Uniti Atom & a subwoofer

:relaxed: my ‘apologies’ reply wasn’t aimed at you :+1:

Please let us know how you get on :blush:

I think the KEF sub will be your best choice as a novice and since they are designed to work together.

Also as a Beginner there are several books that can be quite helpful:
getbettersound

Complete-Guide-High-End-Audio

Thank you so much. I’ll look into these!

I would definitely support this option. Your sub has to support your loudspeakers in the lower regions. It is important the sub stops where the speakers take over and the other way around. You don’t want a dip (sub and speakers don’t meet) or a peak (sub and speakers double at certain frequencies). This is the most difficult part of matching a sub with speakers, and then there is something like room modes, where your room amplifies certain low bass frequencies, which depends on your room. Hence, buying a sub that matches your speakers or a sub that can be set to match your speakers is generally a good idea.

Edit: my Dynaudio sub has a DSP preset so I can adjust it exactly to my type of Dynaudio speakers. I used to connect my sub to the Atom using an rca-rca cable, but that gave a hum because the cable was not well isolated. Make sure to use a good cable to connect your sub. Typically a 100 euro cable should be fine,

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Your targeted sarcasm is unwarranted.

I wasn’t stopping the OP hearing about alternatives, just pointing out something that, given their previous posts, appears, for them, to be a significant disadvantage to the approach you suggested, and which you didn’t mention in your suggestion.
Your suggestion is valid, but in the OP’s personal circumstances, does appear to have a significant disadvantage as compared to the KEF KC 62, and they should know this when they make their decision.

That is all, no more, no less.

@afgverhart
In principle, a sub that has specific settings to ‘match’ with the main speakers is a good idea for simplicity, and for setting out on the journey to integrate a sub in to a 2 channel system is a very good idea. In practice, as you mention room interactions can interfere with this neat arrangement: not only room modes, but also the possibility of nulls in the mid bass due to the position of the main speakers. These problems can only be accurately known after installation (the <Room Simulation> dialogue of REW can help predict the possibility of these problems, but is still only an indication).

Using a low level input to the sub (either direct or wireless) allows an approach that can be fitted post implementation to fix these (and also helps with hum prevention). The approach is similar to your Dynaudio sub in that it uses a DSP. If one isn’t present in the sub, a DSP box (a DSpeaker Anti-Mode 2033sii or a miniDSP 2x4) can be fed from the source (in this case the Atom) using short cables and used as a line driver to drive the longer cable to the sub (or to drive the wireless sender).

@JulieB
If your setup does need this approach to sort out room issues, I’ll be very happy to help guide you through the necessary steps to get it sounding right.

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Hi, sorry I’m back again with another problem.
I have the Atom setup great with the KEF LS50 Meta speakers. I have the KEF KC62 Sub and optional wireless let, but cannot get it to seem to work. I’m guessing I haven’t connected it correctly to the Atom. Can you advise. I am feeling really thick!

First try using a direct RCA Phono cable connection - this will tell if there 's a problem with the wireless sender/receiver.

Set:
Level to Min
Crossover to 140
Mode to Manual
EQ to Wall
Phase to 0
HPF to all off

Then slowly increase the Level setting.

If you still don’t get sound from the sub, look through the menus in the Atom to see if there’s a menu item that disables the analogue out (may also be called pre-out or sub-out).

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I’m not sure I’m the richest source of information on this as I don’t have that particular set up.

Wireless sender should be attached to the pre outs of the Atom and the receiver on the Sub. The transmitter and receiver should be showing blue lights indicating they are paired. If not, refer to instructions to manually pair the 2.

If no joy, I’m sure KEF or your dealer will be pleased to help.

Many thanks… I’ll go through all of this when I am home.
I have connected the wireless bit for the sub to the pre amp output on the Atom, but not sure this is right.
I am a pretty intelligent person but I have an absolute blind spot in understanding the complexities of HiFi connections, and it’s making me feel really dense!

We can’t all be good at everything!

I used to work as a computer systems designer, so working out how to find out why something may not be working is just re-using that skill set!

A very common trick is to simplify things as far as possible, then increase the complexity until it starts to go wrong again - then you’ve found the cause! (Unfortunately this approach doesn’t often work in the field of medicine! :scream:)

Haha that made me laugh :rofl:

All sorted now!
Many many thanks for your help and advice.
All sounding fabulous :grin:

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That’s really good news.

This may have already been covered. I have an Atom paired with Kef LS50 Metas and added a Rel T/5i which enhances not only the low notes but mid range in a beautiful and subtle way. The Rel also comes supplied with a bespoke “neutrik speakon” three wire cable.

The connection is so simple, I piggy-backed the three wires on the “neutrik” directly onto the speaker cable outputs from the Atom (connected via banana plugs). The red and yellow cables attach to the right and left positive outputs, the black to a negative output (doesn’t matter whether left or right). As you’re connecting a subwoofer the connection itself need not be the most sophisticated, as you’re coming directly from the Atom/Amp you’re producing a sound parallel to the speakers, so no delay. I’d definitely recommend it.


Thanks for this. What is the red Cambridge stuff on the connectors? I have a Naim Nac5 cable with quite snug banana connectors into the atom so I have been dreading how am I going to piggy back the Rel speakon wires without damaging anything.

They’re just the covers, so long as the speakon wire is making some contact with the banana plug you’ll create a connection and the sub will respond. Ideally you’d screw the speakon wire directly on top of the speaker wire to avoid it coming loose, otherwise just wrapping it around so it has some contact with the plug tip is fine.

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@Andy_Mac : brilliant pic ! I’m not a newbie but your pic just made me feel less silly :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:: I’ve always wondered how to set up Rel subs using their preferred and recommended option and Speakon cable. Now, seeing this pic all became clear.
Just a quick question though, is this method the one that Naim advises against when connecting a Sub to Naim amps or did i misunderstand that? I think I read somewhere on the old forum that Naim advocate for a specific connection method ? Is that still true ?

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It’s true that Naim recommend connecting to the speaker end, not the amp end, for much the same reason that they recommend using a minimum length of compatible speaker cable with their amps. So if you can connect at the speaker end, that’s the safe bet.
Having said that, depending on the sub you may find that it works just fine connected at the amp end as Andy_Mac is doing. My dealer has been selling Naim and Rel gear for years, and that us how he instals them for his customers.
There are also some practicalities to consider. Once you have chosen a final location for your sub (which may well require a fair bit of trial and error, and perhaps some room measurements) it may be much easier to connect to the speakers if that makes the cable runs simpler - or not.

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Naim recommend using one of approaches…

Connect using the high level connection to the back of the speakers.

OR

Connecting to the low level connection using screened cables with 100Ω resistors in the signal path.

OR

Connecting to the low level connection using short screened cables (for instance using a dsp box to then drive longer leads if necessary).