I’ve recently changed my Atom to an Atom HE playing through PMC Twenty5 21i active speakers, the original Atom sounded great, with a nice balanced full sound so I upgraded to the Atom HE thinking I’d get more of what I like about the Atom.
The HE seems to have a harsh sound to it and seems to have a smaller sound with mid range sounding muddled, this is not what I was expecting. The HE only has a few hours on it, could it be it needs to burn in and hopefully the sound will open up and give me more of the original Atom sound that I liked?
Does anyone have a similar experience as I’m quite disappointed?
The HE sounded better than the Atom when I changed over. More open, bit more energy, PRaT etc.
Check your connections etc but definitely a bit early to tell after just a few hours.
I know people debate this (endlessly) but my experience is that components like the Atom take maybe a week or so to come on song. Some other items rather longer. Leave it switched on, or maybe plug in some headphones and let it play continuously.
Did your previous system use the same PMCs without the active pack? If so, you’ve now got a better but more revealing preamp and a different power amp (+ active x-over) so it’s likely to sound different. Whether you prefer the new sound is another matter.
Is there a chance you could borrow a suitable power amp and try it with the speakers in passive form? That way you might be able to rule out the amp packs as causing the poor sound.
A thought occurs to me: have you checked the active packs are correctly set up for your speakers? I understand there’s a jumper bar that needs to be inserted in the correct slot for your model of speaker.
I wish I could, Neil. When I swapped from Nova and passive 21i speakers, I installed the amp pack and connected to the HE and the sound was immediately a big step up. This was with a demo HE thought, with lots of hours on it. But when I got my own brand new HE I don’t recall a step backwards. So long as the bus bar is in the correct slot for the 21i, and the sensitivity switch is set to + it’s hard to understand what might be causing the issue. My speakers sound anything but small and the midrange is nice and open. I use Mogami XLRs that I bought from Designacable. If sound is coming out of both speakers it’s hard to imagine that the leads might be at fault, though it is potentially possible I suppose.
It’s hard to diagnose issues remotely, so it may be best to get the supplying dealer involved. The SQ should be an instant step up from Atom and passive. That said, the question of whether the same pair of speakers was being used with the Atom remains unanswered.
HH, how could the HE/Active be that much better than the Nova, given the latter’s price tag? Is it down to the active speakers ?I am mulling over a change from Atom to Nova atm.
