N-Vi still running strong

Posted by: Roberto Pi on 18 December 2016

Since purchasing a second hand  N-Vi in early 2013, I've used it daily with 5.1 speakers. Recently I upgraded my left/right to Totem Forests and have retired my sub-woofer as the Forests hold their own very nicely.  Very pleased with the N-Vi performance.  My only issue occurs when I don't use it daily, I'm forced to reset the power switch at the back to bring her back to life.

Just wondering in 2016 how big the active N-Vi community is and are others as fortunate as I am with the N-Vi?

Posted on: 19 December 2016 by Ardbeg10y

No N-Vi here. Was looking for one since the single box solution looks tempting to me. Instead, I got an AV2 which is fulfilling the purpose now. Very happy with it, even only in Stereo mode.

Which speakers do you have for the surround?

Posted on: 19 December 2016 by james n

Good to see your enjoying your n-Vi. I have mixed feelings about my time with mine - i really liked its performance -  video quality and sound quality was fantastic at the time and blew away a lot of others. On mine the display failed and it was generally buggy and needed too many power resets. A lot of these were fixed when the display failed and it went back to Naim for some TLC but it then gained some other unwanted features. At the time i was willing to give Naim the benefit of the doubt as when it was working, it was a great product but i'd not put up with this sort of hassle again with an expensive piece of kit. 

Posted on: 19 December 2016 by Roberto Pi
Ardbeg10y posted:

No N-Vi here. Was looking for one since the single box solution looks tempting to me. Instead, I got an AV2 which is fulfilling the purpose now. Very happy with it, even only in Stereo mode.

Which speakers do you have for the surround?

Monitor Audio Gold (20+ years old made in UK) rear

Monitor Audio Bronze Center

Replaced Monitor Audio Silver 5i with Totem Forest (huge step in bass and dynamic range)

Posted on: 20 December 2016 by trickydickie

I was pleased with mine but sold it on as I wasn't using it enough and reverted to just 2 channel stereo.

Regarding the power up issue, have you checked that you have the latest firmware? My problems were resolved when I updated the firmware.  Naim should be able to advise.  Updating was a simple matter of burning to a CD and starting it up in a particular way.

Richard

Posted on: 22 December 2016 by Roberto Pi
trickydickie posted:

I was pleased with mine but sold it on as I wasn't using it enough and reverted to just 2 channel stereo.

Regarding the power up issue, have you checked that you have the latest firmware? My problems were resolved when I updated the firmware.  Naim should be able to advise.  Updating was a simple matter of burning to a CD and starting it up in a particular way.

Richard

Thanks Richard,

 

I'll check with Naim, but it has at least one upgrade. Perhaps there is another. I'm encouraged with your experience. 

Posted on: 22 December 2016 by DrMark

I bought a SH one back in 2009, as I was in school and wanted to downsize and pull some money out of my kit...so I sold my Olive gear (CDX/72/HC/250) and SBLs and tried the n-Vi and a pair of Totem Mani-2s. The n-Vi was simply not up to the task of driving those speakers, and kept going into thermal shutoff, even though the volume wasn't overly loud...it could not even get loud. The Manis smacked it all over my living room.

Calls to both Totem and NANA (spoke to Dave Dever) were unable to come up with anything to save the situation.

Tested it in my bedroom with a pair of ProAc Tablette Sigs, and it was great in there, but I couldn't afford it to only be a second system, so I sold it.

Only piece of Naim kit I ever had that I considered a mistake. If I'd had money at the time it would have been an awesome one box bedroom system for my second system and TV/DVD in there, even in just 2-channel mode.

Posted on: 27 January 2017 by Manu

Mani 2 are extremely power hungry, you need a 200w amp to drive them. Only Totem speaker not recommended with any Naim amplifier.

Posted on: 09 February 2017 by Roberto Pi

My Totem Forest Speakers probably have about 150 hours on them now, and are really opening up on the N-Vi.  Highs not as sharp/harsh and bass nice and tight.  Movie Master and Commander, opening battle really moves the room around.

Added a StageLine/Flatcap/P3-24  to the analogue DIN input.  Damn!!!  

Sonically, is there anything this versatile and capable? 

Posted on: 09 February 2017 by joerand

Roberto,

Glad to hear you're getting along well with your Forests and N-Vi. I've got Totem Sttafs (88 dB) and they are slightly more efficient than Forests (87 dB). I was not able to satisfactorily drive the Sttafs with 50 watts amplification. They were ok at 60 watts, but really sang when I got to 80 watts from a SN2. The N-Vi has T- amplification (basically modified D-amplification) and is rated at 50 watts. Do you know if this means 50 watts per channel (50x5=250 total)? Otherwise it seems impressive the N-Vi drives the Forests with a total 50 watts, maybe due to the T-amplification? Curious if you have any comments. Then again, maybe it all just works for you and you don't care about the details.

Posted on: 25 February 2017 by Roberto Pi

I've driven the Forests with both my 50 watt N-Vi and 50 watt Nait 5i.  I've temporarily retired my 5i since I can't hear a difference between the 5i and N-Vi.  I assume the 5i is a class a/b.  I've never driven the Forest's to thermal overload on the N-Vi.  According to measurements done by Stereophile, the lowest impedance is 7 ohms, and doesn't pose problems for even "current-challenged tube amplifiers". 

The N-Vi is 5 times 50 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 90 watts into 4 ohms.  

Posted on: 07 April 2017 by Jonas Olofsson

Mine is 10 years old, used every day and still going strong. To be honest I think it's fantastic and are crossing my fingers that it won't give up. 

It has some issues and been back to Naim HQ 3 times...but when doing what it's supposed to do, it's doing it beautifully!

Im using it with Kudos Super 10 left, centre, right, n-Sub and wall speakers for rear channels. 

Highly recommended. 

//Jonas