Any Home Cinema Guru's out there?
31 January 2007, 08:00 PM
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Any Home Cinema Guru's out there?
The time has finally come for me to upgrade, but the more I look into this new gadgetry, the more I am confused!
My current setup is:
TiVo with DVD fed into it through VCR passthrough. Connected to Bog Standard 32 inch JVC CRT TV. Sound output from TiVo into Naim Amplifier with Naim CD player and Squeezebox attached. Output from Naim Amplifier into cheap second amp used to drive second set of speakers for kitchen.
So, re: the TV I think I am sorted, the best TV for price I can see by far is the Samsung 40” : amazon for 799, dabs for £711, but any opinions welcome on why I should or shouldn't go for that
Re: the sound system, very confused as to what to do and this is where I want the advice. Considering Marantz and Yahama and Denon receivers, but god only knows which!
My reservations are that currently I have a very very good music sound system, and not very good TV sound. I can output the TV sound through the hifi, but this is of course, only stereo, not 5.1 or 7.1. Do I buy a receiver and 5.1 system and sell the Naim amp and speakers (value approx 5k when bought) or do something else.
Re: receivers - Yamaha RX-N600D looks v. good but has some facilities I don’t need like streaming, £449. Could go for the slightly cheaper Yamaha model, but not sure what I’d lose
Marantz SR5600 looks v nice, but only £279, will this give me what I need?
Denon AVR-2807 looks good and does HDMI upscale for £675, is this necessary / worth it and what doesn't it do, if anything?
I had thoughts that I could drive the naim amp out of the receiver somehow. Really not sure how to set it up.
At the moment I have the main naim amp with inputs from the Squeezebox, TV and CD player driving the two Naim speakers in the lounge. The aux output from the naim amp goes to the second cheap amp which drives the kitchen speakers.
I thought I might be able to feed the CD, Squeezebox etc all as inputs into the receiver, and then one output back to the naim amp and out to the speakers for music. Effectively using the receiver as a pre-amp. Is this possible? Could I also use my kitchen speakers in this arrangement? In which case I could lose the 2nd amp.
Perhaps I have to sell all the naim kit?
Or, can I use the two Naim speakers as part of a 5.1 or 7.1 system?
Very very confused and hoping for some advice…
Alex
My current setup is:
TiVo with DVD fed into it through VCR passthrough. Connected to Bog Standard 32 inch JVC CRT TV. Sound output from TiVo into Naim Amplifier with Naim CD player and Squeezebox attached. Output from Naim Amplifier into cheap second amp used to drive second set of speakers for kitchen.
So, re: the TV I think I am sorted, the best TV for price I can see by far is the Samsung 40” : amazon for 799, dabs for £711, but any opinions welcome on why I should or shouldn't go for that
Re: the sound system, very confused as to what to do and this is where I want the advice. Considering Marantz and Yahama and Denon receivers, but god only knows which!
My reservations are that currently I have a very very good music sound system, and not very good TV sound. I can output the TV sound through the hifi, but this is of course, only stereo, not 5.1 or 7.1. Do I buy a receiver and 5.1 system and sell the Naim amp and speakers (value approx 5k when bought) or do something else.
Re: receivers - Yamaha RX-N600D looks v. good but has some facilities I don’t need like streaming, £449. Could go for the slightly cheaper Yamaha model, but not sure what I’d lose
Marantz SR5600 looks v nice, but only £279, will this give me what I need?
Denon AVR-2807 looks good and does HDMI upscale for £675, is this necessary / worth it and what doesn't it do, if anything?
I had thoughts that I could drive the naim amp out of the receiver somehow. Really not sure how to set it up.
At the moment I have the main naim amp with inputs from the Squeezebox, TV and CD player driving the two Naim speakers in the lounge. The aux output from the naim amp goes to the second cheap amp which drives the kitchen speakers.
I thought I might be able to feed the CD, Squeezebox etc all as inputs into the receiver, and then one output back to the naim amp and out to the speakers for music. Effectively using the receiver as a pre-amp. Is this possible? Could I also use my kitchen speakers in this arrangement? In which case I could lose the 2nd amp.
Perhaps I have to sell all the naim kit?
Or, can I use the two Naim speakers as part of a 5.1 or 7.1 system?
Very very confused and hoping for some advice…
Alex
31 January 2007, 09:47 PM
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Right, if you like the sound of the Naim kit for playing music forget about selling it right now as I am telling you that a £500 AV receiver is going to sound like a piece of crap in comparison.
What I did with my Naim system was to buy a separate Dolby/DTS decoder from Yamaha and then I added a couple of secondhand Naim NAITs as the rear and centre amplification. I bought a B&W centre speaker and a couple of Celestions for the rear. I fed all my AV sources directly into the processor and carried on using my music system as normal. In surround mode the music system handles the left/right channel from a feed from the processor.
This allowed me to relatively cheaply have good surround sound without compromising my music system Over the years I have upgraded the surround system piece by piece but even in its inital form it blew away most other setups.
Just my 2 cents.
What I did with my Naim system was to buy a separate Dolby/DTS decoder from Yamaha and then I added a couple of secondhand Naim NAITs as the rear and centre amplification. I bought a B&W centre speaker and a couple of Celestions for the rear. I fed all my AV sources directly into the processor and carried on using my music system as normal. In surround mode the music system handles the left/right channel from a feed from the processor.
This allowed me to relatively cheaply have good surround sound without compromising my music system Over the years I have upgraded the surround system piece by piece but even in its inital form it blew away most other setups.
Just my 2 cents.
01 February 2007, 09:53 AM
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What I did with my Naim system was to buy a separate Dolby/DTS decoder from Yamaha and then I added a couple of secondhand Naim NAITs as the rear and centre amplification. I bought a B&W centre speaker and a couple of Celestions for the rear. I fed all my AV sources directly into the processor and carried on using my music system as normal. In surround mode the music system handles the left/right channel from a feed from the processor.
I think I need an explanation of exactly how you set it up to get my head around it if you could do so
01 February 2007, 10:13 AM
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OK no problem.
Right here is what I have set up. My CD player is connected to my Naim pre-amp which in turn feeds the Naim power amp and onto the speakers. Obviously this sounds pretty good and I didn't want to compromise it when adding AV sound.
So I purchased a Yamaha standalone Dolby/DTS decoder. This has no amplification although you can get them with built in amplification for the rear and centre channels. The digital out from my DVD player is connected directly to the decoder which also has other inputs for analogue and digital sources. (I also have Sky fed in as a separate input). I can then select which input I want to decode on the decoder handset itself. The left/right output from the decoder is then connected to the Naim pre-amp on a separate input. Finally the centre and rear outputs from the decoder are connected to the Naim NAITS which are connected to the centre and rear speakers. You could add another NAIT and set of speakers for 7.1 and a subwoofer if you wished (although I personally think they are more of a distraction than a benefit so don't have one).
What this all means is for listening to music the Yamaha is left switched off as are the rear/centre NAITS and the system is effectively as it was before with no additional components in the mix, it's CD to Naim to speakers which is how I like it for music. When a DVD goes on the processor and NAITs are switched on and the Naim pre-amp is switched to receive the L/R channel from the processor so the main system speakers do the L/R channels while the dedicated centre speaker and rears do the surround stuff.
Right here is what I have set up. My CD player is connected to my Naim pre-amp which in turn feeds the Naim power amp and onto the speakers. Obviously this sounds pretty good and I didn't want to compromise it when adding AV sound.
So I purchased a Yamaha standalone Dolby/DTS decoder. This has no amplification although you can get them with built in amplification for the rear and centre channels. The digital out from my DVD player is connected directly to the decoder which also has other inputs for analogue and digital sources. (I also have Sky fed in as a separate input). I can then select which input I want to decode on the decoder handset itself. The left/right output from the decoder is then connected to the Naim pre-amp on a separate input. Finally the centre and rear outputs from the decoder are connected to the Naim NAITS which are connected to the centre and rear speakers. You could add another NAIT and set of speakers for 7.1 and a subwoofer if you wished (although I personally think they are more of a distraction than a benefit so don't have one).
What this all means is for listening to music the Yamaha is left switched off as are the rear/centre NAITS and the system is effectively as it was before with no additional components in the mix, it's CD to Naim to speakers which is how I like it for music. When a DVD goes on the processor and NAITs are switched on and the Naim pre-amp is switched to receive the L/R channel from the processor so the main system speakers do the L/R channels while the dedicated centre speaker and rears do the surround stuff.
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