AV receiver to pre-amp

Posted by: mrrichardbank on 18 December 2017

Hi there,

I am a little stuck! I have a NAC 272 pre-amp which feeds into a NAP power amp, with B&W diamonds. I wanted to use the speakers and amp within an AV set up and purchased a relatively inexpensive Pioneer AV amp unit. I did this off the back of being told that I could use the Naim pre-amp as its own input to the AV unit, thereby using the Naim system for the fronts and the AV amp to drive the centre and rears. I plugged the pre-amp feed from the AV amp into the NAC 272 and am getting sound from all speakers except the fronts, which shows it clearly isn't working. Has anyone else tried this? Can anyone help me to get it working?

Rich

Posted on: 18 December 2017 by IanG

Have a look in the manual. You need to set it to AV bypass and this way the signal from your AV receiver passes through the 272 preamp section to the power amp. This allows you to control the volume of all AV speakers from the AV receiver not the NAC.

Posted on: 18 December 2017 by mrrichardbank

I might be being stupid but I can't find this anywhere in the instruction manual. 

Posted on: 18 December 2017 by NickSeattle

Page 16; 4.3.12. (English edition)

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by mrrichardbank

That tells me how to bypass the volume control on the NAC, but I'm just getting no sound at all through the front speakers. 

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by robgr

I have a similar setup using a 272 using AV Fixed Volume to drive the fronts and an MRX520 to drive the centre, rears & SW and it works a treat

Once you have set up AV Fixed Volume make sure the analogue input is selected on the 272 that is that is taking the signal from the AV Amp

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by james n

How have you connected the Receiver front outputs to the 272. Via RCA to DIN into input 1 or RCA to RCA into input 2/3 ?

If Input 1 - have you got the right RCA to DIN cable (needs to be wired as an input cable) ?

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by mrrichardbank

RCA to RCA....into the analogue inputs. I went through the various analogue inputs on the pre-amp. 

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by james n

Ok one more thing to try - is the front pre-out enabled on the AV receiver. Usually they are enabled all the time but on some they are not enabled if the Receiver front power amp is on. Worth checking through the menus to check it's enabled. 

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by Eloise
mrrichardbank posted:

RCA to RCA....into the analogue inputs. I went through the various analogue inputs on the pre-amp. 

Just worth checking (and I hope I'm not treating you as stupid but its something I've done before) ... you have connected to the INPUT on the NAC272 from the PRE-OUT on the Pioneer AVR and not to either the OUTPUT on the NAC272 from the Multi-channel input on the Pioneer?

Also check that the input you've connected to hasn't been disabled.  Also (if you've not selected fixed volume) you're going to need to turn the volume up to around 80 to hear anything much.

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by mrrichardbank

Thanks for all your input on this, everyone. Will try these suggestions when I get home tonight and give it one last try. Very frustrating as I wanted it set up for Christmas. And please do treat me as stupid, I am not up to speed with this stuff anymore so all the help is very much appreciated. 

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by james n

What model Pioneer AV receiver have you got ?

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by mrrichardbank

Pioneer SC-LX59

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by james n

Ok thanks - just checked the manual and page 40 describes the outputs on the Receiver. Looks like the RCA outputs are always enabled (you can disable the speaker outputs if you want) so i suspect it's a setup issue at the 272 end. Just double check you are using the front outputs rather than extra 1 or extra 2. 

One thing to check if the 272 is found to configured correctly - If you connect a pair of speakers to the front speaker outputs on the Pioneer Receiver, do you get sound from them (just to check audio is going to the front channels) ?

James

Posted on: 19 December 2017 by mrrichardbank

Thanks so much for everyone's help on this - I 'think' I've managed to get it mostly set up now. It was on Analogue 3 input rather than 1, and it was someone's comment about turning it up to 80, which I did and then heard a faint sound. Have managed to play around a bit and now getting somewhere close to a decent sound. Really appreciate all of the help on this, thanks to everyone who took some time. 

Posted on: 31 December 2017 by thatsmynaim

The SC-LX59 is a lovely unit, i use one in my cinema setup

Posted on: 31 December 2017 by mrrichardbank

Yes it's really impressed me. It's only driving the rears and centre, and sending signal to the Naim, but it's brilliant. I only paid around £500 for it in a Sevenoaks clearance. Also got a lovely Arcam blu ray player and it's all set up now. Watched Dunkirk last night and it was amazing sound wise. 

Posted on: 31 December 2017 by thatsmynaim

Mine replaced a VSX-LX55 which is now doing lounge tv viewing duties.  My 59 is running a full 5.1.2 atmos setup in my cinema with a 120" screen.  I haven't seen Dunkirk yet but it is on my list.  You got a great deal there, i paid £900 for mine.