Usually it makes the speaker to sound less open and less alive but I will try the “bungs” anyway.
I have the speakers home and I examined the “bungs” of course. They have 2 options - full block and partial port block.
The issue with the Atom is that it has no tone control like all Naim gear. Moreover there is no way to use 3rd party tone control with atom. It is a single box device.
If you are willing to use ROON you could use the DSP for making adjustements on the streamer.
I’d forget anything about tone controls.
The only useful ones I’ve tried were Quad tilt functions with vinyl source.
Your not the first buyer of speakers which might not suite room/kit situations.
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Thats an interesting option!
I intended to use Tidal.
But considering people opinions here I doubt the Atom option now…
Reading through the thread, it seems that you may be the tackling the problem from the wrong side because the issue might be your room, and not the amplifier. If you found the SN2 too dynamic that will not go away with the Atom.
Can you tell us more about your room? Size, furniture, possible speaker positioning etc.
Also, how loud do you listen? I would say that especially for rock music, if you turn the volume above a certain threshold, room interaction becomes more pronounced and that is what caused you to think that your Supernait was too agressively dynamic.
The room is not optimal. It is a living room.
But the room cannot be changed or treated. Wife factor!
I had the Yamaha a-s501 with 75wpc in same room. There wasn’t aggressive dynamics with the Yamaha. There was zero dynamics 
I compared in store the XS2 vs the SN2. The SN2 sound was bigger, bolder, lower and more spacious. It made me to choose the SN2 over the XS2. Later I regretted I didn’t choose the XS2. The XS2 was more musical I think. More intimate and less technical.
But it was only a dealer store audition so I’m not 100% sure.
My Atom had no issues driving my Dynaudio Contour S 3.4 LE which I believe are more demanding than the Special Fourties. Sure, a Nova will sound a bit better, but I think you will be amazed by the Atom with your speakers. And you can always easily add a power amp to the Atom if funds allow in the future.
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Naim & most all other decent amps are engineered to have a flat frequency response’s, why do you need ‘tone’ controls.
Tone controls are a throwback from 1970/80’s with the cheap far-east amps & market trends of the time.
Speakers should be (but rarely are) designed for near wall with infinite baffle cabinets or away from wall with reflex ports or similar. Pick your speakers for the purpose - simples.
Hi. Thanks for your input!
How close to the Atom limit you had to be to get to “thats loud anough and I don’t want to go any louder” level?
Thanks!
I don’t see any problem with using tone controls.
Accuphase, Mcintosh, Luxman and many more superb amps use them.
Why not?
Listing those amps is just agreeing with my point, Accuphase, Mcintosh, Luxman are all legacy designs from the 1970/80’s.
Lets just leave it as we agree to disagree.
Playing loud was no problem at all. Even at very high volumes it sounded great. The power amps I tried added a bit more ‘control’ to the sound:
- NAP200: sounded different, not necessarily better
- Purifi EVAL1: sounds a bit more dynamic, especially with bass
BR,
Richard
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There is loud, and there is the control that comes from driving speakers properly. The two are not the same. An Atom will be able to get plenty of noise out of the 40s but it won’t be the same as using an amplifier that drives them really well.
Fixed that for you Mike😈
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This person says it can drive the S 3.4 LE with no issue.
In an opposite to you ( hungryhalibut) claiming it will make noise with easier to drive special forty.
Common situatituation on hi-fi forums😄
I have the S40s paired with Nova and prior to that I also demo them with the Atom and I would highly suggest you look into XS3, Nova or better SN3 category… S40s, like most Dyns like to be paired with amplifiers that has good grip with high current delivery. Atom will of course drive the S40s but you will not get what they are capable of. If you must go with the Atom, I suggest you look at other options that are more efficient to drive then the Dyns.
Your input is what I was looking for.
Ill reevaluate the amplification for my SP40s now.
Thank you very much.
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Also a very happy Special 40 owner here. I can only confirm that these like some additional power. First, I owned a NAP 200 to drive them, which sounded wonderful. But the move to a 250 made them sound even better
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Trying the bungs cost nothing. Look for Dynaudio Variovent/ aperiodic loading. The supplied bungs are just a less tunable version of the Variovent and shouldn’t influence sound outside of the bass frequencies.
I was impressed with the S40s when I heard them on the end of an SN3 - very musical and engaging. However, whilst it had good bass response to a point, it is no good with anything where the subbass is a major part of the music (trap, techno etc). Play something by Future for example, and you’ll barely hear the bassline. It couldn’t get close to my current speakers in terms of bass extension. Just to bear in mind as a lot gets written about how good the bass is. What’s there is v good, but it’s more limited than you might expect.