Home Theatre is fun!

Posted by: SRAM on 25 March 2009

Hi

I have had Naim kit for about 15 years now. I went through a 5 year period of devloping the stereo system. This went from an entry level system to CDS/52/135/DBL. For 10 years the system was static with the DBLs.

Recently 2 of the cones went on the DBLs and I was advised silly sums of money by my dealer to have them fixed. Coupled with the fact they were ugly brutes which dominated the room and my wife hated we have moved them to the garage and started again.

I have just spent much more silly money than having the DBLs repaired, but it has been fun. All the electronics have been back to naim and serviced and some of my old kit has been brought into service as well as spending much too much on additional stuff.

We now have CDS/52/AV2/135/SL2/ncent/SBL (rear)/nsub. So all speakers (except nsub) are passively driven by 135s. There is also a new panasonic 50" plasma TV and pioneer BD player. We cannot use the new lossless dolby formats as AV2 does not decode them, so it is old fashioned dolby digital.

Last night was the first time it was all fired up and Wow! We only played music DVDs (Rolling stones/Madonna/Queen/Kaiser Chiefs)and it has completely changed my view on these discs.

The sense of involvement and excitement was extraordinary. The whole room was energised with floor/doors/furniture vinrating like crazy. Thank heavens it is a well detached house!

Was it real music - I don't know. But both my son and I play the drums and real life drums shift shift air like this did. The bass was pretty heavy, I have no doubt some might say it was too much. However, I have seen all the people on the DVDs we have live (clearly over several years!)and my memory of all these events is of visceral bass.

I have been used to naims top of the line passive stereo system for years and never had as much fun as last night.

Was it worth the money? Well, thats the question - I'm definitely not allowed any more pocket money for a while. However, I have NEVER seen my wife jumping up and down in the middle of the room singing along to "I predict a riot" by the kaiser chiefs before, with the kids dancing along with her. If that doesn't make spending money worth while, I don't know what is!

Simon
Posted on: 25 March 2009 by garyi
Have you had the 52 fitted with unity gain then (or indeed can you?)

I assume you are listening to the music in pseudo surround sound?

I don't personally enjoy that but there are some real gems of music which have been mastered surround sound such as a couple from Zappa which are very good fun.
Posted on: 25 March 2009 by SRAM
Hi
No, the 52 has new bits in it - whatever naim felt should be fitted to make it as "new" as possible. It does not have unitary gaing though, so you have to be exact when setting the volume knob.

The music DVDs I mentioned in the post are all mastered in 5.1, so no, not pseudo-surround. The weather forecast is on at the moment in pseudo-surround and I'm not sure that is worth the effort. This is just to both try it out and to make sure all the speakers and amps are working to get them run in.
Posted on: 25 March 2009 by Jet Johnson
...Hi Simon


...Have to say I agree with you ...I also enjoyed a "purist" 2 channel system for years but circumstances dictated that a choice had to be made and I chose to have a full 5.1 DD surround system (with in my case a 50" Pioneer plasma and an Onkyo 875 at it's heart) As you say mebbe's it's not "music" as understood by those that listen to close miked acoustically realistic recordings would recognise.....but with the right system DVD's don't half ROCK!

I guess you are listening in DD 5.1 / DTS rather than True Dolby HD which your Blu Ray player can offer (but your amp can't decode?) ..but surely this is still "proper" surround and not pseudo as garyi reckons?

The big advantage of such systems is as you say THE BASS! ....live concerts inevitably feature lashings of bass ....good surround systems with properly calibrated subwoofers can sound awesome with the right disc.

If your Pioneer player can handle SACD's or DVD-A's give them a whirl ..yes both formats are dead in the water commercially but there are a number of fantastic recordings still out there (inc Zappa and Steely Dan) even old quadraphonic recordings can be downloaded from specialised internet sites.

It's all down to personal taste but I love my home cinema and I haven't even mentioned movies yet!
Posted on: 28 April 2009 by AV@naim
quote:
Originally posted by garyi:
Have you had the 52 fitted with unity gain then (or indeed can you?)


Naim can fit a mod for you, speak with dealer.
Posted on: 28 April 2009 by Adam Meredith
There is a serial number limitation on that. Earlier units cannot have this done.

If interested - contact Naim Service with your serial number to check if it is possible.
Posted on: 28 April 2009 by tonym
Welcome SRAM! You're so right about 5.1 DVDs - the surround sound can be truly spectacular.

Looking at your kit, does your Pioneer BluRay have analogue outs for decoded HD sound that you can feed into your AV2's analogue inputs?