Naim Uniti Atom and PMC twenty 5.24s

Jay

If you have some spare time, go onto the system pictures thread, you will get a good idea of how many experienced Naim users build their systems . You will find the speakers are not generally the major cost.

If in doubt get a NAP 200 (I use it myself and it is a fine bit of kit)

Gorgeous looking speakers. But then I’m biased as I have A7s. :wink:

Hahaha. I ended up buying a pair of ex demo A2s for $2000. Too small to fill my room but I will move it to a smaller room later. Will be a fun learning experience.

I think they will be an excellent match for the Atom.

I assume you have the A2s installed? What position are you and the speakers in?

The A2s are a better match price-wise with the discount especially.

Curious as to what aspect of them makes them a potential excellent match for the Atom Ian?

Is it the size, price, specs?

An interesting thing I read from Spendor themselves is that they do not design their speakers to achieve high sensitivity ratings and that they believe others try to optimise this and do it via creating higher mid range volumes.

I don’t have them yet as they are travelling from Queensland (Audiofix) but I am really looking forward to learning more about how pieces match and fit together in the flesh.

Thanks all for your advice and thoughts so far here.

They are still on their way.

I am intending for them to be against a wall but at least 30cm or more out, and will move more for listening if I need to. They will be at least 50cm from any side walls also.

They will have been designed to match amplifiers at a similar price range, if I can be candid. The only time these issues would be of concern to me is if I had a valve amplifier , at which point sensitivity would become an issue.

In reality with products like Spendor they would be designed to meet solid state amps of a similar price range, the A2 and A4 are designed to partner real world amps like the Nait .

Where your system is concerned I would say once you have got a pair of A2s, my next move would be for a NAP 200, then replace the Atom with a 272 and then (and only then) change the speakers .

That sounds like a good sequence to learn about how each of the components contribute to the overall picture. Although what is a 272?

It is a digital,pre-amp.

As an alternative to the Uniti series it costs a little less than a Nova , but coupled with NAP 200 will give a substantial improvement over the Atom / NAP 200.

This is how people often build up their Naim systems , one piece at a time , always with a substantial improvement.

Welcome to the road to perdition

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Yes. I have a feeling this will never end now :slight_smile:

I’ll report back here on the A2 <> Atom results to make the thread complete for anyone who follows this specific path again into perdition.

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That or the A4 would be good, as an alternative you could try some stand mounts, there is one area that the stand mounted will do better . If you put stand mounts on taller stands when you are listening ( whilst sat down) the woofers and tweeters are at a higher height than with smaller speakers.

An alternative might be the floor mounted Neat Iota where the sound is projected upwards. There are some rally good reviews of these speakers on this forum

The A2s are on the truck heading my way already.

Sounds a very comfortable pairing, please get some decent cable. I use Chord Epic on my NAP 200 and that should stay with you if you and when you move up to a NAP 200.

The world of cables and interconnects is a whole different ball game and you can get dizzy with the conflicting advice. The important thing is that they do make a difference

They are coming with some Straightwire cables. They were recommended as being a decent match too.

I ended up buying some Spendor A2s. They work fine with the Atom and the Atom has no trouble driving this speaker - even beyond levels for the speaker. I find it hard to imagine that the Atom couldn’t drive some pmc 20.5.23s and I may also try some of these at some stage.

Looking into the specific forums about where people spend money in systems - it is far more common for people to spend more on speakers than other components I think.

Also, the research on people being able to detect differences seems to favour speakers being the most impactful component on balance. Of course this doesn’t mean that amplifiers and DACs etc. do not influence sound but to me it seems there are some diminishing returns with those components.

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But overall I would say the pairing of a Uniti Atom with Spendor A2 speakers is a good one.

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Diminishing returns always applies. However, if your electronics are at level x, no amount spend on better speakers can make it better. Whereas most speakers are capable of showing source improvements. It’s a question of balance and trying different options for yourself. When I had twenty.23s I used them with a SuperUniti and they were very good, but when I upgraded to a 272/250 it was so much better. They are good speakers: an Atom will drive them for sure but you just won’t hear what they are capable of. It’s a bit like my SL2s: they are super with my 272/300 but would easily show the difference with a 500 series setup.

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I would say that it sounds good, next step would be a NAP 200 and not the speakers . I have a NAP 200 and use quite small speakers ( I have size constraints in my room) The speakers will colour what you hear, but it is the source and amplification that dictate the signal - oh and the cables

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