hi
can anyone on the forum tell me if any improvements(upgrades) were made to the 82 through its production life. and will an early one sound any different to a newer one.


andy k

When I bought my s/h one my dealer said it had a stable production life. He said the 52 had some relatively important changes during it's period.

Life is analogue, enjoy it while you can.

hi wolf
thats reassuring to know that thanks.


andy k

Andy,

I cannot recall exactly the thread, nut I think the evolutions have consisted in minor changes and mainly concerned the potentiometers !
There is an easy tweak to be done with old 82 (mine is from 1993) which consists in cutting the plastik link bounding the harness supplying the potentiometer.
This has given a little plus !
However it is not a good VFM to let your 82 be upgraded at latest level, in comparison with Power supplies / Power amps recapping.
As Wolf mentioned your question is most sensitive for NAC52.

Jean-Claude

hi jean-claude
many thanks i will try that tweek when i purchase the 82.

andy k

I think there were many changes, a lot of which were in line with those made to the 52.

The main one is the pots board, which is final spec at v7 or v8 (can't remember exactly), and which changed in 2000. This is a major one and apparently is worth the upgrade according to Naim. There are many others which can be done but are apparently not quite so cost-effective, i.e. go for a late 82 if you're buying one.

The difference between an early and a late 82 should be immediately apparent, although please note I've never compared the two myself.

Hope this helps,

Stephen

Hello Andy,

My 82 is a recently-purchased 10-year-old example, and at the time of purchase, I had exactly the same questions as you. The dealer, however, was really helpful, and provided an A/B demo against a very late model, even opening up both preamps for an internal viewing. Both sounded virtually identical, with the older model being very slightly rounder and softer at the edges. I'm told that servicing and recapping (which Naim recommend at 10 years anyway) will ameliorate this.

The money I saved bought me a Supercap!! Now THAT made a difference.....

Kind regards

hi stevo
thanks for that i will try to get as new an amp as possible.

andy k

hi kevin
thats very interesting to know many thanks for the info. i bet the 82 is excellent with the supercap.

andy k

Hi Kevin ,

I did not know that recapping / servicing was also for preamps such as 82. I thought it was more focussed on power amps !?
Do you think I have to ship it to NAIM, or a dealer would fix everything ?

Jean-Claude

Hello Jean-Claude,

No, Naim also provide a service facility for preamps. If you email Adam Meredith, he will give you the cost. I think you will have to ship your unit to Naim.

Regards

Kevin,

Many thanks for advise..
I will do it

Jean-Claude