Atom and power amp bi wire

Naim Atom

I was running a Cambridge CXN v1 steamer and a Cambridge ca60 driving a pair of Kef R3 s

I was pretty happy with it but fancied some Naim equipment so I sold the Cambridge amp and replaced it with a Nap100 power amp and used it with the CXN in pre amp mode. Sounded really good and I should have stopped there.

However, I kept reading reviews about the the little Atom and thought it looks great as well so I would sell the CXN and the Naim amp to fund it

I went ahead and bought the Atom. Very good but not perfect.

Has more treble and detail than the CXN/ nap100 combo but was lacking some mid and bottom end.

Sounds a little strained too at higher volumes,I dont mean full either, I know the Kefs may need more power but it’s only setup in my small office.

I then used the atom as a pre amp with the nap 100 ,sold the streamer but still had this, expensive way using the atom in that way but It does sound better, but then missing a little of the top end which the atom has.

But this weekend I had a brainwave and thought I would try bi wiring the speakers using both amps,the Nap 100 driving the bass speakers and the Atom driving the HF

Wow, what a complete change . Got the perfect combination (in my opinion) best performance from both amps

Now a happy chappie, thought this might be of interest to someone else out there

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There are some notes from Naim on biwiring in this
https://community.naimaudio.com/t/what-is-an-active-system-active-bi-amping-tri-amping/134/2

Been researching up on the Nap 100 today as although i love my Atom, and at first was happy with the bass, the more i delve into my music collection the more im missing the power in the low end.

I dont want a full size power amp so was looking at the 100. Am i understanding the bi-wiring correctly in that you still have an RCA connection from the atom pre-outs to the Nap 100 but just have the speaker cables from the atom to the HF connectors on the speakers and the 100 has speaker wire going to the LF?

Hi
yes you’re correct. the nap 100 drives the bass units and fed from the Atom pre output and the Atom is wired to the HF so using both amps to each driver - bi amp
There’s a mention on here about possible issues with impedance etc and a note about the speaker crossover but i believe the crossover is still working as it was? but it’s not needed now anyway? However at the end of the day its about the sound, sweet treble and better bass ,i wasn’t expecting such a difference
the sound from the cambridge streamer and nap 100 combo was better overall than the Atom on its own and I did consider selling the Atom and return to the previous setup
I am using hi res streaming
I paid £599 for the nap100 3 months ago as it’s discontinued now but seen them on auction sites cheaper

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