A wonderful £1k streaming system...

[BenLaw]

My understanding is that without pure direct on, both will acting as a preamp. I assume that in stereo you have the AV amp at a fixed volume and control the volume with the Naim. In which case the Naim is both pre and power. In AV I assume you have the Naim at a fixed volume and control the volume with the AV amp. But there is no way to bypass the preamp part of the Naim.

The problem of not having pure direct on when listening in stereo is that the AV amp will be doing some processing. Pure direct allows the signal to go through unprocessed and in the least degraded way possible.

So CDP direct -> Nait 5i should sound almost as good as through the AV amp with pure direct on. Not having pure direct on will (as you've experienced) make for a worse stereo experience.

 

[scene]

Glad to hear that the pure direct helped

Yes, of course the yamaha is acting as a pre-amp, and you may end up with the Nait also acting as a pre and power amp. Unless the naim has an HT override or power amp setting, like my a85 does - I'm not an expert here. But if you plug the apple tv into the naim directly then you're going to have to rely on the DAC in the apple. Hmmm. If this was the case, I'd get the rDac and plumb the naim in

 

[Anonymous]

scene:Glad to hear that the pure direct helped

Yes, of course the yamaha is acting as a pre-amp, and you may end up with the Nait also acting as a pre and power amp. Unless the naim has an HT override or power amp setting, like my a85 does - I'm not an expert here. But if you plug the apple tv into the naim directly then you're going to have to rely on the DAC in the apple. Hmmm. If this was the case, I'd get the rDac and plumb the naim in

there's no dac in the apple tv scene

 

[Dave_]

maxflinn:scene:Glad to hear that the pure direct helped

Yes, of course the yamaha is acting as a pre-amp, and you may end up with the Nait also acting as a pre and power amp. Unless the naim has an HT override or power amp setting, like my a85 does - I'm not an expert here. But if you plug the apple tv into the naim directly then you're going to have to rely on the DAC in the apple. Hmmm. If this was the case, I'd get the rDac and plumb the naim in

there's no dac in the apple tv scene

Depends on whether it's an ATV 1 or 2 we're talking about

 

[Anonymous]

 

[scene]

daveh75:
maxflinn:scene:Glad to hear that the pure direct helped

Yes, of course the yamaha is acting as a pre-amp, and you may end up with the Nait also acting as a pre and power amp. Unless the naim has an HT override or power amp setting, like my a85 does - I'm not an expert here. But if you plug the apple tv into the naim directly then you're going to have to rely on the DAC in the apple. Hmmm. If this was the case, I'd get the rDac and plumb the naim in

there's no dac in the apple tv scene

Depends on whether it's an ATV 1 or 2 we're talking about

Yes, I had forgotten that apple had made the new App,e TV fully digital. That's three oopses in one thread for me, a new personal low...

 

[roger06]

BenLaw:My understanding is that without pure direct on, both will acting as a preamp. I assume that in stereo you have the AV amp at a fixed volume and control the volume with the Naim. In which case the Naim is both pre and power. In AV I assume you have the Naim at a fixed volume and control the volume with the AV amp. But there is no way to bypass the preamp part of the Naim.

The problem of not having pure direct on when listening in stereo is that the AV amp will be doing some processing. Pure direct allows the signal to go through unprocessed and in the least degraded way possible.

So CDP direct -> Nait 5i should sound almost as good as through the AV amp with pure direct on. Not having pure direct on will (as you've experienced) make for a worse stereo experience.

Hi Ben

I'm even more confused now! Whatever the source (apart from CD which goes straight into the Nait 5) so BDP, Apple TV, MacBook Pro via HDMI, the Nait 5 amp is on AV input and the volume is disabled and output is controlled by the Yamaha, whether Pure Direct is on or not...

 

[scene]

With your current setup, with Apple TV -> Yamaha -> Nait, the Yamaha acts as pre-amp, and will be where you control the volume. With the Nait on "AV input" (which is the "HT override" I was referring to - sorry, couldn't remember if the Nait had it, or what it was called), it has fixed gain and acts as solely as a Power amp for the inputs. This mode is designed so that the device can power the front pair multi-channel set up, or in fact any pair of a multi-channel set up, or for bi-amping the front pair, etc.

Pure Direct only impacts the Yamaha and turns of unnecessary digital circuitry to improve stereo performance - which it does, from your description

Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

roger06:

We came away with:

Apple TV -> Digital Optical cable -> Arcam rDAC -> Chord Crimson -> Marantz PM6003 amp, QED XT Evolution cable -> B&W 685 speakers.

So how are you navigating the contents of the Apple TV? Is it also connected to a TV perhaps?

 

[axman]

maybe via an ipod/iphone, or directly from the itunes on his computer.

 

[richardw42]

I have 2 x Sonos ZP90s

The one in the TV room is into a YAMAHA rxv667 with optical so using the DAC on the AV receiver and it sounds pretty good. Last night listened to some PJ Harvey and her voice on BLACK HEARTED LOVE was fantastic.

In my lounge I have the ZP90 into rDac using Chord Opticord (optical), then Chord Chrimson to Musical Fidelity amp. It is at least a couple of rungs ahead on the TV room. Not sure it can all be attributed to just the dac but as a system it is noticeably better

 

[BenLaw]

roger06:

Hi Ben

I'm even more confused now! Whatever the source (apart from CD which goes straight into the Nait 5) so BDP, Apple TV, MacBook Pro via HDMI, the Nait 5 amp is on AV input and the volume is disabled and output is controlled by the Yamaha, whether Pure Direct is on or not...

Yup, what scene said

My fault, I'd kind of assumed you weren't using / didn't have a bypass on the Nait cos you weren't using pure direct on the AV amp.

CDP -> Nait that you're using is best for CD playback

I would have thought for digital stereo sources (presumably music from the ATV or MacBook) you are better not using bypass on the Nait, so you are using the preamp and volume on it. If that's possible....

 

[Messiah]

There seems to be a lot of confusion here so let's try to clear it up.

Any analogue source, CD player etc should be connected directly to the Nait and this should give you the best performance.

Analogue source - Nait - Speakers

Any digital source will have to be connected to the receiver. This then acts as the DAC. Pure Direct should negate any extra processing the yamaha is adding but the sound is ultimately influenced by the receiver.

I would expect the addition of a separate DAC to make the difference in the set up for you digital sources as it seems the yamaha is holding them back.

Digital source - Yamaha - Nait - Speakers

Digital source - Separate DAC - Nait - Speakers, should be better.

 

[scene]

Messiah:
There seems to be a lot of confusion here so let's try to clear it up.

Any analogue source, CD player etc should be connected directly to the Nait and this should give you the best performance.

Analogue source - Nait - Speakers

Any digital source will have to be connected to the receiver. This then acts as the DAC. Pure DIrect should negate any extra processing the yamaha is adding but the sound is ultimately influenced by the receiver.

I would expect the addition of a separate DAC to make the difference in the set up for you digital sources as it seems the yamaha is holding them back.

Digital source - Yamaha - Nait - Speakers

Digital source - Separate DAC - Nait - Speakers, should be better.

+1 on that.

Though I feel I must declare an interest as a dedicated arcam fan

 

[roger06]

Quick update to this interesting thread.

I'm now sure I'm effectively not getting the most from my Naim amp in my streaming set up.

However, in lieu of getting a DAC (rDAC probably) I got the (award winning!) TCI Coral Optical cable today and used this to connect the Apple TV to the Yamaha amp.

OK, I'm comparing a £35 Optical cable with a £5 HDMI but it's certainly a big improvement. Bass much tighter and more defined and the sound stage with the vocals much improved, as was overall clarity.

I can't wait to the a DAC - I think when I do the Naim CD5i will be up for sale...

 

[Anonymous]

Good thread by the way,

Recently I acquired a Pioneer VSX 920 for general cinema/ Sonos music duties. I had the Sonos connected via Optical to the Beresford Caiman. Just for kicks I tried the Sonos via optical straight into the Pioneer. Strangely for whatever reason it sounded as good as the Beresford, not quite as fluid but excellent clarity. The upshot of it is that the Beresford got sold and funds reallocated, something I wasn't expecting.

As far as cables go, I have purchased all my digital cables and subwoofer cable from THat cable.com and found them all to be excellent and good value.

 

[Anonymous]

scene:Messiah:
There seems to be a lot of confusion here so let's try to clear it up.

Any analogue source, CD player etc should be connected directly to the Nait and this should give you the best performance.

Analogue source - Nait - Speakers

Any digital source will have to be connected to the receiver. This then acts as the DAC. Pure DIrect should negate any extra processing the yamaha is adding but the sound is ultimately influenced by the receiver.

I would expect the addition of a separate DAC to make the difference in the set up for you digital sources as it seems the yamaha is holding them back.

Digital source - Yamaha - Nait - Speakers

Digital source - Separate DAC - Nait - Speakers, should be better.

+1 on that.

Though I feel I must declare an interest as a dedicated arcam fan

Hi Scene, I see you use a NAS with your Sonos. I plan to get one soon . I think the Buffalo Linkstation mini would be a good purchase. What do you use? was it easy to set up?

D

 

[scene]

Hi brittondave - I use a NetGear readyNAS. I found it OK to set up. Only real issue I had involved my Kaspersky antivirus and ensuring my NAS and home network was flagged as "Trusted". I know NSYgrinner has had some fun with his one, so I think the exact configuration of Windows version, antivirus, etc. can impact the overall experience. (There are a couple of long threads on this - a forum search on readyNAS should bring them up!)

A lot of people use the buffalo, and I've sean good reviews of it, I went for the netgear NAS as I've got netgear routers, and they were doing a seriously good offer at the time...

 

[Anonymous]

scene:Hi brittondave - I use a NetGear readyNAS. I found it OK to set up. Only real issue I had involved my Kaspersky antivirus and ensuring my NAS and home network was flagged as "Trusted". I know NSYgrinner has had some fun with his one, so I think the exact configuration of Windows version, antivirus, etc. can impact the overall experience. (There are a couple of long threads on this - a forum search on readyNAS should bring them up!)

A lot of people use the buffalo, and I've sean good reviews of it, I went for the netgear NAS as I've got netgear routers, and they were doing a seriously good offer at the time...

Thanks for the info scene, I will keep an eye on my antivirus when I come to set up the NAS..

cheers