AV sound system
Discussion
Hi All,
I am looking at getting a sound system for my TV. I have already got a blu-ray player so I am not after an all in one with blu-ray.
My budget is £1000-2500.
I do like the B&W MT30 speaker set for £1,500 and then I would need to buy an amp. Not sure what one would go best with that speakers.
Or, I am also considering an all in one system which excludes a blu-ray player.
What would people suggest?
I already have a Naim 5i (and CD5i) and B&W 602 S3 speakers in the room.
Regards,
LP
I am looking at getting a sound system for my TV. I have already got a blu-ray player so I am not after an all in one with blu-ray.
My budget is £1000-2500.
I do like the B&W MT30 speaker set for £1,500 and then I would need to buy an amp. Not sure what one would go best with that speakers.
Or, I am also considering an all in one system which excludes a blu-ray player.
What would people suggest?
I already have a Naim 5i (and CD5i) and B&W 602 S3 speakers in the room.
Regards,
LP
Are you thinking of ditching your existing 602's in favour of MT30's or are you looking to keep your hifi and AV separate? Or are you open to ideas?
Personally (and this is what I did with my Naim setup) I would get a processor so that you can still use your 5i. It's a cracker so will really do films justice. Sadly I doubt the MT30 package will be the best partner (although they do look cool) but for £2k you could probably buy a decent set of traditional boxes to hook up to your 5i/processor.
Personally (and this is what I did with my Naim setup) I would get a processor so that you can still use your 5i. It's a cracker so will really do films justice. Sadly I doubt the MT30 package will be the best partner (although they do look cool) but for £2k you could probably buy a decent set of traditional boxes to hook up to your 5i/processor.
Fatman2 said:
Are you thinking of ditching your existing 602's in favour of MT30's or are you looking to keep your hifi and AV separate? Or are you open to ideas?
Personally (and this is what I did with my Naim setup) I would get a processor so that you can still use your 5i. It's a cracker so will really do films justice. Sadly I doubt the MT30 package will be the best partner (although they do look cool) but for £2k you could probably buy a decent set of traditional boxes to hook up to your 5i/processor.
Whats a processor? I dont get it?Personally (and this is what I did with my Naim setup) I would get a processor so that you can still use your 5i. It's a cracker so will really do films justice. Sadly I doubt the MT30 package will be the best partner (although they do look cool) but for £2k you could probably buy a decent set of traditional boxes to hook up to your 5i/processor.
Lostprophet said:
Fatman2 said:
Are you thinking of ditching your existing 602's in favour of MT30's or are you looking to keep your hifi and AV separate? Or are you open to ideas?
Personally (and this is what I did with my Naim setup) I would get a processor so that you can still use your 5i. It's a cracker so will really do films justice. Sadly I doubt the MT30 package will be the best partner (although they do look cool) but for £2k you could probably buy a decent set of traditional boxes to hook up to your 5i/processor.
Whats a processor? I dont get it?Personally (and this is what I did with my Naim setup) I would get a processor so that you can still use your 5i. It's a cracker so will really do films justice. Sadly I doubt the MT30 package will be the best partner (although they do look cool) but for £2k you could probably buy a decent set of traditional boxes to hook up to your 5i/processor.
^^ What he said.
My Yamaha DSP-E800 sends a line level to my amp and then powers the centre, rears and sub (although I don't have a sub because my floorstanders are weighty enough).
I'm not sure what's available nowadays but am sure you can still buy a processor so you can keep your Naim running.
My Yamaha DSP-E800 sends a line level to my amp and then powers the centre, rears and sub (although I don't have a sub because my floorstanders are weighty enough).
I'm not sure what's available nowadays but am sure you can still buy a processor so you can keep your Naim running.
What you can do is use your Naim amp for the front left and rights, and connect an AV amp/receiver to a spare input on the Naim. The centre and surround speakers (and sub if you use one) would be directly connected to the AV amp's speaker and sub pre out connectors. The left and right signal would use the AV amp's pre outs (so you need to make sure that any AV amp you're interested in has these connections as not all do). When you listen to an AV source, you turn the Naim onto whichever spare input you used for the AV amp's preouts and turn the Naim volume to say 12 o'clock position (or if it has an AV mode like some Arcams you can select that for a fixed gain). When you first setup the AV amp you need to make sure the Naim's volume control is as above as effectively for AV the Naim is just acting as a power amp stage (it just happens to also have to go through the Naim's preamp to get there).
When you listen to stereo, you hear exactly what you would currently with no 'polution' from the AV amp as the stereo left and right signal will come via your Naim amp and connected to your CD player (or whatever stereo source). For AV you'll be passing the left and rights through two sets of preamp stages, but I'd guess the Naim's would be transparent enough that this won't be an issue in this scenario.
I hope this makes sense...I've done it myself on a previous NAD stereo amp and Denon AV amp setup I used to have, before I bought an Arcam AV9 processor (which sounds really good for stereo, but I guess not as good as a dedicated stereo amp like your Naim).
The reason I suggested an AV amp rather than the Yamaha model mentioned above is that you would be able to get a model that can decode HD soundtracks, which a higher quality system like yours would be of more benefit over straight Dolby Digital/DTS.
When you listen to stereo, you hear exactly what you would currently with no 'polution' from the AV amp as the stereo left and right signal will come via your Naim amp and connected to your CD player (or whatever stereo source). For AV you'll be passing the left and rights through two sets of preamp stages, but I'd guess the Naim's would be transparent enough that this won't be an issue in this scenario.
I hope this makes sense...I've done it myself on a previous NAD stereo amp and Denon AV amp setup I used to have, before I bought an Arcam AV9 processor (which sounds really good for stereo, but I guess not as good as a dedicated stereo amp like your Naim).
The reason I suggested an AV amp rather than the Yamaha model mentioned above is that you would be able to get a model that can decode HD soundtracks, which a higher quality system like yours would be of more benefit over straight Dolby Digital/DTS.
Edited by OldSkoolRS on Monday 22 November 16:58
^^ Again, what he said LOL.
Yeah, please don't get a Yamaha DSP-E800. I only mentioned it as an example because that's the route I took (think it's been long discontinued anyway).
I bought it about 10 years ago and things have moved on a lot since then so just do some research into what's most compatible with your current setup.
Good luck!
Yeah, please don't get a Yamaha DSP-E800. I only mentioned it as an example because that's the route I took (think it's been long discontinued anyway).
I bought it about 10 years ago and things have moved on a lot since then so just do some research into what's most compatible with your current setup.
Good luck!
Plotloss said:
If you're going to use a stereo amp to amplify the FL&FR speakers it really should have a fixed gain setting.
Ideally, yes, but if not then as long as you use the same gain setting on the stereo amp each time, it seemed to work well enough on my old setup (NADC350 and Denon 2808).Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff