Where would I start with NAIM AV ?

IMHO - Home theatre sound staging benifits most from a consistant presentation from speakers.

You have 4 different brands making up your current speaker setup & although I am not familiar with any of them I would suspect they will all present sound differently. Not good when your 5.1 system is trying to move sound around the place (positional effects, etc).

Your Centre speaker delivers most of the movie dialogue and needs to be absolutely well suited to your front L & R. Rears are less demanding, but again, are best matched to your front speakers. Take the pain out of searching for speakers that work well together and look for a brand that can provide a matched set including the sub. PolkAudio, Dynaudio, Naim, spring to mind but there are plenty around to choose from.

Naim N-Vi offers both a one box solution and a separates AV solution as well. Personally I have not yet been convinced that Naim have an AV solution that is sufficiently free from software bugs or is as easy to use as other brands (Denon, Arcam, etc), but I live in hope.

Second-hand prices:

AV2: £1000-£1200
V175: £750-£950
150: £300-£500

I'm assuming you have you're own DVD player already.

I have to disagree with Macker about the software faults. I don't have any issues with the above system at all. The n-Vi has been well-known to be buggy, but the AV2 is a pretty mature product and has had several firmware upgrades and one chip upgrade so its certainly stable now.

quote:

Originally posted by HRC99:
Second-hand prices:

AV2: £1000-£1200
V175: £750-£950
150: £300-£500

I'm assuming you have you're own DVD player already.

I have to disagree with Macker about the software faults. I don't have any issues with the above system at all. The n-Vi has been well-known to be buggy, but the AV2 is a pretty mature product and has had several firmware upgrades and one chip upgrade so its certainly stable now.

If you must have Naim electronics for the home-theatre then I would recommend you to buy the set of Naim speakers designed for the task since they will work well with the Naim amplification. Naim "one-box" design n-Vi amplification may not be sufficient to drive your speakers at high volume (I would assume that we like to watch movies at the sound level we used to like when at the movie theatre).

If you like to keep your speakers then look for a home-theater solution for amplification from other brand like Bryston which can surely drive your speakers at any level and then buy a good DVD player to go with it.

...Thanks for the advice lads ...looking back at my original question it does appear that I've a real hotchpotch of speakers! but ....the front pair were purchased long before any home cinema scenarios were even thought of and I would rather "have my cake and eat it" ...quality stereo AND decent home cinema. I would prefer to keep the Etudes for 2 channel listening.

My Etudes hail from 1985 and cost approx £3000 a pair then ...they are a fairly massive "art deco" design having 5 drive units in each cabinet (inc Kef b200's and B139's) they are fairly inefficient but have a really good bass extension ....nearest equivalent people would know would be Isobariks

Wouldn't an all in one speaker system be a compromise re 2 channel quality? or does there have to be a compromise? (I think I'm answering my own question!)....also funds are likely to be on the tight side ...(not asking much am I!)

If you have a small room for home-theatre, you don't need multi-speakers to enjoy movies. A high resolution 2 channel system will do just fine. I use a Bryston 4B-SST to drive a pair of Totem Model 1 Signature for the movies shown by a Sony PS3 and a Sony LCD-TV. It is amazing.

quote:

Originally posted by Jet Johnson:
...Thanks for the advice lads ...looking back at my original question it does appear that I've a real hotchpotch of speakers! but ....the front pair were purchased long before any home cinema scenarios were even thought of and I would rather "have my cake and eat it" ...quality stereo AND decent home cinema. I would prefer to keep the Etudes for 2 channel listening.

My Etudes hail from 1985 and cost approx £3000 a pair then ...they are a fairly massive "art deco" design having 5 drive units in each cabinet (inc Kef b200's and B139's) they are fairly inefficient but have a really good bass extension ....nearest equivalent people would know would be Isobariks

Wouldn't an all in one speaker system be a compromise re 2 channel quality? or does there have to be a compromise? (I think I'm answering my own question!)....also funds are likely to be on the tight side ...(not asking much am I!)

There would have to be a compromise somewhere. What that compromise is would normally depend on what you're going to use most - 2 Channel or 5.1

As Tuan says you may not need to go down the AV route if it's a small room. If you do, keep your speakers for the moment and get the processing/amplification first. You can always then look to improve the centre and surround speakers afterwards.

I bought a matched set of Polk Audio speakers, mainly lc265i and shoved the centre in the wall behind the TV and the rest in the (lath and plaster) ceiling.

I have to say they work a treat with my AV2, though my Philistine quotient is still a tad high (I have a Rotel amp) compared with most of the resident cognoscenti.

quote:

Originally posted by Tuan:
If you have a small room for home-theatre, you don't need multi-speakers to enjoy movies. A high resolution 2 channel system will do just fine. I use a Bryston 4B-SST to drive a pair of Totem Model 1 Signature for the movies shown by a Sony PS3 and a Sony LCD-TV. It is amazing.

Sorry, I disagree completely. No matter how small the room, two-channel just ain't surround sound!

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:
Sorry, I disagree completely. No matter how small the room, two-channel just ain't surround sound!

sure it's not! but I'll agree with Tuan here: a decent stereo setup is more than capable of providing a great movie experience