the chance to first have
an impression on the 552 alone, but we planed
to try the scap also.

First the entrance plop, putting the neadle onto
the record has changed. It was more soft and
not that noisy, here also notable was an absence
of the record surface noise, this we had before
with prefix, scap, 52.
Well and then the first tunes float out of
the speakers. AMAZING, the music was more fluid
and comprehensible.
The room behind the musicians was no longer
black. Here it was the wall of a studio, or
the musician behind the other.

A peace with cello (form debussy) was very
amazing. Here we heard things we former even
didn't recognized they where on the disc.

OK, you'll say that we must be stupid, but
the 552 clearly wins against a 52 :-(((
I wouldn't believe it just reading a magazin or
a post on the forum ;-), but experiencing this
was far more then i expected.

Here i thought that a jump form 72 to 52 was
big. Forgett it! 552 is further away...

Yep, it's a pitty. The naim engineers delivered
a more then adaequat new preamp.
Even more bad, what i thought would be impossible,
they bettered the 52 :-(

First glimpse i had on the 552 in the AV-Setting
was well: nice (but no comparison with 52 was made).
In direct AB it more then wins.

Maybe you remember i wrote a few lines ago
that we planed to try the scapped prefix.
Herefore the S-Cap was not unplugged.
So good condition, you would say for the test.

We reangered the wiring and ruediger had to
reprogramm the 552 so that an input reachable
with the S-Cap signal wire could be used.
Thanks Thomas vdV for the telefon support.
This is a non trivial thing ;-)
To say a few words against the 552..., it's something like windows (tongue in the cheek).
You have to press a button on the remote, press
mono (or nearby) then looking at the back for
the LED's, pressing mono for a few times...

Maybe naim will relaese the manual soon on
the web.
Nevertheless it was amazing.

After reconfiguring one input we plugged
the S-Capped prefix in, and Ulrich lowered
the neadle into the record groove.
First impression was, oops more background noise
again.
The first tunes where played and obviously a curtain was layed over the musicians.
Gosh, i didn't believed it in the
first moment.
The prefix driven over 552 with this new power-supply betters an expencive supercap...

I wonder when naim make this XXX-Caps available
as a domestic upgrade PSU (like Supercap) for
a migration route to the new top of the class
systems.
And whats inside? A better trafo, different
voltage regulators...just a bunch of parts
thrown together with a better understnading
what's going on.
Man they evolved a lot since the old S-Cap times.

For that it was clear, the direct driven
prefix was better then the other way.

Finally it was a more then win win situation
for the 552.
In a domestic environment and in a stereo
installation it's capable of more then
stunning music presentations.

Here i remember posts blaming nerds that they
would say that a 52 sounds liveless, flavourless,
dull, uninvolving after listening to a 552.
YUP, they where right.

The 552 is better. But also the price tag is
more then high. So after a bankrobbery or
a big lottery win, i know what to buy
before the house, the porsche, the boat, the
aeroplane....

Only pitty, there are no phonoboards available.
At ulrich's place this was not a real problem,
but i remember there are turntables out (like mine) where there is no place for a prefix.
Stageline doesn't do the job.

So please naim, maybe you find a solution
for us non lp12 owners.

Hope you have fun doing hifi-diet (water and
maybe every second day a slice of bread with
a few grain of salt...).

Gratulations to all possible 552 owners.
You'll made a right decision buying this
PRE. Acompanied by 500 amazing. Maybe
there is a chance to listen to it in a
weaker system then ulrich's.
But i think that there would be ever
the PRO for the better PRE ;-)

Have fun listening to music. (I'll start with diet for the next 10years... :-( )

Regards
mathias

PS: Thanks to musicline germany who made this
session possible.

PPS: The night was bad, wallowing in bed,
proceeding the experience.
Hearing a 552 and not beeing able to
afford it is pain.
(The old word roules: Don't listen
to unaffordable Naim gear :-( )