Supercap vs Hicap DR on 282 and 252 questions
Posted by: analogmusic on 24 June 2016
Hello all,
Thinking about this one for a long time now, and have read all the threads on this. So apologies for adding yet another one...
the Majority of 282 owners who did the upgrade say that indeed it is an upgrade, (and I have spoken personally to many forum 282 owners, thank you very much for your time)...
The reason I am hesitating is the following
1) it will tempt me towards a 252, and that is not on my planned path. I would much rather own a 552.
2) The price of a brand new SCDR is very expensive, and then it cannot be fully used on a 282
3) Richard Dane, whose ears I trust, always told me source first, yes, still, source first even before 552/500 !
4) I don't have the chance to try a SC on my 282. It is a pretty exotic item for where I live.
5) I did try 2 hicaps on my 282, and noise floor was down, bigger soundstage, better controlled bass. But the earthing is not as good on 2 Hicaps/282 as a Supercap/282
6) So spend 4200 GBP on a Supercap DR, or look for a used 552? Not that many around though.
7) Apparently the 252 is more fluid and less mechanical than 282, but too many trusted ears here say that the boogie factor can be found on 282/HCR, 282/SC, 272/XPS or 552 (also the others like Uq, Uniti etc, etc) , BUT for some odd reason, it seems that only 252 has many doubters.
8) as Richard Dane said, the 252 is fine, and the problem, if any, is with that Burndy either being too tight or too loose. This has been confirmed by another dealer who said anyone who finds 252 not satisfactory is because of installation problem.
9) I own a Hugo, which is quite a fluid and musical source, so maybe that balance of 282/HCDR and Hugo is the right one, and anything else would spoil the magic (which again is personal)
10) I bought my 282 and 250 DR without even hearing them, and somehow I have faith in Naim, they simply could not make 252 worse then 282 in the boogie department?
Sorry for rambling on, I know we all have other thing to think about like Brexit, and all, but Naim keeps us motivated and engaged, what would life be without the Naim constant upgrade path 
I moved from 282 to 252 (Analogue knows my story very well 
) - love it to bits!
But - my advice for today (for whatever it's worth) is: leave 282 and a HiCap in place and get a good analogue source in place, to hear that analogue magic. Wait another 3-4 months - if new pre-amps start appearing the older ones like 552 may come to a market at more reasonable prices.
Adam