Beginners connection question for vintage receiver

[Klean9]

Hello! I am in the process of purchasing a Wiim Pro Plus for my vintage Nakamichi TA-2A receiver in order to play music from my networked NAS. The Nak does not have all the new fangled input/output ports, as you can see in the attached picture. I assume I would run RCA cables from the Wiim output to an empty input on the Nak, like the "CD" or "Tape play". I would then connect the Wiim wirelessly to my home network, find my NAS and connect to its media server (currently Serviio). In order to add my TV (which is not too vintage), I would run an optical cable from the TV to the "Optical in" on the Wiim. Make sense?

 

[wunderkind]

Sounds about right at least for the first part.

Can Wiim Pro decode multi-channel sound from the TV? Do you have to downmix the output signal from the TV into stereo?

 

[Klean9]

My TV I believe only has stereo output. It's not quite as old (2014) as my Nakamichi (1989). Currently my TVs sound goes into a stereo Bose soundbar (not surround sound and no subwoof), so I can probably connect that to the Nak to give the TV sound more oomph. Thanks for the confirmation on part one of my question.

 

[harkpabst]

Hello! I am in the process of purchasing a Wiim Pro Plus for my vintage Nakamichi TA-2A receiver in order to play music from my networked NAS. The Nak does not have all the new fangled input/output ports, as you can see in the attached picture. I assume I would run RCA cables from the Wiim output to an empty input on the Nak, like the "CD" or "Tape play". I would then connect the Wiim wirelessly to my home network, find my NAS and connect to its media server (currently Serviio). In order to add my TV (which is not too vintage), I would run an optical cable from the TV to the "Optical in" on the Wiim. Make sense?View attachment 5559

Looks like you got it all sorted already.

One more thing to consider: The input sensitivity of CD, Video and Tape play might not be the same. That means, feeding the same input voltage, the amplifier's output voltage might be different. Or - putting it in other words - you might have a very small usable range of the volume control with the Tape play input and a much broader range withe the CD input.


I made up these examples because the CD input really might be the least sensitive and the one I would recommend using. If I remember correctly the Aux output level of the Pro and Pro Plus can be configured between 500 mVrms and 2 Vrms (for a digital full scale signal). A setting of 2 Vrms and using the CD input could possibly result in the best signal to noise ratio and a connection least prone to radio interference.

 

[cooky560]

Most vintage amps have a 150mv sensitivity across each input, but your mileage my vary.

General rule for connecting modern kit to vintage amps is as follows:
CD - ok
Tape playback / in - ok
Tape record / out - DO NOT USE THIS
Tuner - ok
Video - ok
Aux - ok
Phono - DO NOT USE THIS
Pre-out DO NOT USE THIS
Some amps have jumpers for connecting an EQ between the pre-amp and the amp, leave this connected, and don't put the WiiM here.
Some 70s amps have special DIN inputs, don't use these
Some 70s amps have special Quad sound inputs, don't use these.