Don’t shoot me but just a thought; do you think Naim will release an update to their NAC 252 / 552 Preamplifiers anytime soon. For me I don’t need separate banks of buttons for listening and recording, yes I know some of you will find this useful, but I for one don’t actually need to record music as I mainly stream or play CD / vinyl music through the system. Also the current units, I suspect, are relatively old design now and would benefit from newer features / tweaks similar to the supernait 3, such as a streaming labelled button added to support the NDX 2 or 555. It might also be good to include a jack plug / output or Bluetooth output to support headphone connection, again like the supernait, the former anyway. It is possible that the above changes may actually make the units slightly cheaper with the removal of the second row of buttons whilst hopefully still maintaining their high quality output.
We all seem to get along fine with the slightly wonky input button labels – I find it more “disturbing” that there isn’t an input labeled “Phono.” I’m not sure if I’ve read anything addressing that. My ND555 plays through the “CD” input and my tt is via Aux 1.
I suppose that Naim could take the $35,000 552, remove a row of input buttons, and then sell it for $34,500 plus or minus. Quite a victory for the consumer!
Good question. I was thinking about this, as i did not need all the inputs. I had the opportunity of a Naim hosted demo at my dealer with Statement and 500 series. Yes the S1 is definitely better, but the gap between 552 and S1 suggests, it would need to be a top down overhaul, otherwise they would be too close for comfort imo.
In the end i bought the 552, life is too short to wait.
Phono would mean inbuilt phono stage and that is not the case for most of the preamps. However, I don’t really know how it’s marked in SN3.
Maybe that’s traditional? I dont know why it would HAVE to be that way – not having to remember that the tt is on Aux 1 would be a bonus ha ha.
I checked SN3 and it has phono button so that would support my theory.
As had been said, removing the extra buttons would save pennies. The thing that I feel would really improve the separate preamps is a new volume control. The digitally controlled analogue volume on the 272 is a delight, increasing steadily from 0 to 100. The preamps, by contrast, go from virtually silent to deafening with only a very modest flick of the wrist.
I know this has come up from time to time here. Im sure that the marginal costs of the parts for ‘all those inputs’ is relatively small, and clearly they do not injure the sound or Naim would not have them. And given that these pre-amps are well ‘dialed in,’ the sheer costs in time and effort to re-do the boards and front and rear panels just to remove some inputs, and then make sure nothing got messed up in the process, seems on the wrong side of the ‘is this worth it’ line.
We’re loving our 552, too!
agreed, and then there’s the traditional channel imbalance with the Alps pot at the lower positions on the dial.
as for the extra row of buttons, they’re quite helpful if you run an external headphone amp via the “tape out” function. well worth the extra pennies.
AND, controlling the digital volume via the Naim App is a delight as well; the slider works well. But using the App with the analog control is crazy; also goes from silent to deafening with but a tap-and-hold of short duration. The only thing I’ve figured out to do is a long series of very short taps. Tap tap tap tap tap and hope to get the volume up or down to where I want it.
For me, the automation control from the app is perfect.
Very sensitive and easy to use.
The pre-amps need a headphone stage to temp me.
You can reprogramme the 9 input sockets to any of the 6 source buttons on a 552 so I just have my TT set to the button on the right hand end because I’m used to that from when I ran the superline from the powered AUX2 of my 282.
Would the current preamp power-supplies be up to it? Or would you have to upgrade to new series of PSU:s?
The wonky volume control of 202/282/252 bugs me more than anything, and the Naim app is pretty worthless in that regard. I have no complaints about the double bank of buttons or their labels.
Naim should cancel the 552 and go back to the Nait 2
While not being familiar with the Naim Pre amps, I do really like the slow subtle increases in volume on the SN2. Makes a very welcome and practical change to all my previous amps/ pre amps from various manufacturers.
My personal opinion is that the pre amp lineup certainly warrants a refresh and at minimum rewording of the input buttons.
The pre amps haven’t been updated for years and I would think they will be next inline. When however, that’s anyone’s guess.
If it ain’t broke…
You could be right…
compared with other brands, they have to bring out in 2020 new:
Pre amps [552 is 13years in the market ?]
DAC (though I don‘t see the reason because of their new streaming line)
HDX 2 [
]…Melco, Innous, Aurender like
Phono stage
Active speaker