Fwiw, and of course I'd not say anything different, a 282 is vastly overpriced from an SQ point of view. If you add prestige, overall product quality and long term support and its ability to retain value, then maybe its price can be justified. I abandoned naim some time ago.
I owned one once and liked it, but to get the best out of it required a supercap! For most people that's a lot of green. You can get much better sound for less.
I'd broadly agree. The 282 can appear overpriced when one compares it with other non-Naim amps especially some cheap as chips Sony amps. I won't go into detail on that one as it's too complex. Nevertheless, if within Naim as mentioned earlier the 282 does appear to be great value when comparison was made to the 552.
Again, from my experience I am in agreement that the 282 needs a Supercap, or at least to have both outputs of the 282 connected. Although I had the urge for the Supercap, I did not consider it in the end. It's mainly down to two factors. First is the 282/SupercapDR may not appear to be great value anymore after the cost of the Supercap is factored in. Secondly, the Supercap DR will just encourage the user to upgrade the 282 to the 252 in no time. One of the reasons I bought my 282/250DR brand new is to stay away from the upgrade path - the 282 will be my final destination with Naim. If I wanted a different sound, it will be a different amp.
ps. I currently have the 282 connected with a Hicap DR and Dual Teddycap.