Hi, I don’t have enough space for a sub and my issue is not with the fullness of the bass or a sound stage but with clarity and details in high frequencies in which the subwoofer has no influence…but thanks for the proposal anyway!
Absolutely not . Sorry.
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Hi again….you mentioned Audioquest cables too…which model do you specifically mean…?
Thanks,
While I love deep bass and a rich full sound, I also love high frequency details and clarity - at my age I sometimes wonder if my hearing is not what it was and I simply don’t perceive high frequency as I used to in my teens/20s - this may be partially true but I have found certain upgrades over the years which just bring those things into focus again like flicking a light switch. They don’t have to be expensive however and can simply be cables with different characteristics.
It’s quite possible the Atom is just a bit subdued sonically for you in higher frequencies despite being overall I hope an improvement over the Arcam system.
That may not be helpful, but I often find I can really enjoy music via the car stereo or cheaper lifestyle speakers when it doesn’t work as well on hi-fi - odd but must be the mastering and listening context.
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I don’t have them to hand, but I think it was Audioquest Type IV which seems to have been discontinued in favour of Type V which looks a lot more expensive:
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It’s complicated. Definitely not Type 5:
The Rocket series is available in several different configurations, of which some are definitely not suitable, like the single-bi-wire version. Audioquest Netherlands warns against using the Rocket 33 and 44 standard configuration with Naim:
Other AQ cables may work but who knows. I really would not make my life harder than it needs to be
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I don’t recall you answering a previous question, how old is the Atom? If new, how many hours has it been playing music for?
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lol … interesting analysis … in fact I’m not a young person either … 44 years old.
I agree that my hearing probably doesn’t detect high frequencies like 20 years ago … but then we weren’t interested in quality sound. …just high volume and powerful bass … 
but now I distinguish quality sound from just a powerful one. Of course I like to turn the volume to the max sometimes in the car … although there is a pretty good sound “Burmester” is not a joke … but with 14 speakers it’s different … it’s not the good old stereo sound … but at home listening to jazz or r & b … and from time to time Iron Maiden…
… I want a completely different feeling …
I was very pleased with Arkam, but after many years it was time to switch to something more modern and I was hesitant between Atom and NAD M10 … and lastly between Audiolab Omnia, but I decided to bet on Naim because of the brand’s reputation. …I hope I made the right choice, but time will tell…
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Fascinating isn’t it - Audioquest Type IV gave me no issues on an Atom/Nova and was quite exciting sonically, but once I found my NACA5 from storage I stuck with it.
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AQ has so many cables in so many different designs and configurations that it’s difficult to know which one suits Naim and which don’t. Some may, but who knows, some definitely don’t, and they have the “don’t publish specs” disease. The Type 4 may have been of a different design. The Type 5 has “Balanced Star-Quad Geometry” which probably causes high capacitance
and Airedog was not too happy with it
Thanks a lot…very useful information!
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Potentially, but first thing is to give the Atom a few weeks to ‘breathe’ then decide if you need to tweak anything.
You may be able to do better than Naim NACA5 speaker cable but as a baseline you’d know it’s both safe and recommended. It’s also not prohibitively expensive.
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If you don’t know the specs of a cable and NACA5 is too complicated to get, it’s a good bet to use cables that are of similar design as NACA5: two strands of cable with a bit of a distance between them. Anything that is braided and/or litz type (many thin wire strands, individually insulated and twisted or woven together) is a red flag.
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I can recommend Tellurium Q Black II for example (if NACA5 are difficult to get for you). I have those for more than one year with my atom now and they are a nice improvement.
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Hi, I bought it 3 weeks ago…since then it has been playing for more than 10 hours per day…
Thanks for the recommendation!
You are welcome. You should maybe check the different reviews on Tellurium cables. Maybe even the Silver II is fitting to your needs a bit better than the Black II when you are seeing a little lack in details at the moment. But for me Black II are perfect …
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In addition to the Tellurium Q Black 2, which has many good reviews on the forum, Witch Hat are also well liked and they know their Naim. Some like certain Chord cables. If you search the forum for Tellurium and Witch Hat you will find a thousand speaker cable threads
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Yes, the Type 5 are what I’d purchased and they caused the Nova to overheat and shut down with a screen warning. I had to use them for a week while waiting for the NAC A5 cables so I kept the volume down and put a fan on the Nova.
I should add the NAC A5 cables greatly improved the…everything. But also, that is on my Nova. I had the Atom first, for 5 months or so, and I did have different AQ cables with the Atom which worked fine. I bought the Type 5 cables when the Nova arrived (upon the recommendation of a salesman.)
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I know the Arcam Solo Mini, we used to have one at the office. A sweet sounding little box but nowhere near the quality of the Atom. As it shouldn’t be given the Atom is 5/6 times more expensive.
I agree it’s a good idea to take out any question marks around the speaker cable first. The NACA5 is affordable and a 100 % sure bet for SQ with the Atom. Get it properly terminated with the right banana’s, it does make a difference.
Have you played around with the positioning of the speakers optimising for the different presentation of the Atom? Distance between them, distance from the walls, height, toe-in/toe-out. Small changes can make a big difference. What are they sitting on? Stands, just ‘loose’ on a bookshelf or sitting firmly on spikes/feet etc?
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