Hi all and happy holidays.
I have a unit atom and just got Buchardt s400 speakers that have a 88db at 4ohm rating. The atom seems to drive them fine but being new to this what would I hear if that atom was not happy with the 4ohm resistance of the speakers?
Thoughts/advice appreciated.
Best
jh
Can the Atom drive 4 ohm speakers? Sure thing, there are forum members who use an Atom with such speakers and I use one with 6 ohm speakers. Is the Atom a good match for the Buchardt S400? That’s a different question. If the impedance drops significantly in use, that may cause problems but your experience suggests that’s not the case. The manufacturers suggest 50w into 8 ohms as the minimum, so you’re certainly on the margin specs-wise and at least one review reckoned that a decent amount of power is needed to really wake them and, in particular, to get decent bass. If you find the sound hardens when you play at a volume needed for good bass response, that may indicate they really need more power. Could you borrow a more powerful amp to compare?
Roger
Hi Roger, is there a 4ohm rating on the Atom? I didn’t see one but I know people do measurements.
Your response was perfect. That is what I was asking so thank you for that.
Thanks
jh
I’ve never seen a specific rating for 4 ohms, or 6 ohms come to that but generally speaking you’d expect about a 50% increase in nominal power output into 4 ohms, perhaps a little more.
It’s worth noting that a lot of Naim’s own speakers, when Naim made speakers, were 4 ohms. Interestingly, with Naim’s classic power amps the number of the amp is apparently total the power output for both channels into a 4 ohm load. So the NAP 250 is 250 watts into 2 channels (125 watts per channel) into 4 ohms.
Roger
Nap 250 is 80W or 70W, not 250. But it has a lot of current. So the wattage is not all.
That’s per channel, at 8ohms. @PeakMan has it right as it is the combined measurement at 4ohms that resulted in the naming convention of the NAPs.
johnha5,
in August 2012 or so I visited the Naim factory. Steven Hopkins, from the height of his seven feet, or so it seemed to me then, was a perfect host.
When I crossed what looked like the speakers assembly department I noticed a pair of DBLs close to the wall, in full operation; they sounded fine even from a distance. They were driven by a Nait 2.
Enjoy a Happy Season,
Max
I just checked, it’s 80w per channel in 8 ohms.
So 160 W per channel in 4 ohm , right?
I don’t understand 2 things: why summing the wattage for both channels?
Why some consider 4 ohms as a more difficult load for a speaker sometimes?
I suppose because every Naim model name is quirky in some way. Even Naim is a quirky name.
4 Ohms as such isn’t difficult if the amp is designed for it, and essentially all are because 4 Ohms speakers are very common
However, the speaker impedance is not a flat line and it changes with frequency and other factors. Hence, some 4 Ohms speakers may dip down to 2 Ohms in some situations, and this can become difficult. An 8 Ohm speaker is less likely to go very low.
No, Naim amps don’t double the wattage into 4ohms vs. 8.
Sure, they tend to be conservative with the measurements.
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