Hi, I have upgraded my 282/HCDR/250DR to 252/SCDR/300DR few days ago. These are 2021 built units that have been in storage for a while. How long do you think it would take to sound at their best? It sounds certainly better than 282/250, but not as much as I might have expected, probably not yet.
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My dealer always tells me to give it three weeks before seriously listening to how something sounds.
My only comment might be to try your kit with and without the fancy feet. Naim do a great job of tuning everything, even their rubber feet, to work well with the sound.
Good luck with your new kit and enjoy your music.
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Three weeks is quite a long time. I didn’t know it would take that long. I have tried without feet before, but sounds compressed and slow. I will look into proper HiFi rack in the future.
The key with the NAC252 + Supercap is getting the Burndy and SNAIC5 right. Exercise the Burndy by taking each plug (orientated as they would be inserted into the socket) in each hand with the cable looped between and then swing the cable while twisting your wrists holding the connectors. This will gradually relax and form the cable so that when you go top insert it between the 252 and Supercap it will be nice and relaxed with no tension, particularly the socket ends. Then connect the SNAIC5 ensuing it closely follows the same path as the Burndy (you can cross it once if necessary). This makes a surprising difference for the better and will really ensure that the sound is as open as possible.
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As Richard has pointed out a lot of the settling is to do with things like the burndy cable relaxing, things coming up to temperature and the general burn-in of components. These won’t be night and day differences but after three weeks the sound with just seem to gel and optimise.
Your rack does look like an awful lot of glass and steel, and saying that your kit sounds compressed and slow without the feet makes me think it might not be a good fit for your Naim kit. I would seriously look at a proper rack. A Fraim is the obvious choice or Quadraspire?
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Thank you Richard. I have successfully dressed Burndy and SNAIC as you have instructed. Do used units that have been powered down for a while still take time to sound right?
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Fraim is what I would like to go for.
It’s really difficult to allocate them in my country after the Focal Naim merger though.
Focal distributor has taken business of former Naim distributor, and wouldn’t take orders other than black boxes. No Superlumina, no Powerline , and no Fraim anymore.
Yes. After a long period of storage it’s not unusual to take some days to really come on song and maybe even a couple of weeks to reach their optimum level. Funnily enough I found the NAP300 to be the one that took longest.
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Although I don’t use Fraim for my 282, 250DR and HicapDR, my experience is the rack is more important than isolators used on the rack. In summary,
Poor rack + isolators on components = Poor sound
Good rack with or without isolators = Good sound
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They will need sometime to sound there best installation and the support are extremely important to get the best.
Both my 252 and 300dr took some considerable time to open up if I recall about three months ??
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You make me to want Fraim even more…
Three months? Hope mine come on sing sooner than that since these are pre owned ones.
My experience of required warm up is also a good couple of weeks. There is a minority on the forums that say they prefer the 282 to the 252 but my view is it’s highly likely they have not dressed cables properly or allowed sufficient warm up.
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I would say: 2 - 3 weeks.
I own both systems and ultimately one could summarise them as:
forward and fun vs smooth and sophiaticated
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Of course Fraim may be the best support for Naim components but I’m not actually recommending it. I’m just sharing my experience on the racks that I’ve used in my system as follows.
- Finite Elemente Spider - used with Naim components for more than a decade, still using it with the Naim.
- Cheap made in China rack - owned for a short period. Tried it with the Naim and it didn’t sound good, added Nobsound isolators in various configurations and although there was an improvement in sound quality it’s still an overall poor sound. Sold it after a while.
- Solid Tech Rack of Silence Reference - Everything sounds good on this rack though it’s mainly used with the Gryphon and Luxman.
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Perhaps wait for the 252/300 to settle down before making a drastic change. If the previous 282/250DR/HicapDR sounds good or decent on the same rack, you should be getting more from the 252/300DR.
Nevertheless, the Fraim will likely bring even more. 
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My 252/300 is very, very happy on a Quadrispire rack. And it didn’t take very long to hit its stride.
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282/250 sounded good except I wanted more bass depth and punch. With 252/300 now, I do have more of them, but without definition. There is a bit of treble fatigue too. Settling in of Naim boxes aside, I suspect bundle DIN-XLR could be the reason. I had full loom of TP Koltura interconnects with 282/250, and used to that warm and organic sound signature. I have new ones for 252/300 on order.
I like their X-Reference racks. Very expensive though.
My mouth fell open when I swapped from 282/250 to 252/300 (bought used, didn’t need running in)…hope you’ll have a similar reaction once bedded in!
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