At the turn of the year I said I might upgrade my tonearm to a Vertere SG combined with new cartridge but then some! First already well documented I took the opportunity of a 282/250>252/250 upgrade, 13 weeks in sounding sensational. At the same time I needed a stylus retip so upgraded the Dyna Rua to a XVS1.
Following soon on I discovered that Peter at Cymbiosis had had a Nat 01 tuner for sale which had been reserved by another customer, but unfortunately the sale couldn’t complete so I was fortunate enough to get the chance to bag and so have, ever since the 80s I have coveted one but always been other priorities. But then also decided on doing the arm change in keeping with my earlier promise to myself.
So this morning Peter delivered and installed the Nat 01. On R3 sounds delicious.
But accompanied by Mike Burn from Vertere they also fitted the Vertere SG tonearm to my Roksan with new Technomat, watching the guys working with such a gorgeous piece of engineering was fantastic.
Hi Lindsay and congrats to your upgrades and you being happy with them. How would you describe the upgrade between 282 and 252? Among other upgrade paths something I am interested in. Thanks!
The main upgrade this year was 552DR in place of 252/SC DR. I also updated to Radikal 2 and had the CD555 serviced with new mech. Oh - and the big non-event that was ‘Spectre’.
That will be it for a long while - nothing planned next year.
I opened a specific thread on this which led to a considerably wider debate on the virtues, or otherwise, of the 252! Worth hitting the search button when you’re bored over Xmas. I had previously described the 282 as visceral and the 252 as mature but neither exclusively so.
A point to remember that I did the 252 and 300 in one swoop but here’s a quick summary, the music is richer, greater insight, more detail and generally more entertaining and engaging. I’ve also found that at lower volumes you hear more than with the 282/250 but equally you can go a lot louder with zero stress but I should imagine this is more down to the 300.
One of the criticisms most made of the 252 is lack of dynamics. Having had it for 12 weeks I don’t believe this the case at all, in fact the way the notation is presented demonstrates better the fluidity. However, if anyone was really concerned about this pairing the 282 with the 300 is a very good option as well.
Gaz - have an FM on the roof for my Nat 05 but funny story, a few months back I had to have the TV aerial guys out. Chap stands on the drive looking up at the room “right sport whilst I’m up there I’ll pull the old FM job down you won’t be needing that anymore”. “Right come in here, and listen to this” I put the 05 on, “oh that sounds good mate”
Back in summer I swapped my sn3 for 282/hcdr/250dr and now I have almost finished swapping my speakers (currently still have the stores demo pair till mine can be installed).
Music sounds incredible, so easy and enjoyable. I’ve discovered I’m definitely sensitive to harshness in the high frequencies. When my mum puts her music on via her Bose portable speaker dock I can’t cope and have to be in another room and with my previous setups I’ve struggled with often wanting my music quite low with my new speakers this isn’t an issue. I still won’t play super loud (over 80 db for example) but I definitely enjoy music at a decent volume now.
Only change I’m looking forward to in 2024 is getting a proper rack/tv unit.
I recently changed three levels of silver Fraim to black. I bought the spacers new in black.
I also replaced a 4xRCA to DIN cable with a 2XLR to DIN which served between the 552 and my Violectric V281 headphone amp. And finally I replaced the V281 with a Violectric Niimbus 4 HPA. Which was, IMHO, like going from 252 to 552. I guess this more or less is the end of the road for me as I intend to keep my 500-series gear for the next 15 years. The Niimbus was the icing on the cake. The Focal Utopia headphones will also keep being great, no matter what else comes on the market. The Harbeth 40.2s sound and look great and I can not see me changing them for something else.
