My 52 has lost it's mojo, man!

Richard.

Is it possible that your front end's are not up to scratch?

It seems possible that the 72 is putting a smile on your face because it is masking source problems. The 52 is soo much more open than the 72 that it might be acting as an open window to a badly set up lp12/ bearing problems/ cartridge wear etc etc.

With good CD/LP recordings on either of your front ends the 52 should be offering a substantial increase on the mojo-ometer than a 72!

Richard,

You can come and listen to mine (I live in Central London) email me banerjid@bp.com

regards

DEv

Richard,

If the 52 was just serviced one would have to conclude something is awry on the front end assuming the rest of your impressive set up has not changed..

"So what ya gonna do when the novelty has gone.."

Richard

The best way is to send it back to Naim Audio (England) and ask them to do a full check up for you. The best way (I would think) is to ask them to replace the boards and you listen to it again.

A friend told me a story of a used 52 he owned. When he inserted it into the system, replacing an 82, the 82 killed the 52! And the dealer who heard this agreed! Turned out that this fairly vintage 52 needed extensive servicing, apparently many parts had gotten tired.

Markus

-----

To be honest I sometimes feel that the 102 was more balanced for me.

In the end of course the 52 is a lot better, but it does really show up problems up stream and this I will guess needs to be sorted.

I have twice had my 52 go off kilter. The first time was when I took it over (again) to a friends, where the 82/SC killed it in no uncertain fashion. Sent it back to NANA and it turned out there was a small speck of solder bridging a pair of the pins on one of the DIN inputs that was causing a complete disruption of the earthing planes and a very stifled and sat-on sound.

I have also found that having a poorly dressed Burndy with twists that put too much strain on the connector ends is a recipe for poor sound. Quite recently I noted that the strain relief screws on one end of the Burndy were very, very loose and the cable was being allowed to twist within a helical pattern between the strain-screws and the Burndy pins. I rotated the cable to correct the twist and retightened the screws (but not TOO tight, there should still be some small rotational play). This simple act was like breath of fresh air in what it did to the sound. Other semi-simple maintenence tweaks would be things like tightening the stand-off screws between the chassis and PCB and the screw that locks down the transformer in the SC, although from what you describe the 'fault' is almost certainly NOT in the SC. Which is why you need to re-evaluate the 52 and its Burndy. You do have the directional markers at the right ends, don't you?

Inferior source or not... a 52/SC should always sound waaaaaaaaay better than a 72/SC; even on shagged out cassette tapes.

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo

Richard,

Send a full copy of your post here to naim so they get all the details. My money is on #1 (defective 52), or # 2 (stetup problem with source), however the experts at Naim's service department really need to be the judge on this one.

good luck,

dave

Richard,

I don't have the details on your NAC52 from when you sent it in for a service (was it just the NAC52 or did we get the Supercap too?) but I suggest you give us a call on Monday and we'll take it from there.

Diagnosing "poor sound", providing all measures and tests OK on the bench, can be a rather a difficult process however it does make a lot of sense to first try to eliminate any possiblity of problems elsewhere first.

Ron's advice in particular is extremely valuable and certainly checking out the Burndy in the manner he describes is both simple to do and may prove the solution to the problem.

Simon's advice to check that all is fine at the source end should definitely also be considered. The 52 can be very revealing of faults upstream.

The best diagnosis tool of all is to substitute first the NAC52 and then the Supercap with different units but this can be hard without the support of a good dealer, or a good friend who also owns a NAC52 standing by. This will not only show you immeadiately whether something is amiss with your '52/Supercap but, if so, will enable you to see which unit may be a fault.

Otherwise, call us.....

Richard

Thanks a lot for all your considered replies .

?front ends--
The CDS was serviced with the 52--so it's tricky to separate it as the problem.
The Lp12/aro was set up by Billy Vee 6 mo ago--it bounces OK. The troika was AOK when checked out by ES last yr-but is on my list to change--?Kontrapunkt--I need to try and get a listen.
The mains-- upgraded the size of my 2 spurs to 10mm 3mo ago. Am tempted to try back to just a single one as Naim recommends.?52 more earth loop sensitive.--but I very much doubt this.
I'd like to try without Mana but a chair is all I have as an alternative stand currently.

52 was serviced with the supercap,but the s/c could still be a problem. The 72 only uses 2 regs could be one of the others that is being petulent.
Burndy --very good thought Ron--and you've taught me what those screws are for thanks.But whilst dropping my 135's off 2 weeks ago at Naim(got them back today thanks Shiela) I picked up a new 52 burndy off the peg to exclude this(they are actually stored on a peg at the factory!)--its improved things a bit in some areas--stretched out the very compressed bandwidth a little but still very mojoly challenged for a preamp with a Naim badge. The lead is a little cramped though--stack is close to the wall--I'll give it some TLC tomorrow.

Re speaking to Naim(thanks Richard)
I do hope my email hasn't come accross as any critcism of the service Dept. I've had lots of boxes go through Naim service. I have said before on this forum that what ever they are paying Mark it isn't enough. It's not just simply getting the job done with him, he's a real enthusiast.
My work pattern is very dealer unfriendly--I find it hard to book any sessions far enough in advance esp.difficult for busy london dealers, and my nearest dealer is ~1hr of london jams away--so I rely on Naim for advice direct during quieter moments at work(abusing NHS tax payers money!--though I'm not the sole cause of the waiting lists!).
I did speak to Mark about the 52 and as always he gave me a very thoughtful and detailed response. It is extremely rare for any equipment to meter ok on the bench after service and go on to be a problem. However ALL equipment after service is also listened to carefully and having listened to 1000's he's got a pretty fine ear. But becuase of the extremely fine tolerances of the components used--as many know-- Naim equipment requires a burn in. My experience is that things can sound a little off esp PRaT for the first few weeks. So he listens to them a little under par and has to compensate for this-mine IMHO has just stayed under par in the context (rightfully said above) of my system and ears at least. More rigorous testing is of course impossible for achieving acceptable turn around times and service costs. Also as I have said a problem amp is extremely rare despite the on the edge design tolerances of the amps(that's why I also doubt my ears)--Naim have been doing this for some time!!

When Naim recieves an amp due to sound quality concerns, if it passes all the of the bench tests, things get even more involved. Naim take the performance of their products v. seriously. The amp is warmed for many days and is listened too over time with lots of contrasting music as various fixes are tried.It is therefore preferable to go to the dealer to identify which component is faulty first or the service dept will just grind to a halt auditioning stuff (though I could think of worse ways of spending my time).
With the summer shut down upon us and with my desire not to present Naim with a 52 that is working well from an owner(me) whose ears/taste/system may not be --though my foot and mojo just aren't a tappin'--I+he felt it better/quicker that I could contrast with another 52(echoed above by Richard).--dealers are out now as the 52 is a deleted product--my friends are bizarre and most have decided not to spend obscene amounts of their moolahs on hifi--odd hey? So hence this post and asking the forum.
Dev thanks a lot for the very kind offer--you will have mail--I'll bring a bottle.
thanks for your thoughts--any others would be welcome.
Regards Ricardo