Problem with AV2

Posted by: Kingfish on 24 December 2008

Hi Naim AV2 owner here,

I moved from the US to Europe and brought over my Audio system, as follows;
AV2 115 Volts
CD5 (via analog in din connector) 115 Volts
Aragon 8008 2ch amp 110 – 240 Volts
Acurus 100X3 3ch amp 110 – 240 Volts
Sonos (via tosslink) 110 – 240 Volts
Aerial Acoustic 10T LR front
Aerial Acoustic CC3 Center

The Naim equipment is currently connected to a 220 – 110 Volt stepdown transformer. The other equipment is attached to 220 Volt line power. All of the equipment worked well prior to the move, however the AV2 would drop a channel maybe once a year. This was easily cured with a full shut down.

All of the equipment is functioning except for the AV2. It seems to be continuously dropping the channels, mostly the right channel. This occurs with both analog and digital inputs. This was not solved with the full shut down.
I do intend on changing the AV2 and CD5 input voltage to 220V through the official Naim distributor in The Netherlands. However, I doubt this is the cause of my issues.

Any help is appreciated
Oh, the amp and speaker cable are ok, these have been individually tested and are both ok.

Thanks,

Mike

Posted on: 27 December 2008 by blythe

Have you tried a "hard re-set"?

I can't remember how to do it off hand and am not at home to find the instructions, but, there is a way, by pressing and holding a couple of buttons which re-sets everything to the factory defaults.
This of course means that you will have to re-set-up all of the parameters again

It should however confirm if there is a problem that requires the unit being returned to Naim.

Posted on: 29 December 2008 by AV@naim

Does it do it from cold? or does it start after being on for a while.

the reset Kingfish is refering to is:

(NOTE: this will wipe all user settings!!!)

-turn off any amplifier attached to AV2 (you may get bangs through speakers otherwise...)
-power off unit at rear mains switch of AV2
-press/hold both front panel buttons whilst turning on rear mains switch
-UPDATE is then shown on front panel (you can let go of buttons at this point)
-turn off the power at rear mains switch
-turn on rear mains switch again after about 10 sec
-the front panel decimal point will flash for about 10 sec (this is normal for the unit after a cold boot)
-once unit is taken from standby, front panel INPUT button will flash for about 10 seconds. Once it stops flashing, you now need to set your unit up again as per manual

Obviously remember to turn on your amps again - or you will have no sound from any speakers...

Manuals here: http://www.naim-audio.com/products/intro_manuals.html

Posted on: 29 December 2008 by Kingfish

Hi AV@naim & blythe,

This problem starts as soon as I turn it on, and does not go away.

I will try the "cold boot" ASAP, and I will let you know the results.

AV@naim, are there any issue with using an inline 220V to 110V step down transformer? I know in theory everything should be OK, but the primary input is 115v and I think 106v is actually reaching the input to the AV2.

Thanks

Posted on: 29 December 2008 by AV@naim

I would suspect that if it does it from cold boot (rather than after being on and out of standby for several hours), then it probably requires Naim or the local distributer to take a look.

Whilst the unit will probably run ok at +/-10% of local mains voltage (as this is the EU Mains tolerance), ideally you should have the unit voltage converted if its coming back anyway.

I don't think low supply voltage is causing the channel loss problem.

Posted on: 30 December 2008 by Kingfish

I did a cold boot, and reset all of the parameters. The first 10 minutes everything worked out well. Then I started to have problems with the right channel. I changed the volume and the problem went away. Then I started to have problems with the left channel. Again I changed the volume several times, and the problem eventually went away. After both channels were working I left the volume alone, and it seemed to play fine for at least 30 minutes. I will try to use it more tonight and see the status.

Posted on: 30 December 2008 by AV@naim

Sounds to me like the front (L/R) channel digital volume chip is faulty when it warms up (1 chip does two channels each).

That will definitly not fix itself and only get worse I'm afraid

Posted on: 30 December 2008 by Kingfish

Is this repairable? Can this be done locally or must it be shipped to the UK? If locally, can you recommend a good authorized place in The Netherlands or north west Germany? What is the estimated cost (rough order of magnitude)?

Thanks

Posted on: 31 December 2008 by AV@naim

quote:
Originally posted by Kingfish:
Is this repairable? Can this be done locally or must it be shipped to the UK? If locally, can you recommend a good authorized place in The Netherlands or north west Germany? What is the estimated cost (rough order of magnitude)?

Thanks

It is repairable, normally we would replace all 4 volume chips as a matter of course - if that is what is found to be the cause after proper diagnosis.

I would suggest contacting either:

Latham Audio (for the Netherlands) http://www.latham.nl/audio/index.html

Musicline (for Germany) http://www.music-line.biz/cms/

They should be able to give you all the required information directly.

Posted on: 06 January 2009 by Kingfish

Hi AV@naim,

I contacted Latham Audio, and they promptly responded. They said they are waiting for information from Naim. Could you supply Latham Audio with the information they are requesting?

Thanks