All--

OK--the CDS2 and 500 are out and selling quickly. The next obvious question is when the 52 replacement will come out or even be acknowledged. Anyone have any thoughts ?

Cheers,

Bob

Naim have recently denied that there is anything in the pipe line or for the forseable future.

Tom
Enjoying his new 52

Bob

I had a spate of thinking about this recently - I am currently saving my meagre pennies in an attempt to own a CDSII+XPS, but I did think of getting a NAC52+S'Cap instead - partly because it's (slightly) less dosh and partly because I already have a Naim CD player, albiet an entry level one.

Amongst the reasons I decided this course was:-

1) Recent convert - source first nazi
2) Despite it's round-earth properties, I quite like my current pre- and can live with it for a bit longer.
3) I thought the 52 was more likely to be replaced prior to the CDSII, and so by the time I've got some more spare dosh in the hi-fi budget I could get the new one instead of the 52. Especially as the NAP500 now exists, and a better performing pre- may deliver a better overall sound.

HOWEVER - I came up with some risks, which were as follows:-

1) Technology in the pre- compared to CD players etc.. maybe it could be argued that source technology is moving rather faster than the technology employed in a pre-, and thus the Naim SACD / DVD-A / universal player may come before a new pre-.
2) A non-AV Naim could go tits-up and there would be no more 52's produced.
3) Last time I heard the CDSII it was with a 52 + NAP500, so maybe I'm going to be disapointed with the result, wheras the 3.5+hi with 52 would be slightly better.

So - in summary - there are some good reasons for expecting a 52 replacement. But maybe the technology just doesn't exist - and if a NAC122 (right coding??) was produced to get the best from a NAP500, exactly how much would it be - and how many would Naim sell? Given the hot cake sales of the 5 series, maybe Naim will concentrate on some lower order development. Of course - most of the entry level stuff is based on lessons from the mighty gear ...

OK - decended into a stream-of-conciousness thing a bit ... but this was kinda how I figured it.

Jonathan

When we look at the poweramps, the 500 did not replace the 135's - so maybe a new preamp will not replace the 52, but be the new top-model with matching 500 style case, sound, price,...

In the new 5-series we find a few new features like volume control done with resistor ladder, inputs with variable gain, ect. wich are very nice and quite likely to show up in the bigger models in future I suppose.

Tom, could you join my "crossroads" thread and tell me something about your new 52 upgrade? Thanks!
Any 135 upgraders out there?

ˇ

happy listening

Adrian

Spooky coincidence, I've just written something about this in the 'Standing at the crossroads' thread.

Allan

Adrian--

You might well be right--it might make more sense if the new preamp was above the 52 and styled to match the 500. I seem to remember Julian on the old forum mention something about how there were unused elements in the 52 that could be pulled to make it sound better. Combined with some of the technology developed for the CDS2 (I'm thinking transistor rooms here) and the 500 (new transistors) I would think these elements, if they can be combined, would allow Naim to build a "super 52" that would surpass it in performance.

As to how many they would sell--the 500 appears to be figuratively flying out the door even at US $20,000, so I would think the market exists. Also remember the 52 came out in 1990, and while the PS has changed to the Supercap it is essentially unchanged (not counting the ongoing small improvements). So I would think that the timing is about right, the technology appears to have improved, and the market appears to exist.

Of course, I could be totally off base--although Naim has a colored history of denying products in development only to launch them shortly afterward.

OK, Paul--when should we see it ?

Cheers,

Bob @ Qwest

Your presuming that the 52 is a weak link in the system. This may not be the case. How's about a CDS - 500? If Linn can do the CD-12 why not Naim?

All--

The silence on this is deafening--especially from the good folks at Salisbury. My dealer agrees that a new preamp is coming, styled to match the 500 with performance to match. Unfortunately no one official will say anything--perhaps in Vegas ?

Cheers and Merry Christmas !

Bob