Hi all
Looking at getting an atom although wonder if it will give me enough for my room size, wonder what speakers people feel match the atom best.
Stand mount ideally but would consider floor stand
What are your suggestions for idea speaker match
Room size 4m x 6m, hardwood floors.
thanks all
@Scooter71 welcome!
If you type in the search bar “atom speakers” you will get many thread results that have previously been discussed.
Welcome.
There’s a huge amount of knowledge and experience here, and the search will indeed give you lots of stuff to digest. Speakers are of course very personal.
Suggestions are easier if you share your budget, whether new or s/h and if you expect to be able to demo (and in that case what your dealer stocks).
Bruce
4x6m is quite a large space so worth exploring floor standers too….
I have run an atom with a number of smallish speakers and found the ATC 11 worked well but if you want loud the atom would run out of juice and arguably the Nova would give you more flexibility in speaker choice.
It’s so easy to speakers wrong so I would start with a good dealer and do some demos at their place and bring home a couple of your favourites to try at home.
Take your time
The Atom’s challenge is its relatively low power, and your relatively large room. As well as the Atom I’d consider the HE version and some active speakers. I use PMC twenty5.21i actives in a room 4.5m by 3.6m. In your room you may want bigger. You could find some 22i second hand and then add the active conversion pack. This would give you two 100W amplifiers in each speaker.
I ran an Atom with B&W603S2s floorstanders for a couple of years until recently.
I would highly recommended the combination for a great room-filling sound in a room of your size without spending a fortune. I got my S2s open-box for ÂŁ800 and Atom was also open-box for ÂŁ2,000.
The S2s have been replaced by S3s now, but I believe they have very similar sound and retail around ÂŁ1500.
When I sold the S2s locally to a guy who had an Atom, he was gobsmacked by the sound quality and commented something along the lines of “ how much better can it get ?” (I was in the process of moving up to some Active ATC50s - but that’s a different ball-game altogether)
As @HungryHalibut has pointed out, given your room size, you may run into power limitations with the Atom, especially if you like to listen loud, or to music/movies with a wide dynamic range. If you go for the Atom HE, as well as active speakers, you can use separate power amp and “regular” speakers, which gives you more flexibility, but keep in mind, if you take this route, that the Atom HE does not have a 12V trigger out (a significant omission IMHO) so the power amp, needs to be able to detect the signal and power itself on, or must be located where you can manually turn it on/off. (You can get a gizmo to detect the signal and then drive the 12V trigger, but that’s a hassle).
You need to decide what is really important to you; type of speakers, all in one electronics, etc. I would also suggest giving some thought to the room acoustics given the size and hardwood floor.
Thank you all for comments so far all very interesting, I had started with a love budget of £2k for second hand atom and speakers to start my Naim journey, hadn’t consider the room was that big, speaker will fire across 4m width not fire down 6m lengths.
I have a very 5.1 system and want this as a dedicated system with a rega P3.
Its a fun journey but lots to think about.
I have an Atom feeding Acoustic Energy AE 500 speakers on dedicated stands and I’m amazed at the amount of punch they have. They really are easily capable of filling your room to realistic levels, my room is 6x4m and they fire down the length of the room.
Obviously you need to hear them for yourself preferably in your own room but I was not disappointed with them downsizing from PMC Twenty 24s.
Or go old school and just leave the power amps on all the time
Or switch on half an hour before a listening session as I do with the amp packs on my active ATCs. It’s really not that much of a burden.
Roger
Wow, lovely place you have there!!!
