General system advice - next steps

Many thanks in advance for any wisdom or guidance on the following.

I recently bought a Naim Muso 2 for the kitchen and it’s my first Naim purchase. After running it in, I’m really pleased with it.

My main hi fi sits with my TV in my lounge and I’m unsure of the next steps. For CDs I use a Roksan Caspian player coupled with Roksan Caspian pre-power amps and a pair of PMC 23s. All of the above is probably 6 years old, give or take. I love the sound of this setup.

I’m new to streaming and would like to add a decent streamer to the main system. A few days ago I bought an IFI Zen Bluetooth streamer but it sounds dreadful through the above system and I’m unsure whether to buy a DAC for it, or get something better if it’s worthwhile?

I would also like to run my TV through my PMCs somehow, but I’m not sure how to do this. At the moment I only have a stand-alone sound bar with the TV, which is pretty poor. The TV isn’t connected to anything else. I’m scratching my head in terms of which way to go next and any general advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Dor,

Welcome!

The advice I generally give friends, which is difficult at the moment, is to find a decent dealer.

Go and listen to a top rate system, and then a middling system; these will be bounded by your proposed budget over the next decade.

The aim here is to determine whether you think an expensive journey is worth it to you.

I have many much more musical friends than myself, and NONE of them are interested in HiFi; they tend to listen to music in a more technical way. Only you can know what is worth it to you.

Knowing what your proposed landing point is will allow you to get ‘there’ in the most financially efficient way; as well as MOST IMPORTANTLY using the dealer to lend you potential equipment and listening to it in your room.

My experience is that buying second hand through dealerships is often no more expensive than other routes, and gives you a safety blanket.

Streaming
Complicated topic. I have found streaming to be VERY sensitive to noise of various types, so in order to get the best you need to sort out your mains, your grounding, your DC power and your network. This doesn’t have to be very expensive in my experience.

You CAN simplify this by sticking to a well considered brand, such as Naim, Linn et al.

LOTS of threads on this site.

AV
Again, a dealer can assist here.

In my case I use an Oppo BlueRay with a Amazon FireStick plugged into one of the HDMI ports. The BlueRay used to do my audio decoding, but I now use a separate AV decoder.

I would assume that your TV outputs the audio stream which you feed into your sound bar? Does your TV have stereo outputs? These could be fed into your Caspian pre.

I use my main system in my AV system too. The question is how much would you need to spend to improve on your soundbar, and how much latitude do you have for installing equipment into what may be a family room?

2 Likes

This is really helpful thank you and I’ll definitely run the TV through the pre amp as I haven’t really got anything to lose. Sadly it’s an l-shaped room and the sofa is l-shaped too, which means it’s too awkward to place rear speakers anywhere.

You’re right about the dealer. I haven’t got a relationship with a dealer nearby and I should make the effort. My nearest town is Lincoln. I bought the Muso 2 from a dealer in Scotland after researching all the pros and cons online beforehand.

Hi
Mr Underhill gave wonderful advice & I completely agree.
On the AV speakers; I have 4 of these around the room & they are awesome:

As they fix to the wall there are no problems, & not too badly priced (Monitor Audio bronze).

I do live alone; no SWMBO to say “NO!” :joy::rofl::joy:

Give The Audio Room in Hull a try…Darren and his team are very helpful…Naim dealers , plus many other brands…really nice listening rooms…nothing was too much trouble!
Steve

Thanks JR, not a bad looking speaker

Cheers Steve. I’ve had a quick look at their reviews at they’re very impressive. It’s a jaunt but I’m sure it would be worth it.

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