N-vi and Headphones

It would depend on the quality you want.  For something quick and dirty, albeit not giving the best possible sound quality you could fit a SCART adaptor with phono L+R channel outputs.  Then just connect to whichever headphone amp you wish to use.  An alternative would be a "Can Opener" arrangement off the speaker terminals (best check with Naim here because these can upset many amps including Naim's regular line-up).  Otherwise, for best SQ, I believe the pre-out can be changed by Naim to be a line-out.  You could then connect a headphone amp to this.

If you really want a great sound, you can set the n-Vi's digital coax to output PCM stereo and run it through a DAC-V1... Great headphone amp.

I'm sure there are other headphone amps with an SPDIF built in if the V1 is a little pricey.

I use a similar process when I want to listen to the n-Vi's DAB tuner  (which I always run without surround decoding for that input) but without the compromise of its' internal preamp through my 82's uniti gain input... I have a DC1 feeding an inexpensive Arcam rDac, which then goes through the 82's tuner input ( night and day difference at the flick of a switch).

The best part is that switching the digital out to PCM has no bearing whatsoever on the n-Vi's multichannel decoding. You could even run a movie in 5.1 at one volume, but listen to the digital out in downmixed stereo at your preferred level.

Thanks for the replys, Mike let me get this right i can change digital output like you say and without changing anything else can still use N-vi for playing movies in 5.1 and cds in stereo, if so will look around for a suitable device, one a bit cheaper  than the naim one you are using,

John, spot on!

I'm not using the DAC-V1 as I don't like using headphones.. But I have heard it and was very impressed. I'm using the Digital out to play in stereo through the 2ch part of my system, via an rDac,  without using the n-Vi's volume control, as its preamp section isn't as good as my NAC82. For movies I just switch the 82 to its unity gain input and let the n-Vi handle volume control in surround.

However, you're correct in that I don't have to keep changing the settings.... Once you've set it, the only thing you'll need to do so is mute the n-Vi when you're listening on headphones and don't want sound coming out of the speakers. 

A quick Google revealed the least expensive option was by a company called Lindy. £50ish plus the cost of a digital interconnect.  Probably not great, but there are bound to be better alternatives that cost less than a DAC-V1. 

Or I believe you can get a baby version of the rDac that I use (I think it's called an rLink) for less than a couple of hundred, an dpick whatever headphone amp you like.  A bit more cluttered, but an option.

All the best

Mike

Mike excuse my ignorance have seen a couple of dacs for around £200 do i still need to buy a headphone amp as well as the dac ?

Hi John

Yes.

A DAC just has analogue outputs on it, like a CD player.

You would then connect those into a headphone amp to get to where you want to be.

That is unless you specifically look for a headphone amp with a digital coax input.

One of these, a lead and a pair of cans will also do the trick with the lowest possible box count.

Mike

Mike, still a litle confused, some of the dacs i have looked at have a headphone socket on them, surely would not need seperate headphone amp to use one of these ?

Bingo. If the DAC has a headphone socket, you don't need a separate headphone amp!

Cheers Mike thanks for all your help,