So, having bought a Supercap dr for a decent price 5 months ago, i now find myself moving from a recently serviced 282 to an unserviced 252. This was never really the plan, as the SC was intended for my Superline.
The 252 is an early model, but immaculate. It will go for service to bring it back to a factory standard.
So, those that have gone 282 to 252, what can i expect ?
My experience doing the same thing, initially thought I’d made a mistake. Soon realised that I much preferred the 252. I can listen to the system for hours on end with no fatigue and it just gets me closer to the meaning of the music. I don’t have Fraim so mine sits on Stillpoints, which I find open things up nicely without any obvious negatives.
Good luck with yours.
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I really enjoyed my upgrade from 282 to 252DR. For me the 252 is more my kind of performance, measured, detailed and hugely emotional without drawing attention to itself. it made my CDX2 sound wonderfully enjoyable, where as the 282 often sounded too hot with the CDX2.
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The 282 has appeared more forward and bright over the past year. The cd555psu on the ndx2 and the Superline on vinyl certainly added additional detail. Downside is than on some recordings it can be tiring. Its a very fune balance.
Id a 252 can tame this brigtness that will be good. I did feel a bit cheated that i wasnt getting the full benefit from the Supercap. I will look forward to wrestling that into position. Do i let it droop or support it or what ?
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It’s been a while since I did that: 282/HCDR → 282/SCDR → 252/SCDR
The 252 is a great upgrade and I have now had it for 5+ years. Everything is better about it. I honestly have no desire to move up from it.
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I did the whole, 282 with one HCdr to two, then the SCdr. Definitely a big change from one to two HCs. I know a lot will not agree with that.
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I have heard 2 big upgrades side by side
Chord Hugo 1 VS Chord Dave into a 172/250.2/Dynaudio Confidence C1 (the Chord Hugo sounded broken compared to the Dave)
Chord Dave/282HCDR/500DR vs Chord Dave 552/DR/500DR (the 552 walked all over the 282)
Both of them are major, massive upgrades in sound quality.
But I still chose to upgrade the source and keep my 282/HCDR.
It has been 8 years nice, no regrets about my decision to go for a source upgrade rather than an amplifier upgrade.
Still though, I must admit a 252/SCDR is a nice preamp… wish I had one… 
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I’m kind of with @marksnaim above.
Mine was an 82 with sc rather than 282, but they’re similar. Initially, I’ll be honest, I wondered what all the fuss was about moving to 252. From everything I’d read on here, I was expecting a lot from the switch. Using all of the supercap and a supposedly much better preamp etc etc. The initial feeling was a little ‘hmmm’.
What I would say is be prepared for things to initially feel a bit underwhelming. It takes quite a while to settle. Not hours or days… A good few weeks. When it does eventually settle, there’s no real fireworks either.
What I would say, is you initially miss the forwardness and upfront nature of the 82/282, then you just start to appreciate what it does do better. It’s definitely more detailed, but it’s not the same sound. It’s quite a bit more refined and that takes a bit of adjustment initially. The detail is there, the speed is there… but you start to notice that things sound rounder, more realistic, more textured, more depth, more natural, more separated. It is definitely better, but it is a more subtle change than I thought it would be.
The other thing I’d also say, is that it’s very sensitive to setup. I’ve had to re-set mine up a couple of times to get the cable management better. It definitely makes a difference and I’d recommend you try and get it right first time, or it can be a bit underwhelming. I just dropped mine into the space my 82 was and my fault, had to reset it up again taking more time and care to the cables, especially the Burndy.
On the whole though, now it’s settled in, got the setup right etc, I’m definitely happier!
Enjoy it when it arrives back from service!
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I went 82 HiCap, 2 HiCaps then Supercap 2. Supercap 2 was big upgrade.
52 Supercap 2 worked beautifully with 135s and also 500DR.
252 will work great! Congratulations.
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Im still holding out with my non naim power amp. But realistically would need a 500dr to replace what i have.
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For those in the know: does the 252 and supercap have a seperate winding to power the superline? I know the 282 didn’t and the 552 does.
Im currently powering the SL via a HCdr, but if i can remove that and power direct from the 252 with no change in performance that would be usefull.
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One thing at a time. See how the 252 works out for you first. It may well be all you need.
I believe that the 252 can power the Superline but I have no experience of it. Maybe it’s because it makes full use of Supercap’s power rails.
Someone else will hopefully confirm this with more knowledge than me.
I powered a Superline from a 252 for over a year and it sounded great. Then I bought a second Supercap DR for the Superline and it was a significant upgrade. Neverletess, a 252-powered Superline is great stuff.
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Currently im trying to avoid powering the superline with a(nother) supercap. I can see why it would make sense, but…
Intrested in how 252 owners power their Superlines.
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You may find it better powered by 252 than by a HiCap DR. See how you get on. You’ll find out soon enough.
Others have said in other threads that using a HCDR doesn’t really add anything worth the cost, than to powering from a 252 (or 552). I never tried a HCDR. I went from 252-powered Superline straight to a SCDR.
I’m about to move my Superline and Supercap DR on for someone else to enjoy. I still need to figure whether it’s better to list them as a package or separately.
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I believe that 52, 252 and 552 all have a separate line to power the SL.
We did a lot of A/B comparisons on what power option we liked best.
With my 82, I had a Hicap to power Superline. With the 52, we did the same. As advised, we tried it with power from 52, but we also moved from Krystal to Lyra Kleos at the same time, which muddied the waters a bit. In any event, we didn’t find Hicap power definitely better or worse - I was picking the difference well but failing to pick a consistent preference.
Then we spent a few £ on the recommended Airplug for the Lyra and tried again. Now there was no question that power from the 52 was better than from a Hicap. Some have said that using a 52/252/552 to power the SL means degrading its performance as a preamp when using other inputs. Several of us listened for that, but none of us could hear it.
More generally, the move from a preamp so focused on foot-tapping boogie to one with more space, more detail, quieter background and so on took my ears a couple of weeks to appreciate (though everyone else that listened reckoned it was better straight away). Comparing again after a few weeks showed that they were right all along - the 52 was NOT less exciting or involving but it was less obvious.
Playing Zeppelin sounded great but not that much better than through 82, but playing Miles Davis sounded vastly better. However, a lot of classical music and jazz that had not been wholly gripping to me in 20 years on the 82 got a lot easier to get into with the 52.
A 52 (or 252) is great with a 250, better with 135s, better again (imho) with a 300DR, and not at all overwhelmed with the mighty 500. It’s that good - as long as your sources are good enough not be shown up and you do spend a bit of time doing you best with cable-knitting (it doesn’t have to be perfect but you’ll probably find 30 minutes fiddling is time well spent)
If I hadn’t seen a great offer of a 552DR, and hadn’t improved my sources again, I would have stuck with and still been 100% happy with my 52 today.
Let us know what you think after a couple of weeks listening.
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Sounds like it will depend on the turntable and cart for @Thegreatroberto.
The 252 will give more options on all fronts.
Like I have said I thought the 52 into 500DR was excellent and could have happily stopped there.
And the 252 allows you to power the Superline directly.
Hopefully you’ll like the 252 sound.
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I don’t buy that notion either. If it were true when I relieved my 252 of it’s SL-powering duties, by adding a dedicated Supercap, then my NDX2/XPSDR should have improved, since the SL was no longer ‘dragging the 252 down’ as they say. I heard no improvement at all. I thought about adding a 2nd SL since I have two tonearms, one SCDR-powered, one 252-powered. In the end I chose a different phono-stage altogether.
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