The end of my Naim system was caused by sending my NAC82 away for servicing at Naim, it cost a stupid amount of money to change a handful of capacitors, took ages, and in the mean time I had to lash up a passive pot from some bits I had in the garage. Putting the newly serviced 82 and its three PSUs back into the system was a huge disappointment... preamps can only degrade the sound - in fact every component can only degrade - you can't add quality - but I was surprised that my lash up was better than the 82. A 52 is probably better than an 82, but in the end, you may find simplifying the chain may reap great dividends.