Returning to Naim: My Journey to a Compact, High-Quality Setup – I Need Recommendations for Active Speakers

Hi-Fi Corner
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I’m so glad I returned to the Naim family. My previous experience with Naim involved a separate box setup, including the NDS + Supernait 2 and 272 + 250DR. I’ve always loved the Naim house sound, but living in a square-shaped space made it difficult to manage room acoustics. After struggling with that for a few years, I eventually gave up, sold all my gear, and speakers.

After the pandemic, with the lockdowns in Hong Kong forcing me to stay home for 2ish years, I returned to Hi-Fi, but this time, I focused on a headphone setup. I invested a significant amount of money and explored other brands, but without the proper knowledge, I ended up with an okay-sounding system, though it didn’t quite hit the sweet spot for me.

Recently, I began renovating my second home in Macau, which led to the idea of creating a second system. With the experience I’ve gained over the years, I took a more thoughtful approach. I wanted something small, elegant, and stylish, yet with guaranteed sound quality. I rejoined the Naim family and purchased the Naim Uniti Atom HE edition. Initially, I wanted something compact and visually appealing, but I’ve come to realize that this was the best decision I’ve made in years. The Naim sound is incredibly musical and toe-tapping.

The Uniti Atom is impressive on its own, but after a couple of months of tweaking the fundamentals, like clean power and network infrastructure, I added a class A headphone amp to drive my power-hungry planar magnetic headphones. I also included some wonderful Cardas Clear Reflection XLR interconnects, and they pair wonderfully with the Naim sound. I’m shocked at how good the sound quality is—I didn’t expect it to reach this level! My main system sounds good, but it’s hard to tune it to my exact preferences. With the Uniti Atom, I’m now a very happy listener. The sound is incredibly musical, detailed, with great soundstage and texture to the instruments. It’s just fantastic!

In the coming months, I plan to purchase some active speakers. I’m hopeful that they will sound amazing, and I’d love to get some recommendations from you all. I really appreciate that the Uniti Atom has XLR output, which makes this possible. I’ve been away from speakers for a while, and I’m not up to date on what’s available on the market. I’ve heard good things about Bucharest Audio active speakers, and their price range fits my budget. Has anyone had any experience with the Bucharest Anniversary 10? Or are there any other brands you would recommend based on your experience? My budget is around 4,000 euros. The brands I’m currently considering are Bucharest Audio, ATC, and Genelec. I’m also considering Dynaudio, but I’m hesitant because the company is now owned by a Chinese firm. No offense to anyone, but given where I live, you might understand why I’d prefer to avoid Chinese brands. (Not trying to be political just my personal feelings!)

Thanks in advance for any recommendations or insights!

Attached is a humble image of my wonderful small Naim setup.

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I have PMC’s twenty5.21i with my HE and am really happy with them.

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Hi, I don’t use any active speakers myself, but here in the forum ATC are very common and also widely discussed (SCM 19A, SCM40A, SCM20ASLT, SCM50SLT are active speakers). The choice certainly also depends on the size of the room. There is a very detailed thread (Click here) and also smaller threads on individual models, which you can easily find if you use the search function at the top.

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Kallax-fi?

ATB, J

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The Buchardt look interesting, I’ve heard good reports about them. In terms of ATC your budget will be an issue unless buying second hand. Although I don’t usually have them in the same system my ATC SCM 40A play nicely with my Atom HE. In your price range would be the studio versions of ATC actives only with a black finish, something like the ATC 20A Studio.
As already mentioned something like the PMC Twenty5 21 actives would be a good fit, I have heard these and was very impressed.

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Just in case there’s any confusion, it’s Buchardt being “auto corrected” to Bucharest.

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PMC do low cost amp modules that can be fitted to their Twentyfive series to activate them. Given your mention of Genelec I guess you’re not averse to the studio look, si also worth looking at PMC’s active studio minitors. (Some don’t have domestic hifi versions, while those that do are cheaper as they don’t have the fine furniture finish.

ATC also do active hifi and studio speakers.

PMC speakers may give you better bass than apparently similar ATC, due to their transmission line design, but also tend to be more costly as it is a more complex design.

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Thank you so much for sharing those links—I really appreciate it! They’re super helpful. It looks like they might be a bit out of my price range at the moment, but I’ll do some more research and see if I can possibly stretch my budget. Before making any decisions, I just need to do a quick price check.

Thanks again! I’ve always dreamed of owning a pair of ATCs, so fingers crossed—maybe this time it’ll finally happen. Who knows, haha!

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Thanks! I’ll definitely check out the PMCs too. I know they’re a really well-respected brand with amazing speakers. I guess I just hadn’t thought of them since it’s been a while since I last looked into speakers.

Great call, I’ve got a lot of research ahead of me, but I’m actually excited to dive in

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You could also look the German brands ELAC - Navis series and HEDD Audio, both with a dealer available in Hongkong.

Enjoy your search.

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Thank you for your feedback. Yes, the ATC actives are rather expensive. But maybe a demonstration model or second hand is an option. Here in Switzerland, a pair of SCM 19A demonstration models are currently being offered for 2990 CHF. At the end it is important to have a listen and testing the match in your room. It’s worth looking around a bit. Good luck.

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For really good active speakers with the Atom, have a look at Acoustic Energy AE1 Actives. They pack a punch way above their price band.

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I’ve got PMC Twenty5 23i’s with my Atom HE and I’m very happy with them.

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ATC actives in my view outperform everything else I have ever heard at the price. My experience with passive ATC SCM40 tells me that they hit a lot harder in the bass than the PMC25.26i I reviewed - they measure their bass drivers differently for one thing and PMC include the surround, ATC don’t. You’ve got more moving cone area with ATC.

Speakers are always very room dependent though so I would always recommend home audition if you can

Enjoy making the choice!! They’re all great marques…

J

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Perhaps more, but not necessarily better, in my experience, having had both.

To the OP: your €4k budget would not get you a new pair of any model of active ATCs unless you can get a very substantial discount. Is your desire to own a pair a result of actual listening experience, or just what you’ve read? If the latter, I strongly suggest you make a shortlist and go and listen. I run active ATC SCM40s and think they’re superb, but they’re very revealing of source and partnering equipment and not all listeners find that so congenial. So strong recommendation is to spend time listening to some of your candidates and don’t be in too much of a hurry when choosing.

Roger

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I haven’t heard the SCM40, but from its spec, its sealed box design, and the fact that it is not uncommon for people to find it needs a sub, I can only assume that by “hitting harder” you mean the bass is tauter within the upper bass, as the 25.26 goes a lot lower (room permitting)?

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Thanks for the info! I think you made the right call—it’s something I desire, but it may not be the right speakers for my current setup. I’m looking for a full-sounding yet revealing and musical presentation that can also capture the textures of instruments and deliver defined bass. I’m not sure if the Uniti Atom can pair with the ATCs to do just that—or if I’m simply asking for too much at this price range.

I only recently discovered how revealing and musical the Uniti Atom is, and I absolutely love the sound. I’m hoping to extend that same character to a pair of active speakers—something that delivers a similar sound signature to what I’m getting from my Meze Elite headphones.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a terrible experience with my last speaker system in a square room, where room acoustics were nearly impossible to manage. My current small system is placed on a shelf next to my work desk, and ideally, I’d like to position these active speakers on or around my desk for near-field listening. I should have mentioned this earlier—this is yet another example of my lack of experience with speaker systems.

I’ve never owned active speakers before—aside from some cheap computer speakers—so I have no experience with near-field listening. Maybe what I really need is a pair of active monitors, so I don’t have to worry as much about room size. However, my room is quite long behind me, which might be an issue if it’s too large for a small speaker to handle properly. Perhaps I should attach a photo for better reference.

Unfortunately, home auditions aren’t an option in Hong Kong, and there’s no return policy either. On the upside, Hi-Fi gear is significantly more affordable here, which means we have to be absolutely sure before making a purchase.

I’ll start compiling a list and scheduling some audition sessions with vendors. Hopefully, that will give me a clearer picture. The only downside is that I won’t be able to audition a Naim system with my preferred speakers, so I’ll need to check which brands the same dealer carries.

Also, thanks to everyone who contributed by replying to my post—I really appreciate it! I’m trying to learn, and I may look stupid in the process, asking dumb questions. LOL.

Thanks again for your input! I’ll continue my research and see where it leads.

Here’s my shelf and desk setup:

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Here’s what it looks like behind me:

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Considering you added a separate headphone amp already, have you considered a standard Atom with passive speakers? It’s closer to budget and the same number of boxes minus two mains leads. Active speakers aren’t always simpler.

Something like an Atom with Qacoustics 3050i or similar budget but great value floorstanders might be where I’d go in you position.

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Hello Innocent,

In my room and system in fact the SCM40’s seemed to go lower and with noticeably more output than the PMC’s delivered. I actually wish I had run a frequency response plot on the PMC’s because I was surprised and had expected them to go noticeably deeper and with more force than they did.

My ATC’s are essentially flat down to about 23Hz in room measured with a calibrated UMIK 1 and REW software with a noticeable bass hump around 45Hz on the plot.

I have been experimenting with Townshend Seismic podiums under them of late and while I love the increased precision, articulation and pace I’m actually missing the impact that the speakers loading the floor was having.

I do think that the SCM40’s really suit my room for whatever reason, a mate has been struggling to get the sound I am getting from his despite the fact he is running 252/300 while I only have 82/250. Room synergy clearly plays a huge part in perceptions.

I really liked the PMC’s - they are superbly revealing as my review says, but they didn’t have the same punch as the ATC’s at least in my room. Put a pair side by side and there’s a massive difference in the cone area of the bass drivers too which isn’t revealed by the specs, perhaps this explains why the ATC’s seem more capable in this area?

All of this isn’t intended to diminish either brand, merely to highlight the differences that room acoustics and synergy make. That’s a major reason why I suggested the original poster home demos any speakers they are interested in. About 25 years ago I purchased a pair of Naim SBL’s brand new at £2550 (full retail). They had sounded wonderful in the demo room at Oxford Audio. When I got them home I was severely disappointed with the lack of bass slam and overall lean-ness of them. I persevered for years with them because I couldn’t afford to change them but in two houses I never really got them sounding how I wanted. It was a relief to finally (after ‘suffering’ the SBL’s for twenty years!!) to get the ATC’s in which delivered bass like a brick through a plate glass window :wink:

Just my experience, but it highlights how much speaker performance is affected by room interactions.

JonathanG

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Dimensions of your room would be more meaningful as “quite long” means different things to different people and the living rooms in HK apartments I’ve been in have been a lot smaller than, for example, typical British homes.

With nearfield listening room some room effects will less significant, at least if the walls are relatively far away, so can be beneficial.

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