Buy NAC 52 or NAC272

Get the 52 by any means its a great great classic preamp not very easy to come by, in serviced mode it might be the next best Naim pre not mentioning statement.

A 82 is just basic stuff compared, nothing wrong in that, the 52 has soul.

You can allways buy 272 or NDsomethingstreamerboring 

52 is a great preamp, much better than the 252 IMHO, but you might not want to use it with the Apple Airport Express, right? This can make it sound worse than the 82

52 with a separate Naim streamer.

If you have the money for a 52 (and check that your power supply really can power it) and a streamer such as NDX/XPSDR, or ideally an NDS, then clearly the system will be better than a 272. Do you have the money? Do you want all the boxes? Do you have a good rack to put them all on? Make a cold rational decision rather than grabbing something just because it happens to be available.  

All great points HH. I can afford it, I have a power supply which has a Burndy port (not allowed to say the name here apparently but the guy who builds them states it is a perfect match for the 52) and I have a good solid spiked-to-concrete rack. And I like boxes.

Peter Dinh posted:

52 is a great preamp, much better than the 252 IMHO, but you might not want to use it with the Apple Airport Express, right? This can make it sound worse than the 82

I agree and understand completely Peter. I am planning on a streamer (Naim) in the very near future, but from following posts here I figured a 52 was something to grab on to.

Hungryhalibut posted:

If you have the money for a 52 (and check that your power supply really can power it) and a streamer such as NDX/XPSDR, or ideally an NDS, then clearly the system will be better than a 272. Do you have the money? Do you want all the boxes? Do you have a good rack to put them all on? Make a cold rational decision rather than grabbing something just because it happens to be available.  

Exactly. A 52 is going to cost you a lot more than a 52. A Naim streamer to do it justice is going to really be an NDX (pushing it) or the NDX/XPS or higher. Or of course a non Naim solution that others have found they prefer (such as a Hugo from a MacMini). Either way, the 52 will incurr additional changes to the system. That is not necessarily a bad thing but HH offers sage advice.

Get the 52 and figure out the rest later. 

The 272 is good hifi.

The 52 is just . . . magic.

Come on Bob, that's one of those meaningless, and in this case wrong, comments like 'x makes y sound broken'. Sure the 52 will be better, but both enable you to enjoy great music. 

Buying an old NAC52 can be either a joy or could just as well be a nightmare.  They are complex and getting on in years.  The earliest units require a substantial investment to bring them up to later spec (see FAQ and search the forum for details of all the many changes that have been made to the 52 over the years).  Don't even think of buying one without budgeting for a proper Naim service.  And I would strongly advise you audition before you buy - you see there are a number of 52s out there that crop up time and again in the usual places like bad pennies.  They seem to be under-par specimens, maybe staff built by the night watchman, or one of the many that Julian had to tinker with, or one that has been tinkered with by somebody else, or subject to a non-standard power supply (nota bene), and even a full Naim rebuild can sometimes fail to bring back the magic.   So go in with your eyes and ears open.  Don't just assume that a NAC52 - any NAC52 is automatically going to be a shortcut to heaven. 

I'd also think on whether, realistically, you will be in a position at some point in the reasonably near future to replace the third-party PSU with the supercap a 52 was intended to work with. Assuming you are talking about the power supply I think you are (I hope this isn't breaching any forum rules) then I have heard one, albeit with a 252 and only briefly when collecting something I'd bought off ebay. For me, although it was very good, indeed excellent in its own right, it did not provide the same sound signature that a my own 252/supercap at home had. Different and for me, not in a good way.

I would also check with Naim that it is a 52 with a serial number capable of being run of a supercap. I might be completely and utterly wrong about this, but about 20 years ago, I had a 52 with a 52 PS and I seem to remember there being some sort of issue about the power supply for the 52 having a white dot on it or not, absent which, it could only be used with its own power supply and not a supercap.

I suspect that any 52/52 PS is probably going to come as a pair anyway, but it might be worth looking into this. That said, now it's come to mind, I'd be interested to know if anyone can tell you whether I'm right or whether I've confused myself over the past couple of decades!

All that being in order however, I'd go for the 52 - they are really very special and for me, in some ways, after the 52/52PS, nothing quite gave the same thrill until I got a 552. The 52/scap and 252/scap I had later were great, but I remember getting that first 52 home and firing it up very fondly indeed.

Interesting Richard

Any reason why the 52 seems to be such a fickle buy s/h? Appears not to be specific build dates from what you describe. I have an absolute gem-I did have it upgraded when I bought it but as I recall it was not too pricey to do this. Were they very variable from new or just don't age well?

I recall the days when the 52 was the 'Statement' of its era, an iconic Naim product, and much debated here in terms of its excellence, and indeed whether buying one was an indecent amount of money to spend on a HiFi component. The 252 has never seemed to have as much love on the Forum.

It is the oldest part of my system and one I still feel no itch to change.

Bruce

Bruce, it was the first of its kind and took a long time in development to get right - which is why the NAC62 and NAC72, which started development after the 52, arrived on the market long before the NAC52 did.  It's comparatively complex - the first ones very much so with all the daughter boards. The first ones are nearing 30 years old.  Also, while Naim have always been at the forefront of consistency in their hifi production, overall consistency wasn't as good back then as it is now and when you push the performance envelope to its limits (for the time), even the smallest little issue anywhere within the unit can reduce performance back to "ok, but not magical".

Oscarskeeper - I think you may be confusing the 52 with the early CDS - the white dot on the CDPS.  Any NAC52 should be fine with either a 52PS or a Supercap.  I would strongly advise against using "alternatives" here...

Hungryhalibut posted:

Come on Bob, that's one of those meaningless, and in this case wrong, comments like 'x makes y sound broken'. Sure the 52 will be better, but both enable you to enjoy great music. 

Nigel - wrong.  The 52 is on a completely different level than is the 272, and you know it as well as I do.  Does the magic of the 52 detract from the 272?  Of course not. 

So kindly refrain from telling other people here that their comments are "meaningless" or "wrong."  You're better than that, just as the 52 is a better preamp than the 272. 

Well, I've never had the 52 in my system, but when I had the 272 for review, I found its preamp section (without XPS) to be clearly superior to my 82 (pots8) + HiCap. The gains were in detail, refinement and a deeper insight into music. Downsides ? I found it initially a bit light, lacking some of the body of the 82, but this resolved over the course of a week. Where the 272 and I parted ways was its DAC section ; even with the XPS-DR added, it was a substantial step down from the standalone Naim DAC.

But as a preamp, the 272 is very good.

Jan

Oops, I'm very sorry Bob. I read it without my glasses and thought that you had said that the 272 was good hifi but that the 52 was just...'Music'. That would have been one of those meaningless hifi reviewer comments, but yours of course makes complete sense.

Any hifi is just hifi

Nothing against real played instruments and voices

But the 52 is just one of the very best preamplifiers out there provided condition as described by Mr Dane

The 272 is hifi and some expensive one, not all are forced to think its heavens wonder because of one members 24/7 agenda

Richard Dane posted:

Oscarskeeper - I think you may be confusing the 52 with the early CDS - the white dot on the CDPS.  Any NAC52 should be fine with either a 52PS or a Supercap.  I would strongly advise against using "alternatives" here...

You are right Richard, thank you!