82 VS 52

Posted by: Sean P on 16 January 2002

May have the opportunity of a secondhand 52 is this is wise move considering the fact that I will not have the opportunity to upgrade my sources for at least 18 months. How badly will the 52 showup the limitations of my main source CDI
Present setup
CDI and Rega planar 2 with rb300
Stageline + flatcap
82 + supercap
135s

Regards Sean

Posted on: 16 January 2002 by Paul B

Buy the 52 if a good price - they don't appear used very often.

My opinion would be that your 82/Super is already revealing the limitations of your source. If you can live with those limitations I do not believe that the 52 will make them sound worse.

Paul

Posted on: 17 January 2002 by Jellyheadjeff

I recently bought a 1 year old 52 & use it with a CDX - it does not sound bad at all. I would have thought your CDI would be in similar ball-park.

I agree with the previous comments though - I chose to pay a bit more & get a recent model.

Jeff

Posted on: 17 January 2002 by Dev B

Do not buy the 52! - It will reveal the inadequacies of your sources and you will get frustrated. You might even like Vuk (and Tony) to an extent start preferring a Nait and then wonder what the fuss is about. If at all possible try a better CD player (s/h CDS) and/or LP12. An 82/SuperCap is a fine preamp and is well capable of supporting a system with those sources.

regards

Dev

Posted on: 17 January 2002 by Sean P

Thanks for the replys
If the 52 is one of the old one's ie pre supercap I think I'll leave it for a later model.
Should find out tomorrow if work doesn't get in the way.

Regards Sean

Posted on: 17 January 2002 by Arun Mehan

Sean, don't forget that a new preamp is scheduled to be on the way so used 52s will start appearing more often.

Posted on: 18 January 2002 by Sean P

I am depressed it was an old model 52 so had to decline and walk away.

Will just have to wait to see if new preamp creates a better secondhand market for 52s.

Regards Sean

Posted on: 19 January 2002 by ebirah

What is it about 'current spec' ?!
Immediately somthing is upgraded by the amnufacturers, in whatever peripheral way, the old immediately becomes obsolete, redundant and not worth listening to? I found it very, very difficult to sell some SBLs with 'old drivers' despite the very low asking price - must have the new drivers mate! Didn't stop them sounding great speakers for 400 quid! Granted the 52PS has been very significantly upgraded to Supercap (which you have). The 52 head has seen far less change.

I've been comparing an old (10 years) 52 with a new 82 for the past few weeks, both with supercap. The 52, IMHO, is far better (given that we are at the rarified end of the market here). Most importantly it completely ameliorates the rather harsh tendency of the 82 (which the Scap also tames to some extent) whilst being significantly more musically involving. Oh, and Ive been using a CDI and CDS. Sure the CDS is better but the 52 with CDI sounds enthralling as well, just a bit less so.

Given you already have the Scap, I reckon youve just missed a bargain mate!

Steve