AV2 only recognising front speakers

Sorry John, can't help, it does sound rather serious. Touch wood, mine's not played up at all (famous last words...)

Thanks for the sympathy, Tony. I'm afraid my AV2 has always been a little temperamental, but this time I can't seem to fix it.

One wonders if it's a software/firmware problem, and why us humble folk aren't allowed to reinstall the firmware ourselves?

Well, late last night I decided to listen to some music before bedtime (using the AV system), and as I was next to the 282, I reached out to turn down the volume manually. Got a nice static shock and the 282 switched to MUTE. Waited a minute, but it stayed in MUTE, so I switched off the NAPSC and HiCAP, waited a while and switched back on. The bloody thing sat there with its MUTE light flashing, indicating a connection/power supply fault. Decided I'd had enough for the night, switched the whole lot off at the mains, and went to bed.

This morning, on switch on of HiCAP and NAPSC, MUTE on 282 still flashing. Eventually tracked that problem down to a failed fuse in the plug end of the HiCAP power cable (not the one actually inside the HiCAP) - which was (of course) the last thing I checked. I do suffer a little from static problems in my study, so usually make sure to touch the radiator before any of the AV stuff. This time I forgot, but a little annoyed that the fuse blew so easily. The other annoying thing is that I have lost the sound from my DVD5/nDAC, so I assume I have dislodged the HiLine or something. I'll sort that bit out later on.

So, back to the AV2. Tried switching on/reset again, reset inputs, reset speakers- went straight to L00. Had a little think. Did factory reset again, but then, instead of going straight to INPUT reset, cancelled setup, powered on/off, and did each part of setup manually and separately. Got my extra speakers etc back! Used the TST function to check they were working. Then switched on the OPPO, but still only FL/FR working. Used MODE 0 on the AV2 remote to reset to AUTO - not working. Went back to AV2 setup, and again, only showing FL/R speakers (rest had disappeared again).

Got them all back by going through the same rigmarole, and this time tried using MODE 0 on every input on the AV2 (although I only, in fact, use the digital inputs on it usually). Got the analogue inputs to switch to DIRECT with no problem, but MODE 0 on the digital inputs didn't do anything.

So, my conclusion is that the surround digital decoding is buggered. Alas, the Naim chappie at my dealer seems to be out on an install ATM, so I think I'll email Naim support to see if they have any suggestions. I suspect I shall be packing it up to send back to them.

That will mean rejigging a few leads so I can use the 282/250 for sound on ALL the things usually hooked up to the AV2, and of course all my carefully setup activities in the Harmony remote will be useless while in that mode.

Does anyone make a comparable processor to the AV2, just in case it is not economically repairable? Wouldn't really want an AV receiver instead, as I have all the power amplification already. Any alternative would ideally have to be not much taller than the AV2 so it could fit nicely into the already cramped/overfull racks

Just checked the AV2 firmware for completeness sake : AVCO 107 F658

Just got it working properly on DVD on the Oppo83SE. Remembered that a couple of days ago I'd had to reset the Oppo following a firmware update, then had to reset it again because it was misbehaving as a multiregion bluray player. Seems that the Oppo doesn't like you trying to change bluray region if you insert an incorrect region disc and then try to change the bluray region. Hence the second factory reset.

Went through the Oppo's setup menus, and realised I hadn't reset the Coax/Optical output to bitstream. Did this, and now MODE 0/Auto working again on the AV2. I'm still going to talk to my dealer about the AV2 "losing" speakers every few months, though.

BTW, fixed the no sound from nDAC problem - it was the Hiline. I'm seriously considering accepting a loss of sound quality and going back to the standard SNAIC, as every time I firkle with connections at back of 282/AV2 I get this problem. Perhaps there is something to be said for locking connection after all! HiLine wouldn't be redundant, I'd just move it to the living room system instead.

Still need to sort out why MODE 0 isn't doing anything on the AV2's other digital inputs, though I suspect that I may not have bothered putting them back to multichannel (on the sources themselves) after I got my 250 back from having transformer replacement. While the 250 was away I made do with TV sound (crap) or used my Stax earphones. Turned out that the only realistic way of doing that was to use the AV2's digital output socket and route it into the nDAC - that's because the digital inputs on the AV2 don't output anything via the analogue "TAPE OUT". Ahh, the "pleasures" of using a pre/power integrated with an AV2.

SWMBO's comment? "Well, it's your own fault for having such a complicated setup. You should have stuck to an ordinary AV receiver and forgot all about hifi in your study". Women!!

Going to check my level using a sound meter. Just had a quick run through the speaker setup routine on the AV2, and use LARGE for fronts/centre/surround. The SWF setting (should come just before speaker distance setting) doesn't appear. Perhaps "old-timer's" is catching up with me, because I can't remember - is this option not availabe with speakers set to LARGE?

Boy oh boy, sounds fishy

I hope you get it all sorted out! I just setup everything after having mine powered down for 1.5 weeks now, but luckily no problems.

You don't own a DVD5, do you? Because with the dvd5 you could do the OSD setup which sometimes seems to work better than the direct input into the av2.

I don't think there is any kind of battery in the av2 to help store the settings. I think all the settings are stored in the PIC. At least when I removed the PIC the settings were gone as well.
Can you check which firmware version you are running? I recall you have the current one, but I might have it confused.

Thanks. I do own a DVD5, but I only use it as a transport for my nDAC. I've now got the system back up and running normally. Turned out part of it was my fault (forgetting to rest Oppo coax digital output to bitstream), and all I am really left with is the approx 3 times a year habit of "losing" speakers (i.e. only allows you access to settings for front L/R). When my dealer eventually rings me back, I will discuss with him as to whether it's worthwhile sending the AV2 back to Naim AGAIN for them to have a look at it.

I mentioned the firmware version in my last but one post to this thread.

Hmmm. Only time I cannot adjust anything but fronts is when I am in "direct" mode. In "direct" mode everything eles is blocked.

Next time it happens, maybe hook up a cat5 to your dvd5 and check the osd if it says or shows you anything.

quote:

Originally posted by GreenAlex:
Hmmm. Only time I cannot adjust anything but fronts is when I am in "direct" mode. In "direct" mode everything eles is blocked.

Next time it happens, maybe hook up a cat5 to your dvd5 and check the osd if it says or shows you anything.

But DIRECT mode only applies to the analogue inputs. I was aware of that foible, and hence always make sure the AV2 is set to a digital input (usually CO1) before attempting speaker setup. Nope, I think my AV2 is, at the very least, "quirky". IIRC when it last went back to Naim (about a year ago), they looked into this "lost speakers" problem and couldn't find anything wrong. That's the thing about intermittent and only very occasional problems - how do you reproduce them?

I've spoken to my dealer this morning and he suggests just waiting to see if it happens again. I'll have to ring him again though, because I forgot to ask him about the fine details of reconfiguring the speaker settings. I know I should have it written down somewhere, but I can't remember whether I should have the nSATs set as SMALL or LARGE. My memory says LARGE, but I can't seem to find it anywhere in the manual other than "set full range speakers as large", so I assume SMALL is really only for those very tiny little satellite speakers.

The way it works is based on 2 settings, setting a speaker to Small is the first and the second is the Sub cutoff frequency.

If you set a speaker to Small, then anything below the Sub Xover Frequency will be redirected to the Subwoofer.

Just to add to Roy's post:
You can set the n-Sats either to large or small. Both works.
It depends on how they sound in your room and how your sub is set up.

If like me you have your sub turned off most of the time and don't want to turn it on everytime you listen to music, set it to large.
Or if you have your subwoofer connected to the Hi-Level as well. In that case maybe set to large and adjust Hi-Level cut-off on your sub to match your n-Sats.

There is no "best" setting for n-Sats. It depends on the way the rest is configured.

But loosing your speakers is odd. Maybe some infrequent power surges wipe the memory clean or something like that.
Naim's av-range is quite fussy. If e.g. I unplug a cable on my n-Vi while in standby (say the sub), the n-vi won't come out of standby. It will "power up" and then shut down immediately.

Sometimes my AV2 for no apparent reason decides it cannot lock on to any digital sources anymore and just blinks "no sig".
and sometimes the dvd5 won't do anything.

But in all of those cases, a short power-off-on helps. But then, I never lose my settings over any of those

Sounds about right. I've got my nSATs set to large. Using a sound level meter, I find that the nCent works better if set to 1dB louder than the fronts and rears - for the sake of intelligiblity of the spoken voice.

Like all devices which basically have a computer at the heart, the AV2 does occasionally throw a wobbler. I suspect the fact that my carpeted study seems to generate a lot of static may well have something to do with the relatively frequent "temper tantrums" of my AV2. I have learned to live with these, but just this once it seemed worse than usual. However, I now have everything back up and running perfectly. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Now the only thing I have to think about is whether to get an XPS2 or 555PS to go with the nDAC/DVD5. I'll ponder that over Christmas, then fix myself up with a demo.

I think you have pin-pointed a possible issue. The AV2 memory settings can easily be wiped with a static shock or mains spike. It happened to me a lot, especially with one place where I had power outs almost daily. It's a pain but I got very adept at setting it all up again in a matter of a minute or two. The front panel makes this a doddle once you know your way round.

Totally agree. The mains in our house is rather "dirty", but SWMBO banned me from getting a dedicated spur in my study (upstairs, with main fusebox in downstairs hallway) after I mentioned it might involve taking up floorboards and possibly some replastering. The dirty mains problem is aggravated by relatively frequent short (usually only a few seconds) power cuts - especially in the winter.

Still, at least I got my own way 20 odd years ago about the dedicated spur to the system in the living room.

I too am now very adept at resetting my AV2 when all goes completely pear-shaped and I have to factory default reset something. Bit like working with Windoze computers.