Sorry for another topic. Upgraditis again…
I have some thoughts for a long time and due to lack of any knowledge I need your help.
I do have a fine olive Naim system … 52-135…
I also use an older avr, with it’s left and right precuts going in input 6 of 52. for surround and center I do use it’s internal amps.
Don’t know f this is better or worse to using all 5 internal avr amps - never compared.
As avr is an older model, an update could be an option.
Could it be a solution to build a Naim nap based avr system?:
buy an av controller - any idea for a very good one?
buy a nap 175 for center and surround
Or
use 250 for surround (have one spare) and use ? For the center
use 135 through 52 as left and right channel
My main concern is …
Will it work fine as the power amps are different ones. Maybe buy a good (e.g. arcam) avr which has identical amps included.
Please no advice like … buy another 3 135
Expensive and hard to get.
Is the mixed nap solution a suitable way?
… edit… sorry, there a separate subforum… Richard, can you please put the post in the home theatre forum, thanks
How about a Naim AV2? I’ve just looked on eBay and there is one for £300 or offers. Use your spare 250 for the rears and then find something for centre. The Naim amps all have the same gain so you can mix and match.
There is also a 175 on eBay for £480, less than you’d get selling your spare 250. With the AV2 you’d have it all for under £800. Sell the old AV amp and you should be sorted.
Thought also about av2, but there is no HR sound (truHD,…) included and this is a bit bad, but also a cheap solution
Has anyone mixed av controller with Naim amps ?
It depends how important movie/TV watching is to you. The processing capability of the AV2 is absolutely archaic. If you’re only bothered about 5.1 you could buy a second hand AV2 but you’d need to increase the box count with additional amplification.
I would recommend getting a dedicated AV receiver (Marantz/Denon/Anthem, depending on budget) with pre-outs so your main NAIM amp drives the front 2 channels. The AV receiver can then drive rears, centre and Atmos speakers as required.
Personally I woudn’t buy an AV2, it was a great unit and one I used for 15 years BUT it is completely out of date.
I use the Lexicon decoder which includes Dirac, this is excellent and can give you a coherent soundfield using disparate separates. In my case I use a 300DR for front L&R.
I use a Nord 3 channel for centre and rears, for green power saving AND excellent quality.
IF you go for a 175 then best price for a service. As HH has mentioned the bay, and expecting a knuckle rap from Richard, I will mention a 175 that is available via AVFORUMS for £250, and it has been up for at least a couple of weeks.
Hi
That’s what I thought. There has been so much new features within the home cinema field.
I also looked into the big lexicon controller as it is available to a reasonable price.
Do you se the 300 directly connected to the lexicon?
In my setup I have the old avr connected via interconnect cable to the 52 pre. Don’t know it the lexicon can do this with its xlr sockets?
As I understand, in your system different amps do work fine… correct :o)
I have Seen 175 er some times in Germany and I am definitely pricing in the recapping service.
My only concern is, as there are different amps included, if it might be better to take a lexicon rv 9 instead…
I’ve got one of the new Anthem MRX - 740’s arriving next week. It’s been much delayed on the high seas and is replacing an old Arcam. Looking forward to hooking it up to my 282/250/NDX2 system and 5.1.2 speaker set up.
Hi, @drago. A long time ago in a different house, I bypassed my Denon AVR 4800 amps and used a NAP-V 175 for Center and Surround, and 552/500 for Front. Excellent 5.1! I replaced the 4800 with a top Denon AV-Pre, which was even better.
After I moved, I used the 175 plus AV2 in a 3.0 system. Also excellent.
Choose an AV-Pre that pleases you, and amplify with Naim with confidence, even wonky, I say.
DSOTM sounds very good in SQ quadraphonic. It’s quite a complicated signal path though: LP played on 301 through NAC72, then into Sony SQ decoder, rear channels then driven by my Yamaha surround amp and fronts by my NAP160.
Now if only I could find a better condition ‘Wish you were here’ SQ LP than my current specimen!
Of course Blu-rays are available, but where’s the fun in that?
Similar to Mr Underhill, I use a Lexicon (an AVR), however I use a NAP250DR for the front stereo, a nap100 to bi-amp the centre channel and a nap100 for the rears. The remaining at os speakers are powered by the AVR. Most decent modern AV amps will enable you to use a service like Dirac to balance outputs and timings from the channels to create a cohesive sound
I recently (and quite sadly - purely sentimental reasons really) replaced my AV2 with the Arcam AV40. I am very impressed, running fronts via 552/300 , centre with 145 and he surrounds with a 250 - for a very simple 5.1 system. Atmos is fantastic, The Dolby Virtual Height codecs when just taking a simple PCM 2.0 signal are really quite astonishing especially for Sport. But…as mentioned above does really depend how important TV/Movie sound is to you.
I use the MC10 which has SE and balanced outputs. There are a number of surround systems used by different manufacturers, I have used Dirac and found it very flexible and liked the results.
The 300DR is powered via the SE outputs into my Icon 4 passive pre, which has an AV bypass.
I use SBLs, an Axcess centre and Focal Dome rears, the Axcess & Domes powered by the Nord. The Lexicon/Dirac has done a very nice job of pulling these together to provide a cohesive result.
I use three subs so I can avoid bass management.
The centre channel is obviously very important in AV. If you went for an AV amp to fill in the other channels I would ensure that it has pre-outs so you have flexibility going forward, such as the RV9.
Setting up Dirac, and I suspect all the more advanced systems, is not simple - but there is assistance on YT etc. IF you are paying top dollar then obviously the dealer should sort this out for you.
I toyed with height speakers, but decided that 5.3 was giving me all I needed.
