My home system was a Naim Uniti Atom paired with B&W 705 Signature in a square living room of approximately 22m2. The system was quite enjoyable, especially when listening to jazz and vocal music, when the music is not large scale. What was missing was: (1) Music with a larger scale, like symphony, film soundtracks. In this case, different sources of instruments are not well separated and the sound feels compressed from a 3 dimensions to 2.5. (2) Certain instruments lack the weight they should have, such as violin and piano. It feels flat, compared to listening to live music with real instruments in front of you. I suspect this might be due to a relatively weaker response at certain frequencies when the power-amp is not beefy enough. After a few months of internet research, I finally found a used NAP 250.2 recently serviced and with the transformer upgraded by Naim. The combination now sounds fantastic. Some of the noticeable improvements are as follows: the soundstage is wider, the instrument separation is somewhat improved. Most importantly, piano and violin sound more 3 dimensional with the proper weight the instrument is supposed to have. Even the vocals feel more directly in your face. I did not expect the differences to be so immense.
The seller is an experienced Hifi user and suggests that my system would sound even better if the Atoms’ power-amp would be switched off. After some online research, it seems that this is not possible. An alternative would be to trade in my Atom for an Atom HE. I don’t have any plans for a major upgrade at the moment (e.g. separate streamer and pre-amp) and I’m quite happy with the system as it is. Nevertheless, I’m curious as to whether swapping an Atom for an Atom HE would bring any noticeable improvement to my system. Is there anyone who has had this experience (Atom vs. Atom HE as streamer/preamp) and would like to share their thoughts?
I don’t know myself, but there was a lot of chat about using the HE as a pre on the main thread advertising the release of the headphone edition linked below. It’s a long thread, so might need some judicious searching
At least one member of Naim staff was quite happy with it vs the standard Atom (was the first notable post I found on the comparison)
If you open the thread, click search, put something like “preamp” into the search box, and click the search within thread option, gives a nice subset of posts to look through, rather than browse/read all c. 2k posts!
I have an Atom HE into a 250 DR. Really enjoying the result and it really knocks the Star I had out of the park.
Unfortunately I cannot say what the result would have been connected to the standard Atom, but the HE is built as a standalone pre-amp and as far as I know has a better one than the standard Atom.
So you should get an improvement, but the best way to know for sure and if it is what you want is to demo it. Will the seller allow you to do a home demo of the HE?
One thing that will be a surefire huge upgrade if you go this way is the headphone performance. That is chalk and cheese between the two.
You reminded me, isn’t the basis of the NSC222 preamp stage actually the same circuit as the HE? I think the headphone amp in the HE and NSC222 are closely related. I can’t find the exact post, but the one below talks about it a bit. Taking all that into account I would think the HE an improvement over the standard Atom acting as a pre.
Second your advice to give it a listen too, if possible!
Yeah I also read that. As I understood it is that the HE headphone tech is built into the 222 and that it is indeed used as the (part of?) the pre-amp section. It was somewhere in a comment of Steve Sells on that thread as I can remember.
I went through the thread using the keyword “preamp”. There was a lot of interesting discussion, but not much direct comparison between the Atom and the Atom HE. Before I bought the pre-owned NAP 250.2, I was not sure in which direction I should go to gain the expected improvement in the system. My Atom dealer recently had a special offer on the Rotel Michi X3 for €3,999. I originally went there to demo the Michi X3 and it was quite impressive in combination with the B&W 705 S3. At home, however, the Atom remains the lovely little gadget, and the kids enjoy walking up to the screen to see what music is playing. They happened to have an Atom HE on demo and connected it to the latest NAP 250 (7K€ version). The performance was impressive and somehow similar to the Michi X3 in terms of sound and control. So I decided to find a proper power amp for my Atom.
Of course my memory could be deceiving as I did not A/B test the Atom and the Atom-HE, and the new NAP-250 is not the NAP-250.2. But my overall impression of both systems is quite similar. My NAP-250.2 is not the regular one either. The previous owner had it serviced and the transformer replaced with a NAP-300DR transformer because of a persistent hum problem. Not quite sure what this has to do with SQ, but I was told to consider it a 250.2 plus, and indeed it is quiet. Even the Atom has a noticeable hum to me.
I guess a head-to-head comparison might be the only solution…
Just out of curiosity. I thought the similar preamp stage only applied to the headphone preamp. The NSC222 has similar performance when a headphone is connected. Does the Atom HE have two independent preamps for headphone and non-headphone?
I did not expect the addition of a proper power amp to have such a profound effect. My 10-year-old was listening to his usual repertoire and suddenly told me he had noticed another instrument hidden in the back. On another track, he said, I could tell that the bass was playing at the back and the singer was singing at the front. They sound so different.
Unfortunately, a home demo would not be possible, and they have no regular Atom at the demo now.
For all I know and auditioned at dealers and at home, I think you are on the right path with the Atom HE and although one should always be extremely careful saying this, in my experience this is one of those occasions where one doesn’t even need an audition. The Atom HE with a good power amp is a completely different ballgame (and not just due to the power amp). And tbh unless you want the NPX300 upgradability and the phono stage, IMHO it’s also essentially as good as the bare NSC222 and some say … it actually may be even looks cooler (oops!:).
I have no idea. I speculated. With the 222 I know for sure cause of what Steve Sells said but not about the HE.
Yeah it is a large jump. I mean you have a fully isolated amplifier then that is Naim Classic level performance.
Upgraded my speakers recently to be more in line with the HE / 250 DR combo and what comes out of this is really really good. It will easily outperform the Nova, to give you an idea.
Wow ok that is about as good a type of comparison as anyone can hope for LOL
Have been wondering what kind of a jump there would be. So this is some good info and supports my gut feel that I am at the sweet spot system for the space I live in.
I went down the path you are on, moving from Atom with B&W bookshelf speakers to Atom with B&W 702 S3 speakers, then adding a power amp (Moon 330A), and finally getting an Atom HE. I still have the Atom connected to the small B&Ws as a secondary system. The Atom HE is connected to the amp using XLR connectors while the preamp out is connected to a B&W subwoofer with the crossover set quite low (about 30hz). The system is in a room about 5m x 4.5m. The full system sounds very good indeed. Comparing the Atom plus amp vs the Atom HE plus amp, I could not say for sure that there is any major difference, but I wanted the Atom HE as I need the better headphone amp for my headphones, and I wanted to leave the preamp out available for the subwoofer. I think my original Atom may be a good sample as it sounds very good, and has never exhibited any hum itself or produced any hiss on the speakers.
The main difference between the preamp on the HE and the new 222 is that the 222 has a true analog input (i.e. it does not go through the internal DAC as it does on the Unitis) and it has a MC input for those of a vinyl persuasion. Neither of those considerations is of any use to me, so the HE at exactly one third of the price of the 222 (where I live) was an easy choice.
Just to correct: the 222 has an MM imput, not MC.
I remember the old threads on Atom HE. 2 guys found the preamp section of the 272 better vs the preamp section of the HE.
So logically the 222 as pre should be better than the HE , because most found the 222 superior to the 272, still used as pre only.
Who is right, who is wrong?
