Again everyone thank you for supporting this thread!!! lets keep the pressure on …
2 Likes
Just received my brand new 272 this afternoon, unboxed and installed, linked to my UnitiLite amplifier using a cheap phono lead to hand and spent a couple of hours running through familiar recordings to convince myself it was truly an upgrade. Very happy with it.
4 Likes
Remember that we all had turntables back in the day. I often had my 42 at 1 o’clock with a 110 and Kans. It was lovely.
Remember that you are still going through the Lite’s preamp, so you won’t be hearing anything like the full potential of the 272. Are you thinking of swapping it for a 200 or 250? If it’s brand new it must be one of the very last to be made.
I’m aware Nigel that the Lite is serving as a temporary measure, and through a totally naff cable too. Even so the improvement is unmistakable. I have just played Ella singing Gershwin’s But not for Me, Sinatra with Why Try To Change Me Now, Annie Lennox No More ‘I Love You’s’, Barbara Dickson with Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust, Angela Hewitt’s Bach Nun komm der Heiden Heiland and Wilhelm Kempff with the adagio from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata. Bliss. Even at low level as befits the time of the evening all these sound so much better than I have heard them before and the improvement in bass is perhaps the most evident, yet with crystal clarity in voices and higher piano notes. I begin to realise I have found Naim far too late in my life.
It is indeed one of the last to be manufactured and when funds allow will be partnered with a 250. The Lite will be stored as that also is too good to be traded in.
1 Like
I don’t think anything about the classic range is retro. Nothing screams 2000AD at me. A person might project a retro feeling if they know the styling is 20 years old but I doubt if you were coming to Naim as a newbie you’d think “That NDX2 looks old fashioned and retro”
the update to the 272 is already available - it is the NDX2 or ND5XS2.
the NDX2 can use used with XPS into the analog inputs of the 272
the ND5xs2 can be used in the same way - but also through digital output into the DAC of the 272.
Which sounds better, hope some lucky person can report back to us…?
I think the 272 with XPSDR can be a very good DAC/PREAMP if updated with the ND5XS 2 streamer…
He is referring to the design of the 42.5.
Problem is to a lot of people think our gear looks “old fashion”. None of my friends, kids or grandkids have a decent hi fi. Very few people I know have a decent hi fi or even an appreciation for it . Most people I know listen on a one box solution, the car or headphones, it’s background for most of the time. The market for our kind of hi fi is shrinking (to be blunt dying), we’re lucky there’s still enough of us left that it’s worth producing.
2 Likes
Haha. Well in that case, less retro and more “made in a shed chic”. 
1 Like
The upgrade to it isn’t just an NDX2 tho. Upgrades should be a step up, not binning half of a box’s functionality.
It’s been said a couple of times but bears repeating: to upgrade from a 272 / 555PS is a huge leap, cost-wise, unless you’re happy that a 272 as a pre-amp is good enough and are happy to have half of it sitting there with its arms folded looking at the floor like a sulky toddler.
NDX2: £5300
252: £7000
Supercap: £4900
2 x Fraim levels: £1200
£18,400, to move on from a 272. Maybe that’s Naim’s plan, that we won’t want to move sideways and by removing this neat one-box answer the way forward is to virtually double what it’s already cost to get to this point. It’s a no thanks from me.
Maybe its had its day as Naim can see that for those who bought into the 272 and want to upgrade, do hit this stumbling block eventually.
I believe that the biggest problem is the lack of culture. If there’s both interest and culture, people will eventually buy these products, if they can afford them. It doesn’t have to be a 272, one might start with a Nait 5SI and still enjoy good music. Unluckily People generally prefer practicality rather than quality.
1 Like
you already all knew that the 272 was upgradeable all the way to PS555 when you purchased it but it would be a dead end after that.
In the same way though - the 282 with a supercap is not a 252 or a 552
1 Like
Not so. I was moving from a Nait 5i + CD5 and had no intention of getting onto the upgrade merry-go-round. That just happened - the plan was to swap a quite good setup for a very good one one and then stop, but I can’t blame my dealer for refusing to sell me a 272 on the basis that in 2-3 years I’d be at a dead end as streaming tech improved and Naim failed to replace a core product.
1 Like
Agree Pete - they don’t know ( probably don’t care ) what they are missing
How is the 272 a dead end ? Has it stopped working ?
An Ndx2 is not a nd555 but does that make it a dead end ?
You get what u pay for.
I have a 282 but I’m under no illusion that it’s a 252 even with a Supercap
1 Like
Realistically a 282 powered by a Hicap is an upgrade over the pre in the 272. Not a huge upgrade granted. The real dilemma resolved around the 272/555PS combo @ £11200
vs the NDX2/282/HC @ £11800. Factor in the additional functionality of the new streaming platform and you can see why the 272 replacement hasn’t appeared yet…
I’m a happy owner of a 272 / 250 DR combo. If I would like to upgrade to a 282/HC and include an NDX2, I would face an outlay of EUR 13.875 here in the Netherlands.
For me this is a difference too great to overcome …
One of the reasons I bought a 272 was its lack of upgradeability other than the power supplies. In some ways, the longer a replacement doesn’t appear, the happier I am. It’s a funny thing with Naim that so many feel the need to constantly upgrade. I confess that I was seriously afflicted in the past and ended up with a 552 etc. Maybe that’s why I’m content now with my 272. Having owned a 252 and a 552 in the past I wouldn’t upgrade to a separate streamer and preamp unless it was a 555 and 552, but that’s too expensive and to me the difference is not worth it.
The last time I spoke to Naim about the replacement they said that ‘we are doing the streamers first’, not that they are never going to do a new 272. One thing looks certain - the 272 has cannibalised sales of separates as it performs at a level well above what you’d expect for the money. There are loads of users on the Forum with one. Would they have got separates if the 272 didn’t exist? Would they have bought Naim at all? I think if I ever wanted a change from my 272 I’d get a Linn KDSM. No way am I having even more boxes and all those blasted extra Burndies.
7 Likes