Looking for recommendations

Hello. Long time listener, first time caller :slight_smile:
So I have two living situations. I work and live on a luxury yacht for 6 months a year and the other at home.
At home I currently have a muso and Muso qb but I’d love to step up with a two channel system so looking to get a nova and some decent speakers… I’d love recommendations on a suitable match to the nova… I like the sound of Totem tribe Towers but admit I haven’t heard much else… yet.

Part 2: I work on a luxury yacht for 6 months a year as a chef so would like to get a decent Dac/pre amp that can power both my headphones in my cabin as well as some (yet to be purchased) bookshelf speakers for the galley (kitchen).
I’m thinking, if I bought some totem mite mini for the galley they’d be light enough to carry home and a mid range dac/preamp could support them as well as boost my BeoPlay h8 headphones when chilling in the cabin.
So I’m looking for recommendations on bookshelf speakers for the galley (must be suitable to power with a preamp/dac that is also suitable for headphones and ideally under 10kg weight so I can fly them home in a suitcase.

Thanks in advance to all for reply and sorry for the complex scenario.

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Andy, welcome to the forum.

An interesting query to kick off. First question from me is, what is/are your music source(s)? A DAP, phone, just a USB drive or stick?

FWIW, my own travel system consists of a Ponoplayer (currently with a 256GB Micro SD card full of FLAC music files) and headphones, or if staying in a cottage somewhere I also take an Old Naim NAIT and a pair of Maxim 2s.

Out of interest, have you considered using your Muso QB as your active speaker system? It’s one of the systems that Naim offer on Princess Yachts, so it’s proven at sea, I guess you could say.

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First question from me. How did you land that job!!

BTW, I have Totems too, lovely speakers.

Hey Richard.

Sorry for slow reply but thank you for yours.
The WiFi onboard is terrible and we’ve been travelling a lot since my original post.

So in a big development, I’ve gone out and purchased the uniti atom for the galley as I discovered the speaker cables for some existing ceiling speakers. The dealer threw in the Focal Elegia headphones too which I’m really happy about.

But frustratingly, now I have some connection issues to resolve…
Can you point me towards any existing forum threads about connectivity issues?

Thanks in advance
Andy

Hey Mike, to answer your question… facebook! There are recruitment agencies online and in busy yachting areas that recruit for the yachting industry but these days they’re posting all their positions to fb groups.
What do you use with your totems?
I’ve just bought an atom. :slight_smile:

My second qualification is yoga teacher, and there are a few super yacht jobs around for that, but I’m a family man, so, alas, not for me.

I have Totem Forest Signatures with a SN2/NDX2 system and the Hawks with a Nova.

Enjoy the Atom, it will be great. I started with a UnitiQute 2 and those Hawks.

Oh nice. Yeah I’ll become a family man when I return home in September. :pregnant_woman:
…Which I figure will play some big considerations in my home stereo speaker choice… (maybe :headphones: best :joy: )

Any notes/points if I were considering hawks or forests with my atom?

Congratulations! Life will change.

Without a doubt. The new Unitis have better headphone stages, so that’s a bonus.

The Totems like power, so go for the smaller speakers. An Atom would drive the Hawks. There is the new Sky Towers which are highly rated, smaller than the Hawks, rated at 30W plus and look lovely. Others have their bookshelves, if that’s your preference.

What sort of connectivity issues are you having?

Hi Andy, if the Atom is for use in the galley with speakers, and in your cabin with headphones, will you be able to connect it and leave it in one location? Small though it is, it’s not really a portable device.
You also need to consider how you will connect to it, both for control, and for music sources. I’m guessing any internet connection will not be reliable enough to use Spotify, Tidal, iRadio etc? If you have a local network in the yacht, that will allow you to control the Atom with an iPhone, which is going to be a better option that just using the remote control.

Hi Chris.
Yeah, no I understand. I’m leaving the atom safely stored in a kitchen cupboard where the speaker cables were found protruding and using a dragonfly dac with laptop in cabin.

I was wondering if there’s a way to use my phones hotspot instead of the boats WiFi (which constantly drops).
Would an offline router help? Even for controlling USB drive?

The naim phone app often doesn’t pick up the atom device…

I did last night try playing downloaded Spotify tracks over the atom-headphones and surprised to experience a lot of drop offs… this using Spotify connect so correct me if wrong but that’s not over WiFi right? The dropping off seemed to lessen over time to the point it would barely happen. A sort of settling in period?

Brand new lacie hard drive connected via usb occasionally slow to be picked up by atom.

USB input doesn’t allow direct control with iPhone? I’m sure my Muso does allow this… atom charges iPhone but does not recognize as a drive or streamer…

Also See reply below to Chris. Thanks :slight_smile:

Hi, I presume you have the Atom connected to the yacht’s WiFi, not a wired Ethernet connection? Streaming audio does not require a very fast, high bandwidth network, but it does need to be stable. Setting up a separate wireless network for use only by the Atom might be worthwhile. Even something as simple as an Apple Airport Express (now discontinued, but cheap and easy to pick up used ones) connected to the Atom Ethernet port would give you a connection for your phone, to allow you to use it with the Naim app, rather than relying on the limited functionality of the remote. The Naim app, with Server mode enabled, is certainly a better way to browse and play music than via the USB input on the app, or the remote control.

I have now connected the atom to a router/modem via Ethernet. This definitely helps.
But new problem… strangely the server mode doesn’t seem to play. It did for about a week but now I get this picture below. Usb, does work… could this be related to the recent firmware update? image|281x499

That’s odd, especially given that the app is seeing the metadata but the music isn’t playing. It could be a network issue, so you could try a network restart. Turn off the router, Atom and phone. Start the router, then the Atom, then the phone, reopen the app, and try again. If that doesn’t work, maybe worth a call to Naim support.

Hi, also experiencing a similar issue with server mode not playing, seemed to coincide with the app update, only difference I’m seeing is when I select the track the words “tracks added” flashes up. Was happily serving HDD from Atom to Muso and Qb for weeks without any issues. Will take time to check setting at the weekend, but any suggestions greatly received. :grin:

Sorry I can’t be any help… I’ve since moved my atom back into a stable WiFi setup so no longer using a hard drive. I figure with a new update (always in the horizon) they’ll fix this bug but maybe contact naim directly as mentioned above.

Although I have been meaning to post… I also have a Muso and Qb at home and when it comes to multi room with all three I find that the only way I get all three units playing without dropouts is if I use the Muso as the primary. Otherwise with either atom or qb as primary I’ll get frequent dropouts. A little annoying…
Previous to buying the atom I had about three years of very very frustrating time with the Muso constantly dropping out… glad to say things are better now which I can only guess is due to a firmware update.

Thanks for the reply Chefandyg, maybe I’ll start another thread with my particular issue and see if anyone else has experienced this. Its a real downer actually as prior to this update it was just perfect muso and Qb working perfectly with served HDD from the atom…