DVD pre amp

Posted by: RICHYH on 29 December 2002

I have happily been using an Arcam DV 88 into a Linn Kairn and a 250 and 2 sd1 speakers- (I dont like surround sound) in my second system, mainly for DVD music video and it sounded great and occasionally cd (which sounded bad). So for xmas I thought I'd upgrade to a Mclaren 32R and enjoy better cd playback amongst other benfits, but unfortunately there is no anologue output on the dvd player only digital. Can anyone advise the best way to solve my problem and keep the DVD sounding as good or better and get the Mclaren cd sound to its potential, obvioulsy changing the Kairn to a processor is an option but whats available that will be as good as it in stereo form. thanks.

Posted on: 29 December 2002 by Allan Probin

Depends what your budget is. To maintain a high quality on CD playback I would suggest the following options:

1. Change your Kairn for the TAG AV32. This will allow you to use the TAG sync-lock on the digital o/p.

2. Fit a Chord DAC64 between the DVD player and the Kairn. The TAG DVD player should have the option to downmix Dolby Digital/DTS from your DVD music videos to 2 channel PCM.

3. Change the Kairn for Linn's A/V processor. Cant remember the name but until recently this was rated by most Linnies as the best Linn pre-amp despite its A/V status.

4. Change the Kairn for Naim's AV2 processor and use that as your pre-amp. Should be fine with the 250

Allan