To 52 or not to 52?

Challenging with B&W804S. :grinning:

Sounds like the perfect excuse to upgrade to some SBLs :wink:

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I have very little experience of the current Naim electronics, but agree with your comments comparing the Black and Olive.

Olive is a bit more ragged but when it’s on it, it’s ON it…

Any significant change in my system will probably involve active 'speakers (ATC, maybe?) retaining the 52

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Or kudos…

Recently bought a mint 52/sc servicrd in 2014 and I totally agree. Thrilling.

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Mine is probably in need of a service - it is a 2001 vintage and has never been back to naim. But surprisingly nothing much seems to be wanting… from what these old ears can hear anyway!

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Hi Robbo, has the 52’s power supply ever been serviced? If not, I would recommend it PDQ to be honest.

We’ve just had our olive Supercap serviced after only 10 years and the audible benefits are evident. However, if it’s 20 years since a service, then the failure modes may be much more harmful.

Best regards, BF

Probably worth doing - while I’m at it the 135s too, which were last serviced in 2004. How much better it will be is questionable, as listening to the system now (great recording admittedly - Jen Chapin’s Linger) and it is truly astounding how good this old amplification is sounding.

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Gosh Robbo, your NAP135s really will benefit from a service. We hear the benefit of servicing our NAP135s every 7 years because the internal regulation in the power amps works the power supply caps much harder than in the other Naim power supply boxes, so the power amps age must faster.

Darran at Class A in Sheffield offers a much faster and less expensive service than Naim’s Service Dept. these days.

Best regards

BF

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The output of this Sunday’s afternoon - bit of a mish mash, but it is sounding appreciably more refined than the 7 high tower of stacked boxes that I was listening to over the last weeks!
Still using the old Graham’s power block from 20 years back (remember those?) - back into service :slight_smile:

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and this is the mess that will become the basement system!

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Looks like an NDS and an ND555 are in the rig. Ehat’s the power supply above olive box bottom right.

Would be good if you let us know what the boxes are.

Looking good @Robbo.

I know it’s temporary but you want the NDS and preamp on the left and all power supplies on the right.

I am sure you know all about stacking left brain and right brawn.

Cheers,

Dan

Good spot Dan, it is an NDS with 555 PS, plus I am running an NDX2 for occasional multi-room duties (we have a qube in the kitchen area also, good to have that surround sound capability when we have people over for drinks (remember that?) etc as NDS does not offer that). Otherwise use the NDS which sounds really rather good with the olive stuff.
The benefit of retiring the 82 means the hi-cap is freed up to power the headline.
So in order, clockwise, P9, NDS, NDX2, PS555, P9 PS, 135, 135, supercap, hicap, headline & dynavector phone stage tucked behind, and the 52.

I will prob reorganise , but I kinda like the olive stuff together - for now :slight_smile:

Will also get another level for the P9 PS and bring the 500 gap down to the normal height, if I can get hold of an old discontinued cherry shelf.

It’s a work in progress, I can see that and it looks great. I have a mix of olive, CB and black boxes.

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Those CBs look very cool

Congratulations on upgrading to the NAC52 !

It will keep you going, until in a while when you can start thinking about upgrading again to the NAC72… :sunglasses:
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Just kidding :grinning:

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