And what are you using to power your Dynaudio’s with?
I use a Purifi EVAL1 stereo power amplifier connected to my Atom using an AudioQuest Earth RCA to XLR cable. The Purifi amps have a balanced design. The Atom HE has that as well. Hence I am so keen to replace my Atom with an Atom HE. The improved power supply should improve the sound of the pre-amp, but on top of that the balanced design of both the pre and power amp and the balanced signal transfer should further improve the sound.
My current Atom already sounds excellent as a pre-amp today, so I expect quite an improvement in overall sound reproduction with the Atom HE.
Little and large!
Atom HE balanced into a Luxman M700u driving Special 40’s. it certainly doesn’t let itself down at all. Also run it into a 300DR using single ended RCA to XLR, works well too but I feel it suits the Luxman better with the Dynaudios.
11 Likes
I’ve been going to try my HE into my 300DR just to see if I should buy an amp for it. I’m going to use RCA’s and RCA to XLR adaptors. If I buy a new amp it will have balanced XLR inputs.
1 Like
That looks really nice. David and Goliath. 
I can’t wait to receive my HE and hook it up to my Dynaudios using the Purifi power amp. AudioQuest confirmed they can change my Earth interlinks from RCA-XLR to XLR-XLR. So I will send them off this week, making sure we are fully prepared when the HE arrives.
Edit: can you say a few words on how it sounds as a preamp, especially compared to what you were playing with before?
Hi, this one is a bit of a play system in the front room so has had a few iterations:
Nova + Special 40’s
Nova + 300DR + Special 40’s
Atom HE + 300DR + Special 40’s
Atom HE + Luxma M700u + Special 40’s
Using the Nova by itself I found the sound a bit “thin”, good but not great. Adding the 300DR made a huge difference with a whole load more presence to everything.
Switching out the Nova for the Atom HE made little change over the Nova, again a very acceptable sound but now with a better headphone amp and of course at a much lower system cost. The main sound complaint I would have is that both the Nova and Atom were a little shrill at times with the Special 40’s. I did wonder if replacing of the Chord Epic (silver) speaker cables might help but never got round to it as yet.
Staying with the Atom HE and fitting the Luxman the sound rounded off a bit, less grating at times. I still intend to try some good copper based cables to see if that further improves things.
Overall this is a very acceptable solution. I intend to move the Atom HE to the other side of the room by the sofa and use long balanced cables to the amp. I may also change speakers, the 40’s are really good at their price point but don’t necessarily suit the indie rock I usually play - they may actually be the limiting factor here.
7 Likes
Thank you for your extensive answer! Very helpful.
Personally I am very happy with my AudioQuest Castle Rock speaker cables: very involving, never harsh and more dynamic than any other cable I used before. Also the bottom end improved considerably.
edit: typo
Just got confirmation from my dealer that my Atom HE (which was on backorder) will arrive end of August or early September. 
Can’t wait. 
7 Likes
That’s good, I’m pleased for you. I had a listen to the Atom HE at my dealer’s yesterday, I ended up ordering one, along with other items. I have at least a 12 weeks wait.
Regards.
3 Likes
Congratulations. It’s my most used desktop unit. I pre ordered mine on the day of release and got my unit before the dealer their demo!
And I use it more than the chord tt2 which is not getting much on at all. The all in one is definitely convenient. And sounds very good.
5 Likes
It sounds lovely doesn’t it, and is so classy?
1 Like
I like that the unit can go practically anywhere you have just a little better bit of space and there is zero setup. It is making me rethink my choice of going with the Focal Utopia and maybe selling to get the Focal Stellia just so I can setup the Naim unit by the couch. I may take a slight hit in performance but then be able to listen in any situation.
1 Like
Funny you mention this - I’m now wondering if the Uniti HE might not be a more flexible option than the ND5 XS2 - anyone compared the two? Small enough to remove from the main system and listen too in the snug?
Would love to know the same!
Although I suppose it is really a hard thing to test as the pre amp in the HE is capped at the internal one whereas the nd5xs2 can be used with different pre’s improving its performance.
I cannot really comment on this as I don’t know the ND5XS2, but I do use the ‘normal’ Atom as a preamp in my setup and I am surprised time after time about the quality of the built-in streamer and DAC. It simply sounds very good, also when playing a cd through my Cambridge CXC. I just hope (and expect) the HE to sound even better as a preamp.
2 Likes
On headphones my HE is leagues ahead of my Star. I’m using it only for headphones at the moment so cannot comment on the pre-amp but I’d be surprised if that is not also better.
1 Like
I assume the same pre-amp section will be used both for the headphones out as well as the stereo out, so both will probably sound equally good. 
2 Likes
Doing 2+2 to = 500 I speculate that the HE will largely fill the old 272 void and in time there will be a 372 (sort of 252 territory) or such like in the new styling with a new range of power amps. Not betting my pension on it though!
3 Likes
Nice review