Hi all, I’m new to this Hifi music set up. I’m trying to figure out, if I can connect my existing passive speakers (Cambridge audio SX 80) to Atom HE. Also I’m on a budget. Could you give me some suggestions on how to make that possible at decent price please. Thank you!
You’ll need a power amp. The NAP100, 110 or 140 should be ideal.
Alternatively you could sell the Cambridge speakers and buy some actives, such as the Acoustic Energy AE1.
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Thanks for the reply. Would a preamp work?
No, what you’re missing is a power amp. The regular Atom has one built in, the HE doesn’t so you need either active speakers or a separate power amp.
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If you are on a budget, this is the easiest way to keep all Naim amplification. The Nap 100 can be bought for under gbp 500, and can be connected to the Atom HE using rca cables.
Other Naim power amps usually have din connectors which is a bit more difficult. It then requires a dual rca to din-4 cable.
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The good thing about the Atom HE is that it has both balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) connections to hook up a power amplifier. This gives you maximum flexibility in connecting a power amplifier, which can be a Naim as mentioned by Ardbeg10y. The Atom HE is the pre-amplifier feeding your power amplifier, which powers your passive loudspeakers. I run a similar setup myself with the Atom HE. Works brilliantly. Enjoying The Alan Parsons Project as I write this.
Thank you all for the replies. I have a better understanding regarding connecting speakers now.
The other question I have is, how do I connnect my ipad/macbook to the naim unity atom HE and get the lossless/High res out of apple music? Any cable suggestions that are priced reasonably?
Do you actually own an Atom HE? If you do then follow the above, if not as yet then just buy a regular Atom (non HE) and use your speaker cables.
I only ask as your original post wasn’t clear.
You can’t without a workaround and extra hardware or you use Airplay and limit the quality to AAC. You need to use a protocol converter to get USB out of the mac or iOS device to Spdif plus the Apple camera cable. Also on a mac it wont switch the playback rate so you have to do it manually to maintain it being lossless. My advice ignore Apple Music and use a service that is better supported on Hifi kit like Qobuz or Tidal.
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