The Hi-Fi/AV solution....

but not all I'm afraid...

At the back use a pair of EPOS m12s or 2nd hand ES11s. They'll match beautifully. For a centre, I think you should check out the new Naim Centre (the AXESS) but if that's too expensive, the Ruark Dialogue One Ref is a good one that should match well.

Stick with your 180 or go for a new 200. The 150 is not as capable and you need the power for your ES22s. In fact, look at getting a 250 or 135s for the front and stick your 180 at the back (ok...maybe further down the line...:). If using a 180 at front, then a 140 for the rears and another 140 for the centre (biamped, effectively). Alternatively just go with a 175 for the centre/surrounds.

Now to the 102. I've not done an A/B between the 102 and AV2. I like the fact the AV2 has its own power supply so the 180 is freed up for the ES22s, but without hearing the difference between them I can't really comment. Definitely one for a demo...

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Cheers Frank, much appreciated :-)

I hadn't thought of purchasing 140's to power centre and rear - could be quite a cost effective method as you can pick them up pretty reasonably these days!

Re: the speakers you mention - do you have prices for these?

Any further comments from anyone? Anyone compared the AV2 to a 102 (for example).

Cheers!

Damian

Hi Damian,
the Nac102 is better than the AV2 pre-amp stage.
This is due to the absence of a transformer in the same case, plus the layout of the pre-amps circuit is less busy with other components such as a decoder board, which can be a drain on the power supply.

Regards
Jason Gould
Naim UK Sales.

I have tried ES11s in an av system, although not with an AV2 :-( (I had them before upgrading to the 22s) and concur that they fit well. Price is 200-250 2nd hand I guess (they were 450 new as I recall).

Jonathan

How does the dsp800 connect to the naim system? It has been mentioned a number times but no one has gone to explicit connection details.

I have a yamaha av amp myself as well as a dvd player with dolby/dts decoder. Last night I tried a few ways to connect this to a 42.5/110/ELAs (didn't feel like moving the 250/briks). I tried these setups:

1) dvd analog stereo out to 42.5 (av amp not used)

2) dvd analog surr mains to 42.5, digital to av amp, av amp direct to other speakers.

3) dvd dig to av amp, surr mains out to 42.5, other speakers direct from av.

4) dvd dig to av amp, tape out to 42.5, other speakers direct from av.

I then tried dvds with music and dialog.

Interestingly I found 1 gave by far the best sound. Sure, the surround sound is missing but this doesn't make a huge difference as I don't have many action movies. The center speaker dialog through the ELAs appears to originate somewhere in between the speakers anyway.

Option 2 left me with two volume controls. Mains on the 42.5 and the rest on the AV amp, a bit clumsy.

option 3 wasn't too bad but required the 42.5 volume on full bore (1am or so) to get anything audible. Is this ok/safe? Normally audio CDs are extremely loud on 8 o'clock. If anything it showed that my center speaker (JBL) isn't up to par with ELAs.

option 4 wasn't ideal either as all the audio was mixed back to stereo.

I assume that option 3 is the ideal way to setup a system similar to dsp-800. Is that correct?

Finally, I have a spare 110 at the moment. Is it possible/safe to connect it direct to an AV amp to drive the center speaker? I suspect not. Has anyone actually tried this?

BTW what are pre-outs? Connections that go into the pre amp (with the volume required on full), or straight into the power amp?

cheers
Gus

PS: Av amp yamaha 985, dvd philips 665, center+ surrround jbl, sub rega vulcan.

Jason et al,

Thanks for your further replies, comments. Plenty to think about and some further research to be done I think.

Damian

EPOS m12's are £500 + stands (around £130ish - can't remember). Their stands are a requirement since they're a fab match.

The Ruark centre is around £400ish.

Can't remember how much the Axess is...sorry.

I would definitely A/B the AV2 against the 102 if I were you. I don't think the AV2 will be as good as a 102 for music, but obviously that's an extra £800 (2nd hand value of a 102) in the equation. If you decide to keep the 102, you can set up the system so that when you want to watch a movie, you simply set the 102 volume at 12 o'clock and use the AV2 as master volume.

gusi,

Provided your processor amp has outputs for all the channels (some don't), I would set the system up with DVD player digi out to processor/amp, then connect Main Speaker out to an input (e.g tuner) on the 42.5 using a 2-phono-to-DIN Chrysalis. Setup is done by setting the 42.5 to 12 o'clock, then matching relative levels of all the other speakers using the white noise test tone of the processor amp until all the speakers sound equally noisy from the ideal seating position.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Frank,

Thanks I'll try that. The 985 AV amp has speaker outs as well as pre outs for all channels. You can also 'balance' each channel from -10 to +10 dB.

Julian,

I'll have a look for the unity input card. The 42.5 is at least 10 years out of production, so I am not holding my breath. I suppose I'll just need to make sure I turn the volume down before playing CD's.

I'll try one of the ELA's as a center speaker, see if it sounds better. The JBLs are extremely shouty at any decent volume.

Most of my movies are old and the rear speakers don't get much action. However since the 985 also has a 5.1 analog input I could have a play with multichannel sacd/dvda.

Damian,

Remember that you don't have to get the whole system at once. If funds are tight get the AV2 first then add the center, rear and sub as needed.



So how about adding the 110 to a non-naim pre-amp. Is that stable? Has anyone done it before?

cheers
Gus