I took the Atom HE / Clear MG plunge about 3 months ago. A great combination.
What I would say though, is the running in (for both) took a lot longer than I expected. There were some days it all sounded terrible (relatively). Quite a few weeks of leaving it on and playing.
I run from a Roon core so have dived into the world of headphone EQing. There are a few good convolution filters out there that really make the headphones fantastic. And that’s on top of them sounding bloody marvellous in the first place.
I am not much of a lover of headphones and tend to use mine just for convenience when listening to music or the radio would disturb others at night for instance rather than be a way to seriously listen to music. I have always preferred to listen through the speakers for that.
My headphones are Yamaha HP-1’s bought what must be approaching some 40 years ago. They sound pretty good and although the headband had to be replaced they are working well.
They use a magnetic planner system to produce the sound rather than dynamic drivers, very similar to the new Quad ERA 1.
If I did replace them I would listen to the Quads but I always liked Electrostatic headphones like the Stax offerings but have always chosen to spend the money elsewhere.
Thanks Daz, I’ll bear that in mind as my only other Naim kit is a muso gen 1.
Sadly my dealer sent the regular Atom rather than the headphone edition, so I won’t be able to set up until about Weds. I’d unpacked the box and started to look at the connections then I worked out that I had the wrong box.
I’ve read lots of good things about Roon. At the moment I use Qobuz and ripped CDs with some digital downloads.
A good match of colours with those cables. I’ve yet to acquire a headphone stand, but I know a dealer who sells high end headphones. Unfortunately they didn’t have the Atom in stock, so I ordered from another source. But I think I might look at the headphone and Naim dealer in the future to draw on their knowledge. I think these Artic cables you have are US?
I would put a link to a couple of headband replacements on eBay but I think that is not allowed on the forum but if you do an eBay search for Yamaha HP 1 Headphones you should find them. The ones I have seen are from USA though.
Yep. Built to order from the US. Easy to find their webstore with a quick google search.
Very helpful staff as there are a myriad of options to choose from.
I was skeptical about the value of a fancy cable but am a convert now.
My cable was from the Ion+ range
Thanks! The long cable with the headphones terminates with xlr. I’m guessing that isn’t used on the Atom? To be honest, I don’t know the difference. And I don’t have my headphone edition yet to experiment.
The longer cable is balanced one terminated with XLR and can be used with the Atom HE via a socket round the back I believe. I have a Headline so 6.3mm jack is the only option hence the cable. The one that comes with the headphones is much too short.
The balanced cable is supposed to sound better and when I tested on a desktop DAC/Headphone amp I thought the stock balanced was better than the stock 6.3 but the arctic cable beat both for sound quality.
Nice to see those Yamaha HP-1’s - I have the HP-2 (the slightly ‘lesser’ model, I believe) which I’ve had for over 40 years and enjoyed. Likewise, the headband has died entirely. I’m intending to make a new one, including the plastic surround part (possibly from black polypropylene, though investigating other materials). If successful, I’ll show the result here…
(It had never occurred to me that I might be able to buy a replacement. But looking at the prices asked combined with the delivery - and having the materials to hand - I’ll proceed with the DIY approach for now; I think it’s within my fabrication skillset to do a decent-looking job.)
I can’t comment to the earlier post which claimed the Sony Walkman is better……, but boy is this Walkman a jewel. I have it combined with the Sony top of the line in ears, and it’s very very special……, hope it will work for many years to come….
After owning some bluetooth (ANC) headphones in the past, I purchased my first wired headphones for more or less serious (and private) enjoyment: The Focal Celestee. The reason for my purchase is very simple: Since I am owning my Uniti Atom for more than a year, I was not satisfied anymore with the sound of my BT headphones when using them and they mostly lived unused in my sideboard. But I was looking for some headphones for using them in the office at work, etc. So I decided to go with the Celestee:
As already mentioned by some users here in the forum the headphone output of the (non-HE) Atom is not the best. But it was not my intention to use the Celestee very often with the Atom.
Together with the Focal I bought one of these USB Dongle DACs: The new Lotoo PAW S2. I know it is only “Chi-Fi” …
It is working extremely well with my iPad, my phone and laptop together with the Celestee. The soundstage, tonality, dynamics, punch: Everything very good. Did not expect that from such a tiny device. The Celestee was a great purchase and even the 300 EUR for this Lotoo thing were well spent …
A recent conversation at home went along the lines of “you really need a pair of headphones”, so research and reading this great thread I’ve ordered the Meze 99 Classic’s. Not being able to demo, I’ve taken the plunge based upon your good reviews. From the conversation, it was clear closed back was the route to go……Really looking forward to hearing them, they look great.