Does Naim have a AV Processor?

you can get a direct mode on the av2 . theres no hdmi and i doubt it'l even be offered on an av2

neil

Any good? Not really? Excellent or average preamp?

quote:

Originally posted by robertrobert:
Any good? Not really? Excellent or average preamp?

In fact one of the best sounding pre/pro on the market at any prices.
Video switching is a source of noise and other polution that has nothing to do in a high-end audio processor. You have plenty of high quality video switches on the market.

HDMI as a digital audio signal feed is not yet offered in the Naim world, this connector is trash. Before using it I am sure Naim will find a way to secure the connection or wait for a new standard to emerge.
The AV2 has a 7 chanel analog input, so it can be used with BR players.

Of course the HDMI plug is crap. It was designed to be small and cheap. But since HDCP is mandatory (the whole transfer chain has to be secure and certified by "hollywood"), I don't think naim or someone else can easily come up with something better... Unfortunately it's not the small high-end companies that sets todays consumer electronic standards.

Btw. there are already locking HDMI cables out. If you have a screw in the middle above the connector. I have not used them, so I can't comment the quality.

http://www.realcable-shop.de/
HDMI cable with SafeLock
How SafeLock works

If copy protection would not be necessary, you could use the much simpler and more reliable studio standards like SDI (serial digital interface) or HD-SDI for the picture. It works with only one coax cable and BNC connectors. And of course, no copy protection at all. That's probably the main reason why it works without the compatibility problems of HDMI

But for HD-sound... HDMI 1.3 seems to be the only choice right now
Some older devices had FireWire (iLink/IEEE1394) interfaces. But they seem to vanish. I've heard the copy protection people didn't like the computer origin (like with DVI), the versatility and the bi-directionality of this interface.

Ah, and there is this Denon-Link which works with ethernet style RJ45 cables -> as long as all your devices are from this manufacturer.
I think it would be very expensive for a small high-end company, to get a certification for an own interface. They just don't sell enough devices to split that cost. It all about numbers here I guess.

We live in a world, where copyrights are more important than quality or useability... At least the music industry seems to get it slowly, that customers don't want copy protection and incompatible digital rights management to stand in their way. And we here in a high-end forum are a small percentage who are willing to pay for contents -> if it's of good quality and I can listen/watch it when and where I want to!

And Robert, if you don't want to wait you may have a look at this tread: New HD compatible AV Preamps?

happy listening
Adrian

Oddly enough, I was reading recently that the physical HDMI interface design is as bad as it is because the EU manufacturers did not want a latching system which would make HiFi look like computers. There was a quote I read, possibly in HIFICRITIC which came from one of the top people at the HDMI Licensing LLC. I believe the original HDMI design included a latch which would have made for a more robust connection leading to less likelihood of breakage. In my view, since an HDMI cable needs to carry 8 audio channels, video channela and CEC channel, the HDMI cable was always going to be relatively large and heavy, especially considering it really ought to be screened. The HDMI connector therefore suffers.

You're right that in order to guarantee high definition audio transmission, as in Blu-ray, the minimum connection needs to be HDMI 1.3.

RobRob,

The Naim AV2 is an excellent processor provided you are not interested in the latest Blu-ray standard. Blu-ray offers high quality 1080p picture and high resolution sound (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, DVD-A and SACD) but these standards are only available through its encrypted HDMI interface. Currently there is no option in the AV2 to cater for this.

The AV2 is a capable preamp. In the Naim hierarchy it equates to the lower end of their scale. I haven't done a direct comparison between the AV2 and the rest in a couple of years but I seem to remember it being about as good as a Naim 112x, possibly a touch better. So it's a good preamp, but not really a great preamp, as Naim are capable of making. The AV2 was always designed as an add-in to a Naim 2-channel system. i.e. it was envisaged that people would have a quality 2-channel Naim amplifier and would add the AV2 and 3-channel amplifier for surround duties. In this way, the 2-channel system remained top-notch, whicle the surround wouold be as good as could be achieved while maintaining a sensible form factor.