I’ve been following Naim for about 10 years now ever since I was blown away by a high end Naim separates setup in an old bosses music room.
Just swapped my entry level Monitor Audio surround sound setup for a Naim Muso 2, which I’m blown away by, and is far more polite and suited to my 2 bed London flat than floor standers and a sub!
I’m now creating a snug/home office with cinema room type setup in the spare bedroom.
I’d love to stay in the Naim ecosystem, keeping the Muso2 in the main open plan lounge area.
What would be a good way to setup a surround sound type setup, with an entry level Naim amp/streamer in the snug. Background music for working then films at weekend mainly for the wife. Happy to go second hand on eBay etc.
It’s relatively easy to combine multiple amplifiers to give you both an optimised Naim based 2 channel Stereo system, and one that is used for multichannel audio when watching something on TV.
Naim preamps allow for an AV input to be configured for AV bypass use. When this is enabled the input bypasses the preamp volume control and instead is passed on to the power amp for output to your Front L/R speakers.
The volume is controlled by a second AV amplifier which also is where you can connect your other speakers such as Rear Surround, Height channels and sub or subs.
On your AV amp, you simply set the Front L/R channels to Pre-Amp Output and then connect that output from the AV amp to the AV input on your Naim amp.
What amp you chose is determined mostly by budget but even a NAIT 5SI supports this setup scenario. Any AV amp should have the ability to support a preamp output (most commonly an RCA connector but can be XLR also) for specific channels, that is a requirement. Connectivity between the two amps would then be a standard RCA or RCA to DIN type interconnect. I’ve done this in various configurations using a combination of an ARCAM AVR and a NAIT as one example.
You’re welcome @finchtime
It’s certainly easy enough to add/remove the AV aspect of any system over time. If you find yourself revisiting the topic or want more inputs on setup on equipment choices do raise a hand!