Hi
I have an original super uniti running through B&W PM1s. It sounds great but in its new room I also have a tv currently through an AV amp and 5.1 B&W satellites speakers.
The room will therefore have 5 satteiles and my stereo speakers. Ugly. Lots of wire.
I am considering eBaying the lot and simply running a new Mu-so-2generation as a sound bar for tv and listening to what is current great sound via a server of my cds and streaming services.
Will the sound be a massive step back or a reasonable compromise? I love our early Mu-so-B3D1 in the kitchen and I understand the 2nd gen is even better. I would really appreciate your views
Thanks
Hi, a Muso is great for what it is, but it’s no match for a Superuniti, and it can only take a 2 channel PCM signal from your TV.
I think I would keep the SU and run the TV through its optical input if you want to declutter. Again, it won’t be 5.1 surround sound, but you’ll still lose a lot of the messy wires.
You could do what I do. I have a UnitiLite with Neat stereo speakers, also a Marantz AV amp with rear surround speakers and a sub.
I connect the TV digital output (HDMI ARC) to the Marantz AV amp and then connect the AV amp pre-amp front left and right outputs (assuming your AV amp has this facility) to analogue input 2 on the Naim, which you can set to “AV” which means this input operates at a fixed level and bypasses the Naim volume control. Your AV amp will serve as master volume for the whole system when setup like this.
This way you have the excellent Naim power amp section of the Uniti driving your good front speakers and the AV amp powers the rears, sub and centre. When you stream or listen to CD, you simply have to power on the Uniti and leave the AV amp off. You can dispense with your 5.1 front L & R speakers, and if you want the best sounding setup, bin the centre speaker and set your AV amp to send the centre channel to front left and right. What most of the hi-fi world doesn’t realise is that centre speakers in cinemas are NOT there for imaging. They are there to achieve intelligibility of dialogue in the reverberant space of large cinema rooms. Your living room at home is not reverberant (unless you live in a vast mansion) and so you don’t have intelligibility issues (if you did we would all want centre speakers for our stereo as well as for AV). How do I know this? Well, I spent more than 2 decades as a trained professional acoustic and sound reinforcement engineer designing sound systems for theatres, cinemas, and other large venues.
In a domestic environment a properly setup 4.1 system will trump a 5.1 system every time.
Thank you Brummy, that sorts out my issue completely. Very interesting about 4.1 over 5.1 and the requirements of home and big spaces. That’s an awful lot of Center speakers for no good reason!
Delighted it works for you. When I migrated from Cyrus amplification to Naim (apologies for use of the “C” word on this forum!), I wasn’t sure it would work the same way, but it absolutely does. I’ve felt like a voice crying in the wilderness for years over the centre speaker thing, but of course most major hi-fi brands are delighted to sell shedloads of centre speakers which might actually not be necessary at all!