I’ve never owned a 252, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s mostly myth. The only real difference I’ve heard on my 282 was when I placed it on AUVA EQs, there was no change in sound when it swapped positions from the top shelf to the second shelf. To add context to my opinion, I don’t own Fraim or follow Naim’s brain/brawn philosophy.
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It can sound very soft and boring if not installed correctly.
A lot of stuff on the forum is myth, and this is one of them. I’ve had a 252 and 552 and there was no issue with setting up a 252. There is a tendency to make things more complicated than necessary in these threads.
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It’s a shame that when you’ve bought one of the world’s best amplifiers, it ideally needs to be suspended on elastic bands or floating in the air. It makes no sense that Naim has designed such a fantastic preamplifier without including elastic bands or other accessories so that it can perform at its best. Furthermore, Naim does not consider it a problem that the cabinet resonates at certain frequencies. This makes it difficult to be a serious audiophile.
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I think it’s too easy around here to panic over stuff. The 252 is a great sounding pre and just needs a stable shelf to sound great. You can improve things with better isolation but that’s just as true for many things not made by Naim too (I use more isolation and damping for my Boulder phono-stage than for my Naim). If you don’t take things with a grain of salt around here you’ll never stop to enjoy the music.
As I noted above I’ve broken a sacrosanct forum mantra about siting Naim components, by stacking my 252 and 300 together, and it sounds better than it did on Fraim.
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What, one box sat literally on top of the other?
Yes, see the photo I posted above. 300 on bottom, four HRS Nimbus dampers on top the 300, and the 252 sits on those dampers.
I have a second HRS EXR rack coming in any time now. That will replace my other Fraim. I will have two more shelves with stacked Naim components separated by dampers. NDX2/XPSDR and 300PS/SCDR.
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As others have mentioned I don’t think this is a “specific to 252 thing”, more so just in general as you move to better/more resolving kit, the more they can potentially benefit from being optimized.
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It does certainly not want anything soft under it.
Try without the book 
laying on it,you might prefer the musicality out from the speakers.
Naim have always unashamedly produced products that need careful setup, whether that’s racking, cable choice, cable dressing or whatever. It’s a fundamental part of their design philosophy which has tended to have mechanical as well as electrical engineering at its heart. Some like it, others don’t, but I’d say that most of those who do are in some way “serious audiophiles”. Others either tolerate it, ignore it and set things up differently, or choose other brands.
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I don’t think that it is possible if using an external DAC. I am now playing Pink Floyd DSOTM SACD through my Marantz SA12SE. And just to confirm it won’t play through the ND555 as a transport. I have tried it just now and have tried it before also.
But it sounds amazing direct through 552DR 500DR, without the ND555 as DAC.
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That’s odd though. I have that SACD and play it on my Cambridge CX UHD as a transport into my ND555. But, as the ND555 doesn’t have a HDMI input you need a HDMI embedder between the transport and the ND555 to play a DSD format (or hi-res PCM for that matter) as the transport won’t output DSD using optical or coaxial digital outputs. What outputs does the SA12SE have?
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Coaxial digital, optical outputs only.
It sounds better as SACD vs CD into ND555 DAC anyhow.
Not an issue for me. The Marantz DAC is very good also. I have used it in the past through Lindeman Bridge. It sounded softer than ND555 DAC, but for the money I paid for it , it makes you question why have I spent so much money on ND555 and 2 x 555 PSDRs!
Generally the ND555 is clearer and more exacting than Marantz DAC, but there isn’t a great deal in it.
The DAC on the Marantz is better than ND5XS2 bare. Different sound signature.
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I moved the book, but it made no difference. Maybe I should try another author or title…? 
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Peter please take a break from here and try to listen to some music . I visit here every single day and enjoy it immensely but the amount of contradicting information and, and at times, utter garbage is unbelievable. Audiophilia is a condition whereby you enter into a constant spiralling circle of searching for better even though you don’t actually know what better is. New kit arrives or old kit is repositioned and the usual biases take over until the next imagined bottleneck arrives and then the cycle begins again and again and again until you realise you’re searching for moving targets. Relentlessly this continues because the system is perpetually nearly there, within reach and almost sounding perfect, almost. You’ve got to love audiophiles who spend more time tweaking their system than listening to it
Listening to advice on here is mostly great and there are some really knowledgable people on here but for the most part it’s best to trust ones ears and ready yourself with pinches of salt. At the end of the day, the best advice is the advice that helps you enjoy the music more, not the advice that sends you down endless rabbit holes.
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I would think that no titel is good on top of the Nac 252 
Very important is to route the Snaic 5 and the Burndy as mentioned in the manual.
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I like your explanation Akh. Thanks, I will enjoy.. You can easily stress yourself with all these rabbits around you 
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It’s also sad not to do the cable routing correct and lose sound quality on such an expensive Pre amp.
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I heard the Isis like you. But preferred the Cdx2/Xps2 at that time.
Not heard the Hegel. The Cyrus 40 anniversary should be very good too.