Have your say & ask the experts

This has been my quest - to combine the joys of surround sound with the refined details of stereo and all on a mid entry level budget.

So to date , and I think I'm stopping here , I have a Denon 2309 feeding a Nait XS via pre outs into Spendor A6'S at the front , B and W CM Centre, 685 backs, and 608 Sub. That's with the AV unity gain on the Nait.

It's very good espcially when fed a dvd or blu ray from my pana bd 35 or when Sky HD has a film. It is not however perfect. The whole effect is only as good as the pre outs from the Denon and the Denon avr which means some loss of clarity.

The stereo which enjoys the Nait xs and a Flatcap 2x and Naim CD 5X is as you'd expect an amazing sound made all the more so by Spendor A6's . There are so many windows opened onto the sound that I am hearing layer upon layer of instrumentation

Sounds good.  Once I get back into gainful employment one of my tasks next year is to buy a stereo amp and cd player to merge into my home cinema system.  Naim is one product I will deffo have on my shortlist.

I have just integrated a nait xs into my home cinema system. The stereo sound is an obviouos leap forward compared to my onkyo 905, and i am so glad i decided to take that step. What i wasnt expecting however was the inprovement to the front end of the surround sound system. It is somehow more solid, smoother and more way more seamless than before. I am very happy with the stereo sound, but now i have set everything up on the AV side of things too, and noticed these improvements, i am simply chuffed to bits!!!

Would the different speakers in your set up not be affecting the surround performance more than the av amp itself??

Gander from my experience with this type of set up Speakers do make a difference in most configurations.

But you are still losing out because the pre outs of the av are no way as good as the direct stereo amp

B and W 's 685 are pretty good but can hardly match the Spendor A6 . I guess the true test of your question would be to try both pairs of speakers through the av amp and the stereo amp  

"But you are still losing out because the pre outs of the av are no way as good as the direct stereo amp

B and W 's 685 are pretty good but can hardly match the Spendor A6 . I guess the true test of your question would be to try both pairs of speakers through the av amp and the stereo amp"

Not really sure what you are saying here.

If the OP could accomodate more speakers at the front then it might be worth splitting the systems completely as you are only a pair of 686's away from two systems.  

I think he's saying that the op should try the b&w's on the nait xs to see if they have more to give than on the end of the suround system. (and the spendors just in the surround amp)

Although what you could then do other than upgrade the surround amp I'm not sure.