I have a Uniti Atom which up until now I had connected via the pre-out to my active speaker.
I have now finally purchased some Dali Minuet Speakers to use but I’m getting swamped with information about how to connect speakers to the Atom.
There seems to be a lot of technical jargon surrounding wiring.
It also warns on the back if the Atom that you should only use the atom adaptor plug to plug speakers in. (I had assumed if I got the cable with banana plugs it would just plug in). Do I need to take this plug to someone to solder it to a wire. (This is beyond my abilities if I’m honest)
One speaker will be placed 5m away from the unit and one placed 1m away. Do I need to use the same length.
Finally the costs of cables seems to be really high. ( I was quoted £280)
Any simple advice (with very little jargon and possibly a link to simple wire that I could just purchase) would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out of this rabbit hole. I would just like to connect my speakers to the Atom with as little fuss as possible.
You will get the purist response…eg naim plugs and naca5 cable, soldered etc. . Which is fine.
Or a practical response which is most speaker cable and 4mm bananas which is also fine.
Back when I had an atom I used Chord C screen. Around 8.00 a metre and perfectly acceptable for your setup. Accepted wisdom is that both lengths should be the same. So under a 100 quid for a 5.0m pair. It is against forum rules to post commercial links but it is an easily found cable at the usual suspects. You should be able to find 5.0m lengths ready made, or just get the screw fit banana which do not require soldering.
Dont be tempted or persuaded to over complicate this.
Your Atom is going to sound great with those Dalis but deserves a good pair of wires. Naca is the obvious choice but Chord Odyssey would serve well and is more pliable.
Going 2nd hand is an option but a Naim dealer will do all the wiring for you.
Naim’s own NACA5 cable is very much the best loudspeaker cable to use with any Naim amplifier. It has always been fairly priced, and now costs around £10 per metre (I think). You will need to add in a bit more for the four plugs that you’ll need.
You need to have equal lengths of cable from the amp to each speaker, even if that means spooling up the cable covering the shorter distance. Don’t use fancy plug terminals, Naim’s own are best.
Naim always used to advise having cable runs of at least 3 metre lengths. That may have changed for newer products - your dealer will be able to advise.
You will often be able to find NACA cable on eBay, so it may be worth checking there if you’re familiar with how eBay works. Otherwise, it’s best to speak to your own (or indeed any) Naim dealer.
Naca5 RRP is 35.00 a metre. You can find it for a bit less online or AudioT who want 39.00 a metre!!
I will tactfully duck whether it is very much the best, as that is not a question asked by the OP and life is too short.
Good lord, I bought the NACA over 30 years ago with (the bulk of) the rest of my system. If that’s what it costs now, prices have certainly shot up in the intervening years!
Apologies for the misinformation!
It’s still very good cable, though - assuming that it hasn’t changed as well (which I’m pretty sure it hasn’t).
NACA5 is a very good cable for any Naim amp, and I would recommend giving it a try. It comes up quite regularly on eBay, usually already terminated, you might even find some with Atom plugs already soldered onto one end which would save you having to find someone to do it for you.
If you find some with regular banana plugs such as Deltrons that will be fine too.
I also have an Atom. I have been very successful connecting up speaker cable that I got at the local hardware store. As long as it is 14 AWG or larger (meaning smaller numbers, so 12 AWG is also fine), you will be just fine. You can ignore the special adaptor and warnings about soldering it together: I didn’t bother with any of that. I even (heaven forbid!!) used different lengths to each speaker! It makes absolutely no difference, contrary to popular belief. So just get some half decent cables, don’t spend lots of money, connect up as you like, and enjoy the music.
I recently bought a BlueSound Node 3 to play about with. I also threw in a set of (AudioQuest) cables in a moment of weakness. I am away from home at present and have not had chance to try anything out. But if I find it makes any difference I will be sure to report.
Second hand A5 is a great choice - there’s a cheap set on eBay now. You really do want a minimum of 3.5M, and 5M sounds better on my own Atom, and having the two exactly the same length really is important.
Urm my experience is that anything upstream of the power amp Naim wires are most suited, but not an issue for the OP, whereas for speaker cable it is speaker dependent. I’ll always hold to the view that Chord Odyssey is best suited to my Kudos. No idea what will work best with Dalis.
The atom speaker sockets are standard 4mm banana ones. Naim sa8 plugs won’t fit until you remove the black plastic cases, as the socket spacing is different between the uniti products and everything else. So if buying 2nd hand pre terminated naca5 simply remove the plastic.
Personally I’d choose linn k20 use standard bananas and an appropriate set equal length so both 5m.
I’m new here myself but had a similar question answered a week or two ago. I too have an Atom and was after suitable cabling.
As others have pointed out the Naim NACA5 seems to be the current “stock” cable but I needed a more budget friendly option. I followed the suggestion of the Linn K20 and having finally sourced some can testify it works very well. I believe it’s identical to the older Naim NACA4 cable and also has the benefit of being lighter weight and less rigid than the ‘5’ and can be found at £6 per metre.
I think some of the specific requirements on speaker cables you’ll see relate more to Naim separates and particularly the older designs, but the Linn K20 qualifies anyway.
You should aim for two matched lengths, and also as mentioned you can use other good quality 4mm banana plugs but the ones supplied with the Atom work fine with this cable if you are handy with a soldering iron.
I’d be interested in your thoughts on the Minuets when you do have them wired up and run in as these are on my shortlist for the next upgrade of the. System.
That’s kind of you to mention it. My room (‘cell’ might be better) is on the ground floor, so I could almost touch the free world outside the window (which has a lock fitted, of course).
