They should not boom at all if placed correctly. They need space and the A4 might be already too big for a 15m2 room.
Im about to demo some A4s in a similar sized space and I desperately want o like them because they sound spectacular at the dealer….
@antonyi what did you demo the speakers range with, Atom or other gear? That can often have a massive impact on overall experience. I often demo speakers on non Naim gear and feel underwhelmed, the I hear them with Naim and experience is very different. Totem Acoustics are worth listening, so are Elac, Dynaudio. I know you said F/S but LS50 Meta is a great option. Meta will be added to rest of KEF range, might be worth waiting for that, rumour is LS50 F/S is also on the cards.
Hi, I demo’d with the atom. I’ve only listened to a handful of tracks so far but love it so far… more than in the demo room! I listened to the ls50 meta, and whilst they were impressive, I was after that fuller floor standing sound.
Thats good, progress being made, hope the A4s are winners, speaker journey can be a pain.
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They sound very clear to my ears. Nice bit of weight too. Happy so far! Need to sort power out though as no sockets in that corner so am on a tacima extension filter which I’m told is a no no!! Going to get the electrician to fit a wall socket and plug straight into it.
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Is that with the Turned on Audio team?
I auditioned a shizz load of speakers before buying mine, and was most impressed by PMC Twenty5’s and Neat Audio Iota Alpha’s. For your budget, the Neat’s would leave you with some change…the PMC’s you’d be looking at ex-demo or used.
Best of luck and remember to post pics when you get your new toys up and running.
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Thanks, I liked the iotas but prefer the looks and sound of the spendors personally. I have been offered a set of pmc twenty5.23 to demo but think it’s too much compared to cost of the atom, and not sure if I’d get any extra with my source?
Now that I cannot tell you. It might be worth auditioning them, even if to rule them out. They look pretty similar to the Spendors so that might help if you do like them.
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You need more power for the 23s than the Atom can provide. You’d be surprised how big a small
speaker can sound when well driven.
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I also found the A4 quite weighty and dynamic. I demo’ed them with a Uniti Star.
I was quite shocked at the difference the NACA5 made to their sound. The dealer had some other speaker cable hooked up (i don’t know which one it was) and the speakers really woke up when using the NACA5. I don’t know which speaker cable you are using but definitly take that into account when making your final decision.
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I am using kudos ks1 (also on loan) the dealer said they calm down the sharpness of naim? I was also considering trying witchat n2 or phantom?
Ask him to also give you a NACA5. When choosing an Naim amplifier or speakers to match, using the NACA5 will give you a baseline for making your choice. You can tweak with another cable later on if you want to finetune some aspects of the presentation. For me a NACA5 is a given when comparing things in the Naim world.
I am not sure what your dealer means by sharpness? Naim is not sharp by any means.
As for the Witchhat cables many users here like them, the N2 beeing basically spec’d similary as the NACA5.
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Isn’t the Atom rated at 40w, and with A/B should double down as the ohms drop? If so, then that should be plenty for a moderately sized floor stander. I have set the volume limit on my Nova to 60%, as it has no trouble driving my Olympica II’s to volumes that feel like they could damage the drivers.
It’s not about achievable loudness so much as ability to control the speakers, which in turn depends on a variety of factors including the impedance curve of the speakers, the maximum current capacity of the amp and the so-called “damping factor”. And loudness depends on the speaker sensitivity and the listening distance and influenced by other room factors.
In other words the ability of the amp to exercise good control of the speakers depends on the specific speakers and on the amp’s capability in a much wider sense than maximum RMS output power. I have no idea where the Atom lies in terms of ability to control any particular speakers.
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Sorry, I was trying to speak to that exact point: The relatively low output of the Atom doesn’t mean that it is a bit weedy for larger speakers. You said it better.
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I think the B&W 805 D3s might be good. Also v appealing looks - no-one ever talks about how good or otherwise speakers are visually. I’ve heard the 805s with an Atom and they sounded great.
The 800 series with Naim amps sound like a modern version of Linn Isobariks. I’ve got B&W 800 signatures with 52/135 in one room, 803D3s with Naim 135s in another (about to be upgraded to the mighty 800D3s), and Linn isobariks with a 250 in a third room. See if you can try them!
V best,
ADRIAN
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Adrian, they are double the price of what the OP has available.
As for looks, i agree they are very important. But as always beauty is in the eye of the beholder…The Spendor a4 speakers might look boring to some but i consider it one of the most elegant smaller floorstanders around.
Looks are not much talked about because i assume that if you are buying a speaker, it looks good to you. I would’t even consider an ugly speaker to start with…no matter how it sounds.
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