I’m keen on pairing my Naim Uniti Atom with mid-size floorstanders and my research tells me that people have been very happy with using PMC twenty 5.24s and that their higher sensitivity made them a better match than the other PMC twenty range.
Does anyone have any thoughts on better options or support for this option?
I don’t listen to music super loudly very often but have decent size room of 5mx4m but listening at about 3-4 m.
I use the PMC twenty 24 with a Superuniti and am very pleased with the results.
My room size is similar but results will vary depending on furnishings etc.
Thanks kend,
it looks the Superuniti has an 80 watt amplifier while the Atom is 40 watt.
Our listening area is not heavily furnished in the audio space and floorboards abound.
I have a pair of PMC Twenty5 23’s on the end of a Nova, nice speakers, good sound.
Yes the Atom will physically drive them, but it won’t nearly be able to make the most of them.
A Nova and PMC Twenty 5.23 is very similar in price and will probably sound a lot better.
A dealer in Antwerp demoed that setup for me a few months ago. The bass lacked definition, as if the Atom wasn’t up to the task.
The 24 is too much for the Atom. I used twenty.23s with a SuperUniti but a 250DR drove them so much better.
I listened to Neat SX1s on the end of an Atom when I demoed last year, they worked very well. I ended up with PMC Twenty5.23s on the end of a Nova, that is excellent, I didn’t try the PMCs on the Atom, I suspect the Atom might struggle to drive them or the 24s.
Similar experience here with my Dynaudio: the Atom can drive them, but it struggles, where the NAP200 has no problems with them at all. So I would not use an Atom if I were the TS.
Or add a NAP 200, the pairing of Atom and NAP 200 gets very good reviews. Perhaps the original poster may audition the three together and decide if that is how he wants to go.
My opinion is that this is a small engine for a large car.
As others have mentioned, Atom certainly wouldn’t show the best of speakers at that level. I would try to demo something like Q Acoustics 3050i. Good 91db sensitivity for the Atom 40w amp and capable of nicely filling a 20sqm room. I thought they were a really nice match to atom and punch well above their weight in terms of value (capable of convincing realism while keeping a fun factor in the mix)
People who have indicated the 5.24s work better with an Atom point out that it has a higher sensitivity than the 5.23s. Their sensitivity is listed as 89db versus 86.5 respectively.
The NAP200 is an interesting option and perhaps I could get the PMC 5.24s and then try for a while with the NAP200 being the next step if I don’t find the Atom can drive it appropriately.
I’m curious to learn more about whether sensitivity is the key measure to understand whether and amp can power certain speakers. The Qacoustics 3050i are specified at 91db for example which is 2db higher than the 5.24s but the 5.24s are higher than a lot of other even smaller floorstanders or shelf options.
The SX1s have a sensitivity listed at 87db which is similar to the 5.23s at 86.5db. The 5.24s are described by reviewers as being easier to drive than 5.23s with a sensitivity of 89db. Based on sensitivity the 5.24s should be easier to drive than SX1s?
It isn’t just sensitivity, yes a very low powered amp with speakers that have a very low powered ampwill struggle to reach a listening level, but it is more complex. The sensitivity is a nominal figure, so just sens*power is a crude measure. Better amps control speakers better, in my demo it was obvious to me as soon as I went from the Atom to the Nova that it was getting much more from the Neats. The higher registers were significantly better, female vocals sounded truer. At the lower end the bass was faster and better controlled. My feeling is that the Atom would do a reasonable job with the PMCs, but will struggle to control the bass well, I’d expect unfocused notes, a bit of boom and lack of pace, not horrifically so, but enough that you’d not be getting value from the very fine 24s. But I’ve never heard them together, so if you get a chance to demo them you may well find that the Atom does much better than I predict.
You really cannot choose systems based on measurements. It’s also about system matching - a £5,000 speaker driven by a £2,000 all in one just doesn’t make sense. Why are you so keen on the 24s? If you really want them, then an NDX2, 282 and 250DR is the sort of electronics you should be looking at. Keeping to your original budget of about £7,000, a Nova with twenty5 22s or 23s would be a far better match.
There is no correlation between sensitivity and how easy a speaker is for an amplifier to drive. To determine that you need to look at the impedance/phase plot against frequency. Unfortunately speaker manufacturers rarely publish that information.
As we don’t have access to the necessary data to determine how easy a speaker is to drive, the only way to see is to listen in a demo, compare that speaker to several others and listen for signs that the amp is struggling to control the speaker or if the sound is getting congested and uneven.
So I understand sensitivity isn’t everything but I have read people who found the 23s worse with the Atom and they reasoned they are less sensitive and harder to drive. The 22s are the same drivers as the 24? Why would they be a better match?
I am fixated on the Atom now because I already own it and now I moved to a larger house. So my preference is finding a decent sized floorstander to pair with it.
Well @Eoink listened to Neat SX1 with the Atom, so why not demo them against the PMC 25.24 that you want. They are considerably cheaper as well! I own 25.26 and they really came on song with a NAP 300, though my old Nova was no slouch. Best to listen for yourself.
I will definitely try audition those for a comparison if I can find somewhere who stocks both here.
My current plan is to find some 24s ex demo and then add a NAP 200 if I find I want more out of them. Or upgrade the Atom completely in a year or so.
Auditioning some of these models against each other here is a little difficult.
Thanks for the knowledge on sensitivity etc.
Really NO correlation? I would have thought that the volume output is related to efficiency in some way shape or form?