Bought my Atom earlier this year, absolutely love it. It’s been a revelation!
I run it through a pair of B&W 603 floor standing speakers, and a Rel T9i sub.
Speakers were bought some time ago for a different set-up, didn’t really consider that when buying the Atom.
However, given that the room size is far from massive, I was advised that I may be better suited with a pair of 705 S2’s. Bookshelf/monitor size, but apparently much better suited to the driver in the Atom, and more likely to be able to gain ‘more’ from it.
I’d love to hear any thoughts, and from anybody running this set-up. It’s not an inexpensive change (although I can trade in the 603’s), but still less than a Nova (which I probably don’t need!)
Not head those as not got on with B&W with Naim Personally I would recommend ProAc Tab 10 Signatures. They work so well the Atom and will scale well with upgrades to amplification. Best upgrade I have made
I always wonder if a Nova would drive the speakers better, and do away with the need for the sub? I guess the Atom is fairly low powered for such speakers, and as such, isn’t really pushing them?
I had the Atom with Focal Chora 816 floor standers. That’s a great pairing. The Atom screen was funky so it was being replaced and as such I opted for the Nova. The Nova is money well spent you will definitely not regret. That said, the Atom is a fine piece itself. Hear it with the 816s if you can (that is what the Naim/ Focal bundles are and they are honed for each other.)
Need? no. I mean the frequency response of something else will give deeper notes, but what’s there is great with the 816s. I will probably add a sub, but that’s more out of wanting a new toy than need. I just moved into a mountain home, and have ample space between myself and the neighbor’s place. They were outside and I wanted to test my volume levels so I cranked Floyd. Then went over there. This was the Atom. He was stunned. It was loud but they dug it and said no problem with my music volume. He came in to hear it. He said he couldn’t believe the bass that came out of these small woofers. But I mean, if I spent $10,000 each for Kanta 3s…except my room is too small. I was listening to hi res Gabriel and Tony Levin in “Don’t Give Up” yesterday and…nah…don’t “need.”
That suggests that the lack of bass may be more to do with sound cancellation due to the room and the position of the speakers within the room. This would explain why it works well with the sub, as the sub is at a different position to the main speakers so they don’t have cancellation problems at the same frequencies.
Fill will Atacama Atabites and invest in Naim fraim chips and speaker side add Chord Ohmic banana plugs.
Speaker placement star closer to the rear wall and slowly move them forward until you get the best balance of SQ and imposing into the room, blocking your TV.
Then just listen and enjoy, until the itch returns
Only problem at the mo, is that the 603’s are fairly close to the wall. Room size dictates that, and they are quite large as well…hence the 705’s on stands would allow a little more placement discretion.
