Yes, I did move to 282/SuperCap DR for a short while.
To me it improved the resolution a bit and relaxed things but it wasn’t a wow upgrade to me, worthwhile as a stepping stone to the 252 and certainly better than running with a Hicap DR.
I could have stayed at 282/Hicap DR/300 DR quite easily.
Of the three upgrades to the amp - 282/Hicap DR/250DR to 252/SuperCap DR/300 DR the 300DR was the largest upgrade, followed by the 252 and finally the SuperCap on the 282. Of course the SuperCap was a necessary step to go to the 252.
To me as well the 282 is an incredible value, depending on my mood and on the music sometimes I prefer 252 sometimes not. For sure 282 with classic rock is an incredible marriage. Recently I moved to sn3 and the 282 could be a logical upgrade. I m only curious if the new amp topology in the sn3 will be extended to 250 as well. The sn3 gained space and details
Completely agree Trickydickie the 300 (mine none DR but recently serviced) is a peach of an amp and sits well with my 282/HCDR. Some may say this is a bit of a mullet as the 300 deserves the 252 but I would disagree as the 282/HCDR/300 is a beautiful match and takes some beating
Totally agree the 282 & 300 work well together, for me the 282 & SC or SCDR really makes the 282 shine, only bettered by 252 which is where I am now and to me the perfect match os 252/300 with analogue
It’s a lovely album with terrific engagement and a nice ‘mood’. It’s always been a favourite of mine.
When I first had the 252 this was soon played.
With the 282 there had always been a gorgeous openness to the sound and a warmth, maybe some coloration that made the album a compelling listen. You could become lost in the music.
With the fresh, serviced 252 the sound was sterile, lacked any openness or space and it was dull and uninteresting to listen to. Like somebody had swapped my lossless file for a low grade MP3.
I was so disappointed I haven’t listed to it since until yesterday evening.
What a transformation. There is more emotion in her voice and it now engages better than before. The only thing that is missing is that slight coloration to her voice which I must admit on this album was rather comforting. The 252 cleans this up without losing the beauty of her voice.
It’s dangerous to say I’m at the end game system now, I probably am not but I’m not looking to upgrade just for the sake of it.
I know, the Xerxes is a wonderful music making machine!
The height and position of the rack currently makes this difficult. I quite like the Fraim in the corner as the side view doesn’t look that great and 5 Burndies are impossible to hide! If the Fraim was put back against the wall then an extra level or bracket could be used but I think this will make it too imposing.
I could relocate the system to the other end of the room which would give more space, leaving the speakers where they are but that requires the dedicated radial to be moved and longer speaker cables. Then I could add a wall mount for the turntable or changed to say Simrack which would allow brain/brawn due to the narrower width.
Mines an original but bearing and platter was upgraded later. It’s close to mint and plays very well. It needs a bit of adjustment as the belt sometimes falls off on startup.
It replaced an LP12 Valhalla/Ittock/Karma. I preferred the verve and pace of the Xerxes to the Linn and it had a tight and more tuneful bass compared to the Linn at the time. Of course that was a long time ago (1985) so things have moved on since then.
The Xerxes almost seemed to be a record player for people who didn’t like record players. It lacked the warmth and coloration that its peers had at the time, sounding almost CD like but in a good way.
I’ve said before I only have a relatively small collection with some good stuff and some dross that I’m too embarrassed to mention. The NDS is hardly a shabby source and the music I now own gets played more but the Xerxes will hopefully have a future again in the system when the time is right.
Good news, my 252 was a demo so I didn’t have to wait that long. There’s definitely been an improvement over the past few weeks but I think that is the NDX2 settling in, it was brand new still in the box. Either way I’m extremely happy with the setup I have now. I was listening to the Monkees earlier (yes I know) and it took me back to standing in front of a black and white TV in the 60s watching their stupid show each night.
It’s funny this run in. I’ve always been rather dismissive of it.
My Supercap DR was new and has been consistent from the start as was my Hicap DR. My 250DR was ex demonstration but was only used over a weekend for a Hifi show (Signals) and didn’t change over time.
The 252 though, despite being elderly but unused since the service has taken a long time, many weeks to give its best.
The only other time I’ve experienced this type of change was with a Used Hicap which had been boxed up for some time and delivered at a very cold time of year. It was worse than the pre-amp being powered direct from my power amp (202/200) for over a week.
I’ve been lucky I’ve only made one mistake with my upgrades. I swapped my old Olive 202 for the V1 DAC, it was great piece of kit but I wanted a streamer.
My dealer made a comment when I picked up my 252/Supercap DR that the Supercap takes a week of being powered on per day it’s been turned off to really come back up to spec. There’s obviously an upper limit to this, bit it would suggest that settling in from cold could take quite some time
Crikey! We’ve been away 4 days, heading back today and I’ve powered off and unplugged as there were thunderstorm warnings. I’ll have to charge up the SC again. And then there’s an unexpected box swap to perform tomorrow .
Like Pete, my 252 has been burned in, but my 250 was fresh and that has definitely improved a lot over the last 3 weeks from fresh.