Don’t be so sure the 82 is better than the 72. I clearly preferred the 72 in an extended shootout. There is a reason that the 72 is used in a number of DBL systems.
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Do you know what, I see and hear a lot of love for the 72, but little for the 82 and 92.
I can see that the form factor of 72 has appeal. For me at least.
Given its list price back in the day vs that for the smaller form factors, it does not appear to have held its price.
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Loving an 82 here… 
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Loving the 72 here 
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The 72 was selling for around 700 pounds back in the day, and I see good condition ones still list for 600 pounds nowadays. Not bad in terms of holding value.
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Yep. Even better if you’ve also managed to get 25 years use. Almost an investment!
Not sure how much of their price not is lockdown related. Would be interested to hear from others what prices were like say 2 years ago.
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Where did you find your 72/140? The good condition ones see very difficult to find.
Me? Ebay, I’m afraid to say. Spoke to plenty of dealers, go no replies.Did feel like buying a second hand Rolex. Build the relationship, buy stuff you don’t want, get added to a list.
My pair are near mint, boxed, manual, lead, snaic…originally supplied by Billy V. An element of luck and timing. And a grand!
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The issue with the 72 not holding its price (until lately) is simply that Naim made so many.
I’d like to think that was because they were damd good!
I found finding a decent one hard.
Check out ebay. There is a 42 or 62, can’t remember, but some daft sod has dropped power supply inside it! Yep, really. He is almost selling this tosh as a benefit. Absolute sacrilege.
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I saw that. Poor 42.5. Probably one of the stupidest things I’ve seen.
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As I said above I used mine for 25 years. There are a few happy long term 82 users here.
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For most of the year that I owned my NAC 72, I was dissatisfied with it because I made the mistake of comparing it to the newly launched NAC 52 just after I bought it.
I still have my NAC 52.
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The 72 is the top of its class; the 82 was never “Naim’s best preamp”. 
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I think you meant the 102 wasn’t Naim’s best.
I didn’t mean like that - at some point the 72 was literally the nicest Naim preamp you could buy. The 82, nice as it is, never was the top of the hierarchy.
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True, but Naim did bring in 2 models above it. I loved my 72, but was very happy when I replaced it with the 82.
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Same, never moving
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Plenty of dealers - no reply. Are these people insane?
As @Richard.Dane stated that I agree with in another thread, “The big pre-amps [olive] present a much wider window on the source compared to the NAC72. That asks a lot more of the source, for one thing.
However, maybe you just prefer the NAC72. And in the right system, it probably does seem to perform better. It has an easier time sounding good because it doesn’t bother too much with the frequency extremes, top or bottom. That’s the secret of the earlier pre-amps.”
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