AV2 as DAC

Posted by: Ardbeg10y on 04 October 2016

Hi,

Some of you might know me as a chromecast fanatic doing weird things. This is quite true.

Something I want to share:

I work about 50% from home, and if the kids are at home, I hide in my working room where I have an 20 yr old Technics Mid-Fi System + MoA Accoustics 30yr old speakers. Since the CD Player is quite problematic, I had to rely on one of my many ChromeCast Audio's. This sounded quite horrible.

A while ago I bought an AV2 for a different purpose, but since I have no poweramps yet (planning to get 2 Nap 100's), I decided to hook it up with my Technics system. Now I have:

Synology Nas (CD rips to WAV files) >> ChromeCast Audio >> cheap optical cable >> AV2 >> flashback cable >> Technics system.

... and magic arrived in my working room. Just a good dac, and I can hear all details, distinct bass, innervoices can be followed, clear treble.

Its quite bizar. Never thought that a good DAC made my old amp to drive my old speakers to these levels.

Posted on: 04 October 2016 by Massimo Bertola

I am sort of a moderate fan of the AV2, having owned only two of those (vs 3 x CDX2, 3 x NAP200, 5 or 6 HiCaps, 5 or 6 HiLines and 5 x n-Sats), and I have often written about how good it sounds. There has been a time when I had a DVD5 into the AV2, for both movie sound and music, and after having tried the DVD5's analogue out into the amp (with HiLine) vs its digital output into the AV2 (with Naim's own DC1 digital coax) into the amp, I chose the AV2-ed option. For a while, one year ago or so, I had another one that I used into a NAP150x, feeding it with my Oppo DV980H and, for a short time, with a CD5x modified by Naim into pure mechanism.

Many consider it obsolete, a lovely something from grandpa's dusty 20th century equipment, but I find it a good piece of audio. Enjoy it!

Posted on: 04 October 2016 by Massimo Bertola

Or perhaps I have owned four CDX2s. When you lose count, it is madness.